As if slasher movies weren't already enough of a subgenre, yet another subgenre that emerged in the 70's was 'Hillbilly Horror'. Whereas slasher films were mostly set in cities, these films put the slasher motifs into a rural setting with violent hicks. The film that popularized the subgenre was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which focused on a group of visiting teens being attacked by a backwater cannibal clan. When one of the teens spots a farmhouse, he naively traipses in looking for residents. As he enters, we hear the noises of various livestock, giving the scene an air of absurdity. What kind of hick keeps livestock in his house? He gets his answer when a large masked man appears and bludgeons him with a hammer immediately. We're then treated to him convulsing until he is finished off and dragged into what looks like a meat locker. What makes this such a disturbing scene is how jarring it is. Hearing the livestock noises is strange because there are no visible livestock, making it more atmospheric. Rather than having a slow build to an attack, the teen briskly walks in and just runs into the killer. It's ambiguous if the killer even planned it. The scene shows how the film and the 'hillbilly horror' subgenre are inversions of the Noir aspects of slasher films. Rather than entering into an urban landscape that's incomprehensible, the urban teens are entering into an rural landscape that that's incomprehensible, where country farmers aren't as kindly as they thought.
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See these ice cubes, see these Ice Creams?
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