10 Heart Stopping Horror Movie Chase Scenes You Can't Forget
5. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
"Sally... Sally, I hear something! Stop! Stop!"
With those immortal words begins one of the most brutal and unexpected chase scenes in horror movie history.
What more can be said about Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic that hasn't already been said countless times? Following a group of friends on a trip through rural Texas, the film tells of their brutal encounter with a thoroughly bizarre and horrifying backwoods family.
While it's fair to say that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a gruesome and tense ride from the get-go, with horrific discoveries and hard-to-watch deaths aplenty, it's undeniable that this mid-movie chase sequence turns everything up to 11.
The jarring contrast of going from little sound whatsoever, to having Leatherface roar out of the bushes with a chainsaw is still enough to make audiences leap out of their seats today. From this moment on, the scene doesn't abate for more than five minutes.
That's five minutes of the deafening roar of a chainsaw and actress Marilyn Burns constantly bellowing one of the most blood-curdling screams you're ever likely to hear.
If this assault on the senses isn't enough, there are plenty of tense and shocking moments to be had in quite a short span, as we witness Burns' Sally become tangled in foliage, run to the antagonist's house of horrors for help, and even beg two barely living crones for salvation.
By the time Sally reaches relative safety, the silence is absolutely jarring and the viewer can't help but still hear the incessant noise inside their head.