Not only has it influenced the spawn of numerous sequels and re-adaptations, many hold the film out as being one of the most influential horror films of all time. Because the film relies on a documentary feel, it is often cited as being the influence of the popular "real-life documentary" film entitled the Blair Witch Project. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is considered to be the founding film of modern-day horror and the use of graphic violence. Without the release of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, many argue that such horror classics as the Halloween, Friday the Thirteenth, and a Nightmare on Elm Street series would have never been created.
As can be seen by a general review of all critical reviews of the film, the vast majority of critics were positive about the film. Much of this positive feedback was a result of the film's use of the documentary, gritty and unsettling technique that made it seem real and thus even more horrifying. For example, Peter canavese of Groucho Reviews says this about the film's director: "In his laughing-outlaw way, Hooper pointed a new direction for horror cinema." According to Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus, "Few films so truly disturbing ever had such a grip on the popular imagination."
According to Film Threat's Chris Parcellin, "This film possesses more true scares than the entire 'horror' section of your local video store, or a week of Oprah re-runs."
Interestingly, only one critic really seems to focus in on the film's achievements as a critique on social injustices. According to Film Freak Central's Walter Chaw, the film is "a profoundly sensitive look at social prejudices and the toll said prejudices take on the human social organism." Chaw sees the film as "being a film that isn't about what it's ostensibly about." Chaw sees the psychotic family...
On their way the group picks up a hitchhiker who seems to be visibly sick from the heat and possibly crazy. However, the hitchhiker goes on to torment and violently threaten the group, so they leave him on the side of the road. Once the group finally reaches the house, Kirk and Pam go and search for an old childhood swimming hole. When they reach the location, they find that
Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Pink Flamingos belong to utterly different genres, they share in common aesthetic sensibilities that celebrate the macabre, fetish, and even the grotesque. As such, both films encapsulate the punk aesthetic and its complete disregard for, and subversion of, the manufactured "beauty" packaged by the dominant culture. Both these films were released in the early years of the 1970s, Pink Flamingos in 1972 and The Texas
She said, "What is the point? I don't want to make myself feel that way. I would rather watch something that makes me feel good." Having no need for meditated horror, Fan simply said, "Oh you mean like Nightmare on Elm Street or something?" when asked about films. Local legends and urban legends were of more interest for Fan because they pointed to the real world and genuine human need
The "Halloween" films that continue to be so popular are prime examples, but just about any horror film made within the past three decades follows basically the same formula, they have just gotten increasingly sexual and violent, as society has continued to embrace the genre. There are literally hundreds of other graphic examples, such as "Saw," an extremely violent film that has spawned six other films, and the examples
Bollywood has many recognizable elements of style; "The distinctive features of popular Hindi cinema -- song and dance, melodrama, lavish production values, emphasis upon stars and spectacle -- are common to films made in Southern industries as well," (Ganti 2004 p 3). There are many differences that create a discrepancy between the traditional Hollywood style and that seen in Hindi films. Bollywood films tend to add more emotion to
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