The Indie film community's head is so far up it's own ass with delusions of grandeur that they actually fail to see, at times, the area where their own films succeed. And is it any wonder? When Tobe Hooper's 1974 opus was released, it quickly became a mainstream hit. I specifically remember it becoming 'The film to sneak into' for kids. This automatically robbed it of any following it had with indie film fans despite being one of their own circuit's films. They instead dismissed it as a pointless exercise in graphic gore(there's actually very little), while praising lousy later films like 'Blair Witch' to the skies because of so-called deeper meanings. A shame they could not see that Hooper had crafted perhaps the ultimate statement on post '60's America, and one that remains unmatched in it's power.<br /><br />The film makes no doubt about what state the country was in: Decay. Everything in the film reeks of death. From the prologue with the corpse 'art'(not as much a stretch considering the kind of art produced in this era), the Dead Armadillo in the film's opening; a Texas national landmark, it would seem, to the dried up 'Ol swimming hole, to the heroine's once-thriving home now populated with spiders and rats. It doesn't take sides, either. The 'Good 'ol ways' represented by the homicidal Sawyer clan as a nightmare parody of the American bible-belt family are obviously the villains, but the 'new' generation, itself dying out since '68, isn't presented as any more desirable. Both are mercilessly ridiculed. Even the heroine survives only by sheer luck. She's not the intelligent, feminist heroine(despite being of the 'free love'generation)that Laurie Strode of 'Halloween' is, she survives because of the killer's(s) incompetence. It's almost as if the film is saying that the ignorant, rebellious youth have emerged scarred from the real world they ran off unprepared for(The doomed protagonists are all jaded ex-hippies), and are all limping back home(Sally does visit her old house as a form of shelter)to the comforting arms of the 'old folks' who warned them; who react violently and vehemently, telling them 'I told you so!', but still give them relief: Death.<br /><br />Speaking of the 'heroes', isn't it bizarre how the heroine's crippled brother Franklyn is treated like a nuisance by them? Even though we don't see it; it's obvious that they have frequently ridiculed him(His reaction in the abandoned house to their laughter best reveals this, as he can't stand to hear their mocking laughter even if it is not directed at him and he knows it). Yet, in contrast to the lead's treatment of the childish invalid Franklyn, the Sawyer family treats the two characters most similar to Franklyn(mentally and physically); Leatherface and Grandpa; as valued kinfolk, they are accommodated and appreciated in their family unit. Although the older brother heaps much verbal abuse on the Hitchhiker & Leatherface, it is no more than your usual stereotypically portrayed hick family on 'Hee-Haw'. They're close-knit, and as Franklyn says after the Hitchhiker slits himself and endures it: 'Gotta admire that".<br /><br />Add to the fact that Franklyn is the the only character in the film to come close to communicating with, and in a sense, relating to, one of the Sawyers(Who starts up a genial, at first, conversation about knives and killing with the Hitchhiker); and it becomes more disturbing. Almost as if, under different circumstances, Franklyn would occupy the same position as Leatherface(If he could walk)or Grandpa if he were a member of the Sawyer clan, as if the hitchhiker recognizes this. It's also strange considering this take, that Franklyn is the last of the leads to die. I'm not saying Leatherface spared him for last out of mercy(He had just met Franklyn when he kills him), but because they are similar symbolically. Even Hooper has called Leatherface a 'big baby', and that seems to apply to Franklyn as well.<br /><br />Bizarre, the cannibals accept the handicapped(in their own way), and the 'heroes' see the handicapped as a burden, much like how former hippies who were drafted and returned maimed or crippled were rejected by their former friends for 'killin' babies' in 'Nam. Even more strange is that it's Franklyn who inadvertently causes their deaths when he gives them the faulty directions to the swimming hole, as if he's unknowingly getting his revenge.<br /><br />Obviously, I see the film as a social commentary. But I would not simply call it another entry in the cycle of other post '60's downbeat dramas, but a hybrid of that mentality with the 'Old Dark House' genre of years past. Compare the film with Whale's 1932 film of the same name; you'll see what I mean. Even that film's macabre humor and invalid patriarch character are referenced. TCM is an update on that genre with post '60's cynicism. As that stands, it may not be the first slasher film, as it's often called, but the last, and best 'Old Dark House with a homicidal but oddly funny family' type of film ever made.~