Many of the early films on this list involve taking us out of our 'safe' environments and dropping us into an alien one. It was clearly a strong theme in the first two decades of our list. This one takes the backwoods fear of Deliverance, and the stalk and slash of Bay of Blood and creates a film that could almost be described as an 80 minute nightmare. Starting by telling us the film is based on true events (it is loosely based on the murders of Ed Gein), we find Sally, her wheelchair bound brother Franklin, and their friends go to the Texas grave of their grandfather to check it's alright after some recent grave robberies. They then decide to visit the old family farmhouse. On the way they encounter a hitchhiker who terrifies them and cuts Franklin with a knife before smearing blood on their camper van as they drive off. At the house they, inevitably, split up and one of the number, Kirk, finds himself in a neighbouring farmhouse before, in one of the most terrifying introductions in cinema, Leatherface appears, hits him over the head with a hammer and shuts a metal butchers door. From there on, the film becomes a true nightmare for Sally as she is chased, beaten and tortured by Leatherface and his family. The chainsaw chases through the night-time woods are as clear a nightmare for anyone that's woken up with night terrors and her final escape is truly upsetting as she cackles into the air, broken forever. Tobe Hooper has created a film which will never be forgotten. Swept up into the video nasties furore on the eighties (primarily because of the title) it really does play on the nightmares we have of being chased by an attacker. In Leatherface though, Hooper hints at something deeper as, after murdering another one of the teenagers, he sits and wails on the couch, almost as if he wants people to stop entering his house and forcing him to kill them. It is a hint that was never really expanded but it is an incredible moment and, by humanising this monster for a moment, he becomes even more horrific as he chases Sally is his black suit as the morning sun rises behind him.
