Comparison of TCM films Essay

Both the original Texas Change Saw Massacre and the new more up to date version display characteristics of the traditional slasher film but it is their key differences majorly based on the zeitgeist that reflects the changes of time ad eras of the slasher movie.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 1974 American independent horror film and the first in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. Tobe Hooper directed the film where the plot involves a group of friends on a road trip to visit a family grave site in Texas, their gas tank almost runs out so they stop near an abandoned house where they are attacked by a family of cannibals, including the main villain who is a chainsaw-wielding psycho called Leather face.

The 2003 film is a remake of the 1974 version, it was directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay. In this version of the plot five college students are on their way to a music concert in Dallas which is an immediate difference from the original as in the one before they was heading for a grave yard. They are returning from a trip to Mexico when they see a girl walking in the road which is another difference from the 1974 version as it was a crazy man they had picked up. After nearly hitting her group pick her up but she is in an unnatural state and unclearly warns them that they are in danger when she says he is a really bad man and that they are all going to die. She then tries to force the driver to turn the other way when they are passing though where she was desperately trying to come from, this scene is ironically repeated almost word for word by the main character and final girl Erin after she goes through her ordeal, this is a clear difference from the original as the crew doesn’t get a warning of what they are about to face in the original.

There are some similarities particularly highlighted in the beginning that attempted to recreate the feeling of the old version such as the fact that the group of friends have a form of illegal and recreational drugs that they picked up, this could be used by the directors to reflect the zeitgeist at the time when America during the 70s was a time where drug use by teenagers was at one of its highest because of the “hippie” craze.
Another similarity was the teenagers expected promiscuity when it showed two of them uncontrollably kissing at the back of the van, this reinforced the supposed “set of rules” require to be visual in a slasher film and also reminded the audience of their eventual fates much like in the way the first one did when the two characters having sex were the first to go.
In the 2003 version there are different aspects to the original family and new characters introduced such as the little boy who instead of being a part of the cannibal like family attempts to thwart their plans to butcher the final girl Erin in the same ways they did with her friends before that.


Another new character was the sheriff who wasn’t apparent in the first film, the twist on the narrative by showing the sheriff was part of the family was designed to shock and surprise the audience, but before that they were already shocked at his brutality and aggressiveness to the teenagers so in some ways some members of the audience may had already put 2 and 2 together and realized he was part of the family before it was revealed. The sheriffs’ personality was created to reflect the attitude of real life police officers of the 70s in America as being strict, ruthless and aggressive.
One of the major changes between the two sets of characters was the willingness not to give up on life and carry on fighting until they died. In the 1974 version it seemed that not one member of the group put up a decent fight to survive and all died in weak and feeble circumstances, in the new version Michael bay gave some of the group more fighting personalities as they didn’t die straight away and tried to carry on clinging for life as much as they could for instance when Morgan was kept on his own in a cell instead of perishing he managed to stay alive and get free with the help of Erin, also Andy after having his leg cut off and being dropped on a massive hook still managed to stay alive for the course of the film before asking Erin to put him out of his misery.

Moreover the final girl actually managed to fight back against leather face and ended up chopping his arm off with a hack which was an aspect which played a massive role in leather face inability to kill her off. The characters improvement in strength and desire to fight off the killer is used by the director to give the audience a sense of the times that we are living in; audiences would not expect characters to be killed so easily as they were in past slasher a movie without thinking it is realistic.

Finally the outcome of the two movies were similar and different in some ways as the final girl in both relied on someone to come in an distract leather face but in the 2003 version Erin got away on her own without being hitched hiked like in the first movie, she also got her revenge on the sheriff in the process by running him over in his police car. Both films were a success which was probably down to their uniqueness especially the 1974 version where at the time it was new, innovate and the level of voice and massacre had not been reached or seen before which is probably why it is one of the most memorable films of all time and defiantly in the slasher genre.
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