October 11 marks 50 years since Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre took cinemas by storm. It unveiled a gritty, mean, and barbaric vision of horror filmmaking without using too much blood and guts. It birthed one of the great horror icons in the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, played in the first movie by Gunnar Hanson. For better or worse, it launched a franchise that is currently nine entries deep. None of them, of course, compare to the 1974 original. There are few shots in horror, or cinema in general, as iconic as Leatherface manically waving his chainsaw at the movie’s end against the burnt sunrise, or the exposed back of Pam (Teri McMinn) walking towards the house, a back that will soon have a meat hook dug into it. It’s one of the greatest horror movies of all time that has a legacy largely unparalleled.

Swiss director Alexandre O. Philippe’s Chain Reactions is a documentary that isn’t about how Texas Chain Saw Massacre came to be, but how it crafted such a legacy for itself and how influential it has been on cinema as a whole in the decades since its release. The documentary’s title isn’t just an opportunistic pun, as the movie is all about the reactions upon reactions that have been set in motion by Hooper’s masterpiece. Through interviews with five figures of cinema, some more recognizable than others, Phillippe astutely captures just how large a shadow The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has cast on horror and cinema in general.

Patton Oswalt Is a ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Superfan
Image via FOX/Prime Video

Chain Reactions doesn’t begin with the birth of Hooper or the inception of the movie’s script. It starts with none other than… comedian and actor Patton Oswalt. One of the first shots we see is a clip from Oswalt’s stand-up in the ‘90s as he declares The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as the best movie title of all time because the name alone projects a film in the audience’s mind. Oswalt is the first talking head interviewee, and it’s the perfect way to set the tone of the movie.

He’s like a high schooler waiting to see Star Wars for the 37th time. He recalls his first horror movie experience, watching Nosferatu much too young and being deeply moved by how terrorizing cinema can be. While Oswalt isn’t a horror movie historian or iconic filmmaker on the same level as Hooper, his adept knowledge of horror cinema and deep love for all things Texas Chain Saw Massacre make his interview the most engaging and enjoyable of the five. He’s able to articulate such profound meaning behind even the smallest of details in TCM. If you’re a horror snob who can’t see why anyone would enjoy movies of this nature, Oswalt’s excited gushing exhibits the pure and honest love of horror fans for the most macabre of stories.

Takashi Miike Was Influenced by Tobe Hooper

The documentary moves on to the next interviewee, who best represents the meaning behind the title, as Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike recalls how he accidentally went into a showing of TCM when Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights was sold out. Miike’s interview adeptly investigates just how influential Hooper’s creation was on cinema in the years since its release. Chain Reactions expertly inserts clips from a wide variety of films, some of them perfectly matching what the interviewee is saying, while others may not be specifically named but are the perfect examples for the topic being discussed. Hyper-violent images from Miike’s films, such as Audition and Ichi the Killer, against scenes from TCM compare the movies’ similar approaches to violence. Miike’s filmography may not be straightforward horror, but Hooper’s depiction of bodily harm in TCM leaves its DNA all over Miike’s work.

Related ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Is Revving Its Way Back to Theaters For Its 50th Anniversary “Who will survive and what will be left of them?”

Miike is able to offer an outsider’s perspective, comparing the differences between Japanese and American cinema. This theme follows into the next interviewee (and welcome first woman participant), Australian film critic Alexandra Heller Nicholas. The female perspective is very much needed, and her retelling of her experiences with the film is deeply rooted in her being Australian. This is the chapter of the documentary that most explores the visuals and color of TCM, as Nicholas explains the importance of yellows and reds, and how they’re found in Hooper’s film as well as most of Australian cinema at that time. If you thought Texas Chain Saw Massacre was all about Leatherface and kills, Nicholas actually hones in on the visual language of Hooper’s movie and how different versions of it, from VHS to television broadcasts, completely alter your experience of the film.

Stephen King Talks Tobe Hooper, ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre,’ and ‘The Evil Dead’
Image Via Columbia Pictures

Chain Reactions slightly loses its footing when it comes to its most famous participant, Stephen King. While the King of Horror sounds like the perfect person to interview for this documentary, he doesn’t seem to have as tight of a connection to the film as all the other interviewees. While his deep knowledge of all things horror, and more importantly, how and why things terrorize us is on full display, there isn’t the structure to his conversation that made the past interviews so engaging. He’ll jump from briefly mentioning TCM to recalling his personal experiences with Hooper to then going on a tangent about The Evil Dead. Sure, there is some link, but it still doesn’t tie together well compared to what the documentary has been doing up until this point.

The final interviewee, horror filmmaker Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, Jennifer’s Body), makes up for the directionless interview with King. Kusama’s angle very much revolves around just how American of a film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is. By the end of the film, after Kusama affectionately talks about the movie and how the Sawyer family are all fragments of broken masculinity, you can fully appreciate just how well-structured Chain Reactions is. You have the fanboy, the influenced filmmaker, the awestruck film critic, the horror legend who kind of makes sense, and the modern director who can apply today’s sensibilities to a film from 50 years ago. Phillippe excels at going at The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from many different angles.

‘Chain Reactions’ Is a Love Letter to the Power and Influence of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’
Image Via Exhibit A Pictures

Something that struck me as oddly poignant is the fact that stripped back, Chain Reactions is just people talking. It doesn’t have reels of historical information. It relies totally on the memories and opinions of its five participants, which gets to the heart of what film criticism is all about. People don’t need PhDs, or years of training to be an expert in film. Chain Reactions acknowledges this by having everyone from a comedian to a horror author to filmmakers, whose thoughts and observations are given equal respect. Chain Reactions doesn’t mention once the box-office earnings of TCM or how many awards it won, because the real indication of a cinematic masterpiece is the fact that people are still coming together to fervently talk about it 50 years later.

This isn’t to say the documentary is without its faults. It can sometimes feel remiss that Chain Reactions doesn’t go into further detail surrounding the infamously arduous production of the film or the specific work of the cast and crew. As mentioned before, King’s interview fails to offer as illuminating a perspective as the others, and an interview in his stead with the likes of Robert Englund would’ve given the documentary another layer. Chain Reactions looks at TCM as a whole, and crucial aspects of the 1974 film’s success, like the performance of Gunnar Hansen and how it paved the way for the horror monsters, aren’t explored. Hearing how Leatherface as a character and Hansen’s work influenced later horror actors such as Englund would have given Hansen his dues while going deeper into the film’s legacy.

If you wanted a history of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, how it came to be, the meaning behind the story, and the process of putting it together for a shoestring budget, then this really isn’t the documentary you’re looking for. Chain Reactions is an investigation into how one horror movie made for, as King puts it, “chump change,” went on to become one of the most influential films of all time. It’s also very aware of how fucked up it might seem to certain people how millions adore a film with such abhorrent imagery. Chain Reactions finds the beauty in the despair, and how fine cinematic storytelling isn’t confined to tales of good winning over evil. It’s a love letter to horror, art, influence, and how Tobe Hooper and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre changed cinema forever, whether you can stomach it or not.

Chain Reaction is an illuminating and passionate love letter to the legacy of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.ProsThe five interviewees offer different perspectives on the film, allowing it to explore all corners of the film.Chain Reactions doesn’t focus on production info, box-office numbers, ir awards, but how this film deeply moved people.The inclusion of Karyn Kusama and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas bring female voices to a male-dominated conversation. ConsStephen King’s interview feels aimless and becomes tedious compared to the other discussions.Chain Reactions fails to explore pivotal elements like Gunnar Hansen’s performance as Leatherface.

Release Date September 20, 2024 Director Alexandre O. Philippe Runtime 103 Minutes Main Genre Documentary

Chain Reactions screened at 2024’s BFI London Film Festival.