“Who will survive and what will be left of them.” Fifty years on, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is arguably the greatest horror movie of all time, a grisly piece of American nastiness and a key film of ’70s New Hollywood. Remembered for being bloodier than it actually is, the grittiness of the movie is lodged in the popular imagination, influencing multiple generations of horror auteurs trying to tap into its uniquely bad vibes. Tobe Hooper’s intense filmmaking radiates the overwhelming heat of Texas in summer while reflecting on the carnage of the Vietnam War, serial killer Ed Gein, and the unknowable darkness lurking in remote corners of the U.S. The members of the cannibalistic Sawyer clan—a warped-mirror family unit, with instant icon Leatherface as the brutish heavy—are as entertaining as they are repulsive. Hastening the rise of slasher films, and birthing the Final Girl trope, this is where the modern era of horror begins. ~OO