Reading Analysis:
With the decline of institutional and religious practices being mainstream introduced the sense of living during the “last of days” or the apocalypse. Movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were intended to exemplify a particular apocalyptic vision moving from disclosing family contradictions toward self-indulgent nihilism. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a postmodern film, and with that title comes the responsibility to break boundaries and traditions that were considered standard of movies before.
The contemporary apocalyptic film derives from any religious presence and comes from a postwar(s) era of live where the meaning of living became bleak and nihilistic. Tony Williams comments that Leatherface differs from other slasher icons such as Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger because Leatherface lacks supernatural abilities. Freddy is made from people’s dreams and fears, really digging into the Freud meta-ness, and while Michael was born mortal, there is supernatural ability to his strength and powers, such as regeneration; however, Leatherface is as human as his victims, leveling the playing field. With the removal of any religious motifs, underlying patriarchal messages, and supernatural abilities, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre creates an eeriness that this could happen to any average Joe.
With Leatherface and his family being mortal and possessing no supernatural abilities, they suffer under the same systematic oppressions, such as capitalism as Williams mentions. The Sawyer family is put out of work, the only thing they know, and are replaced by machinery. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the critique and observation of when the underdogs of society are no longer of use to the machine. Human labor being replaced by mechanics due to industrial capitalism is an underlying theme in the film as Williams mentions.
Film Analysis:
As The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a postmodern film, it needs to break the standard of tradition in film one way or another, and it does so in many ways but specifically the nuclear family. “Apocalyptic dimensions have historic connections determining particular cinematic treatments of the family that reveal the America horror film as a fundamental component of the national cultural tradition” (Williams 186). The goal is to make the audience uncomfortable with the lack of conformity present.
While The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a critique of a patriarchal capitalist society, the film still exits in a patriarchal capitalist society, which is the evident in the lack of women in the Sawyer family dynamic. The only woman who is present is dead. She’s a corpse because a woman cannot survive in a system that was not made for her to exist in. The only one who takes on a female role is Leatherface. Not only does he wear a female skin mask, but he also takes on traditional “motherly” duties such as preparing the food and making meals for the rest of the family. Leatherface is obedient to his father and is subservient to the others in the house, despite he being the one who nurtures the household. “As Hooper shows the slaughterhouse family represent the return of many repressed qualities–social, cultural, ideological, and historical” (Williams 188). While the Sawyer family does represent the deep repressions of American society like murder, created at the hand of capitalism, they still do conform yet criticize the precedents set by society, such as the father being the breadwinner as a small independent business owner of the family yet not really making any money or providing for the family.
Final girl, Sally, also falls victim of capitalism because with her perception, the Sawyer family is a capitalistic structure, always pulling you back in and using you until there is nothing left. “Despite apocalyptic elements Hooper presents his slaughterhouse family as material embodiments of capitalist repression” (Williams 193). Sally barely survives by the skin of her teeth with the Sawyer family, sucking her dry for all she has (No actually, they suck her blood and attempt to suck her dry.). It would seem more humane to let her die at this point because she is a shell of a human by the end of the film with the amount of trauma and suffering she endured in those few hours, but capitalism just spits people back out once they aren’t of value to them anymore.
The same is true for the Sawyer family. They are good at one thing: killing, and once they were replaced by machinery, there was no longer a spot in society for them. They became the “other” once they weren’t of use to capitalism. This is very true for Leatherface who can only kill and provide for his family because that’s what he was trained to do. He was supposed to kill animals to satisfy the machine, which allowed him to provide for his family. Now that society no longer needs the Sawyer family’s services doesn’t mean that the years of conditioning magically goes away. Leatherface only can comprehend killing and providing for his family because that is what capitalism in a white patriarchal society has told him to do.
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