A quiet summer drive ends in violent tragedy when several youths encounter a chainsaw-wielding psychopathic killer and his demented family. This gruesome, though darkly comic, tale of terror is purportedly based on a true story (the Ed Gein killings, that is, which actually occurred in Plainsfield, Wisconsin). John Larroquette narrates, uncredited. Three sequels.
The granddaddy of all splatter films. Five teenagers driving through rural Texas stumble onto an old farmhouse which turns out to be inhabited by a ghoulish family of mass murderers. Chainsaws and meat hooks are the tools of these white trash psycho-killers' trade they decorate their home with human bones, skin and other gruesome relics, supplementing the body count with corpses from the local graveyard when fresh victims are scarce.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Special Edition is presented in slightly too-tight widescreen, but the transfer has been spruced up visually and aurally: though it was never supposed to look lovely and was shot on the cheap, it has a lot of creepy detail now apparent and the layered soundtrack fills the room with noises that grate on your nerves. The Shocking Truth, a 72-minute documentary, separate filmed interviews with Hooper and cowriter Kim Henkel, and a commentary track--with Hooper, actor Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) and cinematographer Daniel Pearl--cover the making of the film in exhaustive detail, with surprisingly few overlaps. The disc includes trailers (for this and all three sequels), deleted and alternate footage, bloopers, on-set test shots, stills, posters, lobby cards and Web-links. The set is attractively packaged, with a fold-out sleeve and booklet

DVD Region code: 2 (UK & Europe)
Languages: English
subtitles: none