Despite its odd reputation as being extremely violent, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is almost bereft of blood and gore, and here's why. The fact that 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is generally perceived to be a film full of graphic violence probably has a lot to do with its title. The words massacre and chainsaw in the title of a horror film naturally implies that lots of people will get killed with the titular power tool. Yet, that's actually not even correct, as Leatherface only kills one person with his signature weapon in the entire first movie.
Even that death, which sees Leatherface drive his chainsaw through and up the body of the intensely unlikable Franklin (Paul A. Partain), is actually much more about suggestion than actual violence. There's some blood splatter, and screaming, but it wouldn't be until Texas Chainsaw Massacre's sequels and reboots that the boundaries of what a chainsaw can do to a person onscreen were truly tested.
Weirdly, even though The Texas Chainsaw Massacre contains very little blood and gore, it's still been a controversial film targeted many times over the years from censorship boards. Ironically, that's what director Tobe Hooper was trying to prevent from happening.
As crazy as this might sound to some fans, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was purposefully designed by Tobe Hooper to not be a gory film. The lack of gory kills and extreme violence wasn't a budgetary limitation, or anything like that. Instead, Hooper directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in a way that he hoped would ensure the film a PG rating from the MPAA, presumably to make it more easily available to a younger audience. Blood and guts were kept to a minimum, and even the level of language used was limited, all with a PG rating in mind.
Hooper's plan backfired on him though, as leaving Leatherface's murders more up to the power of sound effects, camera cuts, and dramatic suggestion led the film to be even more horrifying than it probably would've been with blood spraying everywhere. When first submitted to the MPAA, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre not only didn't receive a PG, it bypassed an R and was rated X, much to Hooper's shock and consternation. It took numerous and repeated rounds of cuts to finally get an R, followed by Hooper throwing up his hands and releasing the film at that level. In a funny additional turn of events, Hooper went the other way with 1986 sequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, amping up the gore to a sometimes cartoonish degree, only to again face multiple rounds of battle with the MPAA overlords. It seems he just couldn't win.
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