Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie poster

      Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a horror film by Marcus Nispel that is based on a true story. This film starts out with five friends traveling across the country in their van. Their journey gets interrupted when they almost run into a girl walking on the side of a dirt road. They stop to see if she is okay and she pulls a gun out and commits suicide in their van. Obviously distraught and looking for a place to clean their van and call the Sheriff, they stop at a rundown farm. While deciding what to do with the dead girl's body, creepy things start to happen to the group of friends. As the Sheriff shows up and investigates the suicide of the girl, one of the boys from the group, Kevin, gets killed by a mysterious man with a chainsaw and a deformed looking body. The plot gets progressively frightening as the Sheriff does not believe that the friends are in danger and antagonizes them, even taking one of the other boys, Morgan, to the police station. After the Sheriff leaves, the rest of the group gets attacked and killed one by one by the deformed man with the chainsaw, until there is one girl left, Erin. Erin runs away from the rundown farm and tries to go get help from another house, where she finds an old woman, younger woman and a child. She quickly discovers that they are trying to trick her and realizes the baby the young woman has is stolen. She is able to run away, but somehow returns to the rundown farmhouse and soon realizes that the deformed man with the chainsaw,

Deformed man that attacked the friends

the sheriff and the women she met, are all working together to kill her. Erin puts up a good fight as she is finally able to get away with the stolen child, after running over and killing the Sheriff.
      Texas Chainsaw Massacre may be based on true events, but the film still shows strong gender representations that supports the ideas from Carol Clover’s Her Body, Himself. Right in the opening scene of this film, we see a couple all over each other in the back of the van, kissing. In Clover’s Her Body, Himself, she discusses that horror films usually use different camera angles that they call the “men’s gaze”. This opening scene is a great example of the use of “men’s gaze” because they show the girl in the man’s point of view. Clover discusses that these camera angles are used to objectify women by making the audience look at her a certain way. So, it is almost made specifically to be attractive for men.

The graphic scene where the girl commits suicide

      As the film goes on, the friends almost hit a girl on the side of a dirt road, so they pull over to check on her. The girl gets in their van, and ends up shooting herself in the head. Her Body, Himself, talks about how beautiful women do well playing in suspense movies because audiences fear more for a pretty girl than a man. So I think the film tries to use a beautiful girl and kill her up close because it makes the audience feel more distraught by what’s happening in the film. Clover also explains that murders of women in horror films are usually filmed at a closer range, with a lot of graphic detail and longer than other murder scenes. I think this was used with the girl’s suicide in the van because it was very graphic, even showing her blown out brains on the back of the window. I think this scene evokes a lot of feelings from the audience by using Clover’s gender representation ideas.

The group of friends from the film

     Carol Clover discusses the idea that masculine and feminine are states of mind in Slasher films and they give a clear picture of the current attitudes toward the different genders. This idea can be supported by the scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where the friend group first pulls up upon the rundown farmhouse where the killers are at. Before they see anyone, the group is trying to decide what to do with the girl that committed suicide’s body. The men all vote to dump the dead girl’s body, so they do not have to worry about it anymore. The women of the group are disgusted by the men’s vote and tell them it is not right to do that. This scene shows the difference in masculine and feminine state of minds because the men are proven to be a lot more insensitive than the women. Another example of a masculine state of mind used in this film, is with the Sheriff. He comments a lot about how he would "feel up" girls that he would come across in his job and he also disregards what the women in the group are saying to him frequently throughout the film. This just proves the difference between masculine and feminine energies because a woman is way less likely to treat others that way especially in that position.

Erin, the final girl 

     Clover’s Her Body, Himself puts a big emphasis on the idea of the final girl in horror films. In horror, there is usually one girl that the film follows closer than the other characters, that is the last to survive and shows distinct qualities. In the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the final girl is a character named Erin. Throughout the film, she shows some level-headedness about her frightening situation. For example, she continually tries to calm the other female character in her group by telling her everything is okay and to take deep breaths. This shows how she became a leader during the film and tried to do what she could to survive, which is a quality of the final girl that Clover outlined. Erin also showed a lot of bravery through the film, as she stood up against the people trying to kill her and even had the strength to kill her friend, so he did not have to suffer anymore. She also witnessed a lot of death and people getting killed, which is another characteristic of the final girl. Erin was able to get away from her killers and survive, when no one else could and that is why she holds the position of the final girl.
      Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a frightening film that also gave support to the gender representation ideas highlighted in Clover’s Her Body, Himself. It may just seem like an entertaining film for audiences, however, there is a lot of thought and depth that goes into portraying gender in horror films. It is important to acknowledge these ideas because it can help the audience understand the film better.