The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had a seismic impact on the horror genre when it was originally released in 1974. This atmospheric, macabre, vicious and relentless attack on the senses pulled audiences into a new level of fear. A masterful roller coaster ride into pure horror which revels in a miasma of sick, miserable images. The sweat, exhaustion, exasperation and dingy, ominous terror are all visible on screen as a result of the film’s dire low budget and the trying circumstances under which it was made. A group of post-hippie youngsters travelling the run-down desecrated countryside run headlong into the dark underbelly of a broken America, incarnated by a uniquely disturbed, barbarous “family”, of which hyper-disturbed, borderline sympathetic, gender-dysphoric, chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) emerged as an iconic character in the annals of horror cinema. Lead Marilyn Burns, too, emerges as perhaps the first and perhaps the best and most effective Final Girl in horror film.  A mix of cinema verité sensibilities, sociopolitical implications of a country in turmoil, a cynical streak of pitch-black wit, a fervent attention to detail present in the impressively grotesque tableaus of the set design, and a deeply unsettling musique concrète soundtrack (co-written by director Tobe Hooper) all contribute to the uniquely disturbing power and all-encompassing feeling that it may be too late to escape this hopeless, convulsive, poisoned world.