10 "Gory" Movie Moments (That Didn't Show As Much As You Think)

What do you imagine when you hear that a film is titled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Limbs flying everywhere? Bodies cleft in twain? Blood, guts, gore, and decapitation?

It’s a deliberately provocative title. Yet, surprisingly, the entire movie is almost entirely free of bloodshed.

That’s not to say it isn’t violent. And nasty. And horrifying.

Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) is so workmanlike in his murders it is chilling. When he kills Kirk (William Vail) with the mallet there is no suspenseful build-up or musical sting. It is cold and detached and devoid of humanity. When Leatherface hangs Pam (Teri McMinn) on the meathook she is reduced to human meat by this emotionless butcher. In both instances, we are not shown the entirety of their awful fates, but left to speculate behind closed abattoir doors.

In stark contrast to the cold-blooded Leatherface, we have the hitchhiker and the gas station owner who are cruel and cackling sadists, revelling in the torment inflicted on the bound and gagged Sally (Marilyn Burns). This whole dinner table sequence is like a twisted Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, with Leatherface, before a stoic Grim Reaper, now dressed as a woman with make-up applied to his hideous skin-mask.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may be gore-free, but it is utterly nightmarish.