The Carter family (including daughter/new mom Dee Wallace) is headed to California, but when their car breaks down/is sabotaged in the middle of the desert, they fall prey for another family—this one consisting of depraved cannibals (including imposing chrome-domed Michael Berryman). Writer/director/editor Craven’s gory shocker secured his reputation as a top horror helmer; the clan’s lair was dressed by, appropriately, Texas Chain Saw Massacre art director Robert Burns.

DCP courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive.