Two films, both vastly different than each other: Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Only one thing making them parallel is their emphasis on their cultural significance of the times and their non-existent use of blood and gore to achieve the affect the directors sought out to bring to audiences. 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre was born in 1974 when director and producer Tobe Hooper planned to bring a film to audiences that unknowingly would later change how the horror genre was looked at. The film’s low budget is clearly seen throughout the film as the quality of the film is dark, gritty and gives us a sense of grunge. A van full of young travelers pick up a hitchhiker along the way, which as anyone could guess, turns out to be not an idealistic person to bring into their vehicle. This is the first indication that things are about to go horribly awry. If we’re basing this off of other movies in the same genre we would expect that when they come upon a house in the middle of the Texas plains where no signs of civility we’re in for a scare. For those viewers back in 1974 who gathered to a theater to watch the film had only a small idea what they were getting into as the official trailer (that ended up being banned from many theaters) is merely flashes of eerie and disturbing images with the sounds of screaming and chainsaws revving. Not only that but the official movie poster also gave an insight to how the film’s “monster” would be depicted. We later find out that “Leatherface” is not the only true evil that haunts this film but his family of cannibals that reside in the house. 

The amount of gore that is depicted in this film is all merely suggestive; an interesting take on horror films of the time. Tobe Hooper proved to the world that horror is not all about viewing the shedding of blood but what the mind creates. In the video “The Art of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Making Daylight Scary”, we are given an idea of how we might have created horror and terror in our own creative consciousness. Most horror films of the time were shot in the dark or at night while a majority of the film is shot during the daytime. The unconventional label is placed on such a film as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in that it was a low budget film, a new revolutionary way of creating a scare to audience members and became a staple in pop culture of the time. Interestingly enough it wasn’t one of Roger Ebert’s favorite films as he gave it 2 stars. 

In contrast to the film, the motion picture directed by Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was not shy of a budget of $17 million or using main characters played by familiar actors which ultimately grossed $213 million at the box office. Not too bad for a film that seemed to not be going well in the first scene when audiences saw characters flying across the screen, defying gravity and the laws of physics. Why? Because people laughed. According to an article written by the AV Club, “[The] crowd didn’t know what to make of it. Hence the laughter. It wasn’t a full-on belly laugh or anything. It was more of a nervous titter. But still: People laughed.”

The Rolling Stones wrote in an article, “Trendies looking for another hard dose of media reality should look elsewhere”. As the film went on, and audiences got over the fact that the fight scenes were clearly unrealistically capable, they began to fall in love with the unconventional art of asain movie culture that had been introduced to the US. It’s worth mentioning again that this created a staple in American culture and spun off several other similar films because of its cultural significance of the era. One thing is for sure, these two films while both vastly different in genre, budget, actors’ status, visual effects and storyline, they are greatly similar in how they left their mark on American film history. 

Sources:

In ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’, Sympathy for the Devil

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Roger Ebert review

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre hit theaters like a grisly piece of outsider art

AC Club’s America had never seen anything like Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Action fans, be prepared for heart and feminism