Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The (UK)

There never was much point to this film, it is at once authentic and at the same time cheaply effective and purely expoitive.

Although this gem is almost 3 decades old it is superior in every single way to the recent rash of supposedly "post-modern" & "ironic" horror movies. The only scary movie in the last couple of years (Blair Witch Project) owes a major debt to TCM. As well as being genuinely frightening (and at times almost unwatchable) the film shows real intelligence & is a savage sociological tract, using the family of madmen as a metaphor for the modern dysfunctional family. This makes the movie play like a gross caricature of the typical American sit-com; with the truck driver/cook as "pop", just about holding onto his sanity; the hitchiker, with his tendency towards arson & GBH, as "junior"; & leatherface, with his perpetually stained apron & kitchen tools of mass destruction, as "mom".
Unmissable & one of the most important horror films of all time.
Those who rate this film so badly have only got their knickers in a twist cos it doesn`t star anyone from "Friends".