The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

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Director: Marcus Nispel Year: 2003 Runtime: 98 min IMDb: ⭐ 6.2
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Synopsis

After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of equally psychopathic killers.

On August 18, 1973, five young adults – Erin Hardesty, her boyfriend Kemper, her brother Morgan, and their friends Andy and Pepper – are traveling to a concert after visiting Mexico to purchase marijuana. While driving through Texas, they pick up a traumatized hitchhiker walking in the middle of the road. She tells them they're going the wrong way and forces Kemper to stop the van. Speaking incoherently about "a bad man", she commits suicide with a revolver hidden in her dress. The group finds a gas station hoping to contact the police. The store's proprietor, Luda Mae, tells them to meet Sheriff Hoyt at the Old Crawford Mill. Instead, they find Jedidiah, a young boy who says Hoyt is at home getting drunk. Erin and Kemper go through the woods to find his house, leaving Morgan, Andy, and Pepper at the mill with Jedidiah. They come across a plantation house, and Erin is allowed inside by Monty, an amputee, to call for help. Kemper goes inside to look for Erin, and is hit in the head with a sledgehammer by "Leatherface", who drags him into the basement. Meanwhile, Hoyt arrives at the mill and takes possession of the hitchhiker's body. After Erin discovers that Kemper is missing, she and Andy return to Monty's house. There, Erin distracts Monty, while Andy searches for Kemper. After realizing that Andy is inside, Monty summons Leatherface from the basement with his cane and he attacks Andy with a chainsaw. Andy fends him off as Erin escapes. After a brief chase Leatherface catches up to Andy and saws off his left leg. Carrying Andy to the basement, Leatherface impales him on a meat hook. Erin returns to the mill, but before she and the others can leave, Hoyt arrives. He reassures them everything will be fine but when he finds marijuana on the dashboard, Hoyt then orders the three of them to get out of the van and get on the ground, and instructs Morgan to reenact the hitchhiker's suicide using her gun. Morgan attempts to shoot Hoyt, but the gun is unloaded. Hoyt handcuffs Morgan and drives him back to the house, beating him along the way and also taking the van's key with him. Erin and Pepper manage to hot-wire the van but the wheels fall off. They are attacked by Leatherface, now wearing Kemper's face as a mask. While attempting to run, Pepper is killed by Leatherface. Erin runs and hides in a nearby trailer belonging to the "Tea Lady", an obese middle-aged woman, and Henrietta, a younger woman who gives her tea that has been drugged. Erin discovers that they have kidnapped the hitchhiker's baby, but passes out before she can escape. Erin wakes up at the house, surrounded by the Hewitt family: Leatherface, his mother Luda Mae, Hoyt, Monty, and Jedidiah. In the basement, Erin finds Andy still hanging on the meat hook. When she can't lift him off the hook, Erin uses a knife to put him out of his misery. She then finds a wounded Morgan handcuffed in a bathtub and the two flee the basement as Leatherface gives chase. Jedidiah, who disagrees with his family's actions and who was forced by Luda Mae to stay out with their dogs, leads them out of the house and distracts Leatherface while they escape. Erin and Morgan find an abandoned shack in the woods, and barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and discovers Erin. Morgan attacks Leatherface, who hangs him from a chandelier by his handcuffs and kills him with the chainsaw. Erin escapes into the woods with Leatherface in pursuit. The chase continues into a slaughterhouse, where Erin attacks Leatherface with a meat cleaver and severs his right arm. Erin runs outside and flags down a trucker, whom she tries to convince to drive away from the house the same way the hitchhiker did, but he stops to find help at the gas station. She sees Luda Mae & Hoyt talk to the trucker while Henrietta watches the baby. As Henrietta walks outside to give Luda Mae her raincoat, Erin sneaks the baby out of the eatery, and places her in Hoyt's car. She hot-wires the car and Hoyt tries to stop her, but she runs him over repeatedly until he is dead. Leatherface then appears in the road and slashes the car with his chainsaw, but Erin escapes with the baby. Two days later, two officers investigating the house are killed by Leatherface, and the case remains open.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

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Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

a dog dies
spoiler 28 of you need to rewatch this movie, or make sure you're watching the RIGHT movie. THE DOG DOES NOT DIE.
someone is sexually assaulted
spoiler Dead body groped crudely and sexual remarks made. Woman's butt is grabbed while she is trying to help an old man
a child is abandoned by a parent or guardian
Yes
someone leaves without saying goodbye
Yes
there's child abuse
spoiler There’s no on-screen physical child abuse I can remember, but there is a young boy who’s definitely at the very least neglected and emotionally abused by his family. When he first meets strangers, his first instinct is to ask if they’re going to hurt him, so I felt that the abuse was implied.
a woman is brutalized for spectacle
Yes
there's domestic violence
spoiler There is no overt domestic violence in this one. I believe the other voters mistook this movie as the original 1970’s version, while this is the category for the 2003 remake.
there's abusive parents
Yes
someone gets gaslighted
Yes
the abused becomes the abuser
Yes
someone is stalked
Yes
there's addiction
Yes
alcohol abuse
spoiler A character is described to be an alcoholic by a small child. He is also shown drinking liquor while driving and later pours alcohol on someone's face. I don't know why multiple people have put that there's no alcoholism in this film.
someone uses drugs
spoiler A little cannabis at the beginning.
a cat dies
Yes
an animal dies
spoiler No animals are killed but there are many already dead animals shown in the kitchen and at a the slaughterhouse.
there's a dead animal
spoiler There's a chase through a slaughterhouse with sides of beef and skinless animal heads all around.
animals are abused
spoiler The other comment is talking about the original movie from the seventies
an animal is sad
Yes
there are spiders
spoiler NO SPIDERS! I'm a severe arachnophobe and was anticipating the spider scene akin to the original (1974). I've seen this movie (2003) twice now and didn't spot a single spider either time.
there are bugs
spoiler Flies can also be seen en masse around meat displayed in a store window.
there's genital trauma/mutilation
spoiler as well as the scene detailed in the other comment, a character pulls a gun out from between her legs and the amount of blood on her inner thighs might suggest it was forcibly inserted
there's finger/toe mutilation
spoiler there is fingernail gore, a finger scrapes across a wall and the nail comes off
there's amputation
spoiler There's a character who is a double amputee in a wheelchair. There's also two gory amputations shown. One character gets his leg sawed off. Another character hets his arm brutally cleaved off.
someone breaks a bone
Yes
hands are damaged
Yes
someone dislocates something
Yes
someone is drugged
Yes
someone is restrained
spoiler Technically yes, one of the characters (presumed to be dead) is hung upside down by his feet with them tied together.
a woman gets slapped
Yes
someone's mouth is covered
Yes
an infant is abducted
Yes
a baby cries
spoiler At 1:03:24 (1 hour, 3 minutes, 24 seconds). Ends at 1:05:37 (1 hour, 5 minutes, 37 seconds).
a major character dies
Yes
someone dies
Yes
someone sacrifices themselves
Yes
someone disabled played by able-bodied
Yes
a parent dies
spoiler At the beginning a woman with a baby is killed (the baby isn't hurt)
a family member dies
Yes
someone is kidnapped
spoiler A baby is implied to have been stolen from a family that was killed before the start of the film
there are jump scares
Yes
there's a claustrophobic scene
Yes
there are razors
Yes
there's natural bodies of water
Yes
there are mannequins
Yes
someone vomits
spoiler it’s only brief, but after a woman kills herself one of the protagonists vomit. it’s not depicted
There's audio gore
Yes
there's spitting
spoiler There is a lot of spit/drool/snot in this one, folks.
there's eye mutilation
spoiler There are eye balls in jars tho
teeth are damaged
spoiler Character is struck by a bottle and loses his front teeth very painfully.
heads get squashed
spoiler Skulls are crushed due to blunt force trauma via hammer.
there is copaganda
spoiler Police brutality commited by one of the antagonists is shown in the film but it is not celebrated.
there's bisexual cheating
Yes
someone has cancer
spoiler While not specified as cancer, a character is discussed as having some form of degenerative skin disease/disorder on his face. Scars of this are shown briefly/non-graphically in at least one scene.
there's misophonia
Yes
a mentally ill person is violent
Yes
someone suffers from PTSD
Yes
there's body dysmorphia
spoiler A character is visibly scarred from a degenerative skin disease, though this is usually covered.
there's dissociation, depersonalization, or derealization
Yes
someone has an anxiety attack
spoiler Right after a woman commits suicide yes.
there's body dysphoria
Yes
someone has a meltdown
Yes
there are hangings
spoiler Several characters are impaled and ‘hung’ on meat hooks, but there is no actual hanging in this movie.
someone struggles to breathe
Yes
somebody is choked
Yes
there's flashing lights or images
spoiler 30 seconds into the movie, there's flashing during the studio listing. Then 45 seconds into the movie, a grainy found footage film starts, has flashing, and at some point a bit of shaky came. That ends at 2:58 minutes. Then, at 1:30:00, the grainy footage shows up again with flashing.
there are sudden loud noises
Yes
shaky cam is used
Yes
there's screaming
Yes
there is obscene language/gestures
Yes
someone is watched without knowing
Yes
someone miscarries
spoiler No, but a woman does have blood on her legs which may be a triggering visual for some.
there is a baby or unborn child
Yes
there's ableist language or behavior
spoiler The overall attitude towards the main antagonist is based on his skin difference and explaining his actions due to his "genetics"
there are homophobic slurs
spoiler A police officer calls another character a ‘f****t’ shortly before the hour mark.
there's fat jokes
Yes
someone speaks hate speech
spoiler A character is called a f****t
the black guy dies first
spoiler The only black character is a truck driver in the last scene. He lives.
there's a large age gap
Yes
religion is discussed
Yes
someone dies by suicide
spoiler There is a VERY graphic scene at the beginning of the movie. Shortly after a woman is picked up by the group of teenagers she pulls out a gun and shoots herself in the head.
Someone attempts suicide
Yes
someone self harms
spoiler Tha hand-cutting is from the 1974 film, not the 2003 film.
there are incestuous relationships
spoiler The other comment refers to the original 1970’s movie. Here it’s a family, but there’s no explicit incestuous relationships - you could think that the child is the result of incest because if his weird teeth
there is sexual content
Yes
someone is sexually objectified
Yes
someone has a chronic illness
Yes
the ending is sad
spoiler It's a mixed bag-- the main character survives, but she's clearly incredibly far gone, and the antagonists end up fine.
a car crashes
spoiler A car runs out of gas, but that's it.
a person is hit by a car
spoiler The other comment is referring to the original Texas Chainsaw. For this 2003 version, a character is REPEATEDLY hit and backed over by a vehicle. He can be seen spitting up blood.
a car honks or tires screech
Yes
there's blood/gore
spoiler There are prominent blood/gore scenes throughout the film, whether it be with subtle body horror or overt wounds. A bloody corpse remains in the back seat of a car for half the film. **Please note this is the 2003 Texas Chainsaw, not the original 1970’s version**
there's gun violence
spoiler There is ABSOLUTELY gun violence??? There is at least one death by gun, and instances where guns are shot at characters. **Please note that this is the 2003 Texas Chainsaw, not the 1970’s original film.**
there's excessive gore
Yes
there's torture
Yes
there's body horror
Yes
there's cannibalism
spoiler How has no one said yes the this. Like the whole point if Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the the antagonists are killing people because they're cannibals? Why am I the only one who's answered it.
there's shaving/cutting
Yes
someone is stabbed
spoiler A man gets stabbed in the stomach with a large knife
someone has a seizure
Yes
someone falls to their death
Yes
someone falls down stairs
spoiler Erin is thrown down the stairs when she's captured.
Someone becomes unconscious
Yes

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