Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, transcends the boundaries of a standard slasher to function as a grueling, sun-scorched critique of the decaying American nuclear family. While the film’s marketing famously claimed it was a “true story” to heighten audience anxiety, the narrative is actually a fictional composite loosely inspired by Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein. Unlike its gothic contemporaries that relied on shadows and cobwebs, Hooper subjected viewers to the “terrible beauty” of relentless daylight horror, mirroring the economic desolation of an era where industrialized cattle slaughter has been replaced by the cannibalistic slaughter of humans by a displaced, psychotic clan.
The narrative engine is driven by an unsuspecting group of counter-culture youths who wander into this forgotten corner of Muerto County, unwittingly crossing the threshold between civilization and primal chaos. The film’s enduring legacy lies not in excessive gore, which is surprisingly minimal, but in its suffocating atmosphere of heat, stench, and auditory madness. By juxtaposing the innocent nostalgia of the Hardesty family’s heritage against the perverted domesticity of the killers, the story forces the protagonists into a world where the food chain has been violently inverted. Before the travelers even reach the cemetery, the stage is set for a confrontation that strips away all hope of rational negotiation or escape.
The Hitchhiker’s Violent Warning
The film opens with a narrator describing events from August 18, 1973, regarding a grave-robbing case in a Texas town. The opening crawl, narrated by John Larroquette, sets the tone by presenting the events as a true account of one of the most bizarre crimes in American history. The graves at a cemetery near the fictional town of Newt in Muerto County, Texas, have been desecrated. Corpses have been dug up and arranged into grotesque displays, including a rotting body wired to a monument.
Bodies have been stolen and arranged into grotesque displays, leaving everyone on edge and worried that their own deceased family members’ graves might be next. By the time this story hits the news, police still haven’t cracked the bizarre and disturbing case. And with that, the movie begins. We then cut to a group of young people heading to a cemetery. The grave-robbing news has Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) worried about her grandfather’s burial site because she fears his grave might be targeted next.
But first, let’s meet our future victims. Sally, her paraplegic brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain), Kirk (William Vail), Jerry (Allen Danziger), and Pam (Teri McMinn) comprise the doomed group. When they reach the cemetery, Sally immediately finds the groundskeeper. After explaining why they’re there, she’s taken to see her grandfather’s grave, which fortunately appears undisturbed.
The stench of manure hits them hard as they pass a massive cattle ranch with a slaughterhouse. Franklin spots an old slaughterhouse his family once operated. The Hardestys had a long history with animal slaughter in the area. According to him, this slaughterhouse had its own method of killing cattle by smashing their heads with a sledgehammer instead of using newer air gun methods. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Pam looks pretty freaked out by Franklin’s story.
Shortly after, the group spots a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) on the road, and despite the guy looking deeply unsettling, they give him a ride. Once in the van, the hitchhiker says he’s heading south, having just come from a slaughterhouse where his brother and grandfather work. He explains he comes from a family that’s all about the meat business. This camera-toting stranger then shows them disturbing photos and explains how headcheese is made from boiled cow heads, discussing his family’s meat business.
Before long, Franklin and the others grow seriously concerned by the hitchhiker’s strange behavior. He has a large birthmark on his face, a bizarre speech impediment, and seems mentally unstable. Without warning, the hitchhiker grabs Franklin’s pocket knife and slices his own palm open. While everyone’s freaking out, he whips out his Polaroid camera and snaps Franklin’s picture. After the blurry photo develops, he has the audacity to demand two dollars for his “photography services.”
They refuse, wanting nothing to do with it. This sets the weirdo off, and he burns the photo on a piece of aluminum foil. Then he pulls a straight razor from his boot and slashes Franklin’s arm. As panic spreads and his behavior grows increasingly violent, they kick him out of the van. But even after being thrown out, he smears his blood all over their vehicle, leaving a mark that will later help his family identify them as targets. Sally bandages her brother’s wound.
Leatherface Claims First Victims
They stop at a roadside gas station to fill up, where the proprietor (Jim Siedow), an old man who runs both the station and an adjoining barbecue restaurant, approaches them. Unfortunately, he’s completely out of gas because the pumps are empty. The old guy offers them his restaurant’s “best barbecue.” Since they’re starving, Jerry heads inside to order some. The group plans to return later once the station receives a fuel delivery.
With what little gas they have left, they drive to their grandfather’s old house, which is the abandoned Hardesty family homestead. On the way, they dig into the barbecue from the old man’s place. The meat tastes peculiar, but they’re so hungry they eat it anyway. In a grim bit of dramatic irony, the film strongly implies this meat is made from human remains, given the family’s cannibalistic practices revealed later.
Eventually, they reach Sally and Franklin’s grandfather’s house. The place looks ancient and neglected, and clearly, no one has been here in ages. While the others head inside, Franklin wants to join them but grows frustrated when his wheelchair keeps him stuck outside on the uneven ground. Inside the house, they find animal skeletons and bones arranged into disturbing decorations. The furniture is adorned with remains that hint at the horrors to come.
Meanwhile, Pam and Kirk head to a nearby swimming hole hoping to swim, but find it has dried up. Then they hear a generator running and spot a house nearby. Since they need gas for the van, Kirk suggests they check it out in hopes of scoring some fuel. As they approach, they notice it’s surrounded by run-down cars. Kirk tries to find the homeowner to ask about gas. Instead, he discovers a human tooth on the porch. Panicked, Kirk calls out for the owner again.
Strangely, the door is unlocked. He hears strange squealing noises inside, which draw him further into the house. Pam is too scared to go in, so Kirk ventures inside alone. Then, suddenly, a huge figure wearing a mask made of human skin emerges from behind a metal door and smashes Kirk in the head with a sledgehammer. Kirk drops to the ground, convulsing like slaughtered livestock. The killer—later identified as Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen)—clubs him again, then drags Kirk’s body into a back room and slams a heavy metal door shut.
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After waiting a while, Pam gets worried and follows Kirk inside. She enters the house and stumbles into a room filled with decaying remains and furniture fashioned from human and animal bones. Skulls hang from the ceiling, a live chicken dangles in a cage, and the floor is covered with feathers and bone fragments. She’s terrified by this grotesque tableau of bones, feathers, and decaying remains, including furniture that appears to be made from human and animal parts. In absolute panic, Pam desperately tries to flee.
Pam attempts to flee but is captured. Leatherface emerges with a squeal, seizes her as she tries to escape through the front door, and drags her back inside. He hangs her on a meat hook through her back while she’s still alive, gasping and screaming. Suspended on the meat hook and unable to escape, Pam witnesses Leatherface rev up his chainsaw and butcher Kirk’s body on a table in front of her.
The Old Man’s Betrayal
As darkness falls, those back at the house wonder why their two friends haven’t returned. Jerry tells Sally and Franklin to wait at the house while he goes to find them at the creek. When Jerry doesn’t find them there, he continues toward the house with the generator, drawn by a blanket Kirk left on the porch. He has no idea it’s Leatherface’s home.
Inside, Jerry opens a large chest freezer and discovers Pam inside, barely alive and convulsing. As she lurches toward him, Jerry reels back in shock right into Leatherface’s sledgehammer. Leatherface has appeared behind him and swings the hammer, killing Jerry instantly. Leatherface forces Pam’s body back into the freezer and locks it, clearly distressed that strangers keep showing up at his home.
Franklin objects because it’s dark and dangerous, but when Sally insists on going, he refuses to wait behind and accompanies her in his wheelchair. While searching through the dark woods, they spot lights from a house in the distance. Suddenly, Leatherface appears with his chainsaw buzzing. Franklin, unable to escape in his wheelchair on the rough terrain, is attacked. Franklin is chainsawed to death. Hysterical, Sally runs screaming into the night.
In her blind panic, Sally runs and eventually reaches the house, not realizing it belongs to her pursuer. She runs upstairs trying to hide. There she discovers a decrepit old man (John Dugan) who appears nearly dead, and a corpse of an elderly woman in a rocking chair. Realizing she’s trapped in the killers’ home, Sally bolts, escaping by jumping through a second-floor window. Sally makes it to the gas station and barbecue restaurant they visited earlier. She tells the proprietor what just happened. The old man checks outside but Leatherface is nowhere to be seen.
Sally, still in shock, seeks help from the proprietor. Amid the chaos, the old man offers to help Sally escape. While he goes to get his truck, Sally notices strangely shaped meat being grilled nearby. She starts getting suspicious. The old man pulls up in his truck, bringing out a burlap sack and some rope. Sally’s suspicions grow. Suddenly, the old man beats Sally with a broomstick until she’s helpless, revealing himself as part of the murderous family.
He ties Sally up, gags her with the sack, and loads her into his truck. During the drive, they encounter the hitchhiker from earlier. The proprietor scolds him for the cemetery desecrations and for not helping with the family’s work. The old man is revealed to be the eldest brother in the family. Both Leatherface and the hitchhiker are his younger siblings. They head to the house together.
Escaping the Family Dinner
Once they arrive, they bring Sally inside and tie her to a chair made of human arms at the dinner table. Leatherface reappears dressed in women’s clothing and wearing a different mask with makeup applied, playing a twisted domestic role. The hitchhiker refers to him as ‘Leatherface’ for the first time. The hitchhiker is told to bring Grandpa down for dinner. Sally, tied at the table surrounded by bone decorations and animal remains, can only await her fate.
The barely alive grandfather is placed at the table near Sally, who keeps screaming in terror. They slice Sally’s finger open, and Grandpa sucks eagerly at the fresh blood. Witnessing this deranged behavior, Sally passes out from shock. When she regains consciousness, she sees the family eating dinner together, consuming meat that is implied to be from her friends’ remains. An extreme close-up of Sally’s bloodshot, terrified eye has become one of the film’s most iconic images. Her terror intensifies as the brothers torment and mock her screams.
The old man then orders his brothers to finish Sally off for “dessert.” This time, they want to give Grandpa the honor of killing Sally with a hammer. Grandpa was once a legendary butcher at the slaughterhouse, and they say reverently that he was “the best killer there ever was.” They place a hammer in his frail hands and attempt to guide his arm to strike Sally on the head as she’s restrained. But Grandpa is too weak to deliver the blow, repeatedly dropping the hammer despite his family’s attempts to help him.
Amid the chaos, Sally breaks free and escapes through a window just as the sun begins to rise. But the family won’t let their prey escape. The hitchhiker and Leatherface chase after Sally. While pursuing Sally down the road and slashing at her back with his straight razor, the hitchhiker is struck by an oncoming semi-truck and killed instantly. The truck driver stops to investigate, only to be confronted by a bloodied, screaming Sally with Leatherface close behind, chainsaw buzzing.
The driver hurls a large wrench at Leatherface, striking him in the head. Leatherface falls and injures his own leg with his chainsaw. Both Sally and the truck driver flee, but Sally, exhausted and injured, cannot keep up with him. Moments later, a pickup truck arrives, and Sally desperately jumps into the back. The driver speeds away as Leatherface gives chase but can’t catch them. As the pickup drives away, Sally, covered in blood, laughs and screams hysterically—a response that suggests both relief and complete psychological breakdown.
The film ends with its iconic final image: an enraged Leatherface spinning and swinging his chainsaw wildly in the middle of the road as the sun rises, frustrated that his prey has escaped. The sound of his chainsaw echoes as the screen cuts to black. The film ends without resolution or justice—no comeuppance for Leatherface, just the image of a killer still at large and a survivor whose life will never be the same.
