50 years of Texas Chainsaw

Released 50 years ago in October.

I first saw the '74 original when it was around 30 years old. It always seemed so old back then, almost like it was part of Texas culture. Before I moved to TX, I'd often imagine that any farmland or field probably had a hidden chainsaw psycho in there, like ol' Bubba. The film's title alone is enough to tell you that this movie is going to be different than anything you've seen before. And none of the sequels since can even top it.

I actually like all the movies in this series. Even the shitty ones. They know which ones they are. The series has awful continuity, but it somehow earns its place among the other iconic horror franchises.



Since the F13 video game looked pretty clunky, I never bothered playing the TCM game. I've only played that shitty old Atari one, and what a great fucking idea that game was. You actually play as the villain and your goal is to gas up and kill people. Sure, the new one looks fine, but I'm just not into gaming so much.

And of course, you have a new movie allegedly in the works, rumored to be the "Texas Chainsaw Legacy", which will probably be a direct sequel to part 1. They should have made a sequel to the 2013 movie and had Alexandria Daddario get naked in it.



Share some thoughts on anything TCM related.

Dee Snider's Strangeland (1998)

I haven't seen this film in nearly 20 years, so it was time to re-evaluate.

Dee Snider plays Carlton Hendricks, who goes by the username "CaptHowdy". He's a sadist and online predator luring teen girls to his lair where he sews their mouths shut and puts them in weird sex/trap devices.

What sets him apart from others is that his aim isn't to kill people. He just loves to torture them. What a fucking asshole, but Dee makes it work.

Captain Howdy lures detective Gage's daughter Genevieve (Linda Cardellini) into one of his weird fetish torture traps, and this act gives him a hard-on for Howdy to get his due justice.

About halfway through, the movie takes a different direction. There's a whole subplot about reforming this evil bastard (damn that insanity plea), and it's a great way to introduce Robert Englund into the movie. He plays Jack, part of a lynch mob out to end Howdy, whether he's reformed or not. It's a fun parallel to Freddy getting killed by an angry mob, and Robert got to be on both ends now.

On a side note, when they reform Carlton, he looks like such a lame ugly fucking square. I know Dee was probably trying to make him look as uncool as possible, even admitting that it was one of the hardest parts to film in the movie because of how much he hated his lame aesthetic so much.

And did I mention how ugly he looks? I find him more frightening than when he's pierced & tatted!

The movie then resumes its original course and has a pretty decent ending. This includes a house of bodily horrors, and a theme that's always disturbed me. It's when someone goes through something traumatic, but gets out of that situation... only to find themselves back in an even worse situation.


The movie isn't great. I hated it when I first saw it, but it does have a good cast and a decent story, albeit so-so execution. What I'll never understand is how Dee Snider kept the rumors alive for a sequel for like 15 years, given that ending.

And since we're talking about flesh here, I remember Bill Hinzman kept rumors going for a sequel to FleshEater for about 20 years. I'd buy that for a dollar!

#Review

Riding the Bullet (2004)

I'd just like to say, this film has a VERY strong opening. Very, very strong. Basically the first five or ten seconds after the opening credits and montage, immediately after the Zombies classic song Time of the Season for Loving finishes playing. It's just one hell of a solid scene. That's all I'm saying.

Stephen King stuck his father in The Stand!

Some of us here must know this already, but if I ever knew it I had completely forgotten about it. In chapter 50, on page 650 of my copy of the expanded edition of The Stand, there is a scene where Mother Abagail (that's how she spells it) reminisces about a vacuum cleaner salesman named Donald King! It says she met him back in the 1930s. That is definitely a reference to SKs dad, Donald King, who sold vacuum cleaners. So cool. Had to share.

Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

A weird thing happened in the world lately. And by the world, I mean what goes on in my head. Kristen Stewart, the chick from Twilight, who I've never found attractive previously, suddenly became hot. And not in the usual way. She became hot when she became... dykey. She used to be awkwardly gawky and lean in a bad way; the kind of lame faux-punk chick that losers who listen to Green Day go for. Now she's pooning women all over the place, got a hardass "men are scum" look in her eye and is really leaning into the lesbo look, and it works wonders for her. Ironically, the more she looks like she wouldn't fuck me, the more keen I am on fucking her.

Love Lies Bleeding is her at peak-dyke aesthetic and it's hot as fuck. She plays a singlet-wearing, mullet-sporting rugmuncher, who meets a beefcake muscle mommy. They smash clams and - lesbians being lesbians - decide to live together the next day. Which is all good, except Kristen's dad is a douchey gun smuggler, her brother-in-law is a wifebashing piece of shit and her new GF starts getting serious bouts of roid-rage.

Admittedly, there's some dumb shit in this movie. But it works because there's a welcome streak of exploitation throughout. Maybe not a Trash Epic per se, but it ticks some trash boxes. Nasty gore, dirty sex, sweaty neo-noir aesthetics and both of our leading femme-fatales get their tits out. Plus there's Ed Harris rocking a skullet. And Kristen Stewart. And her tits.

I was hesitant about checking this out, because modern 'female empowerment' flicks tend to have a bombardment of social commentary in place of a plot (looking at you Promising Young Woman). Not so here. Just a bunch of good (although sparsely drawn) characters played well by committed actors in a powder-keg scenario that's destined to damage all involved, with some pleasing dykesploitation thrown in. Good times.

Trap (2024)

Here's an instance where a movie has a perfect trailer. It sets up the plot that the FBI set up a sting at a pop concert to catch a serial killer. That's all you get out the trailer, and that's perfect. We don't want to ruin the suspense and the M. Night twist by yabbering on about the details, but the end result is this: This movie is crispy! Extra fried!

M. Night delivers what may be my favorite of his films thus far. That's not saying much since he's so hit or miss, but this one is a home run. Josh Hartnett kills it. Seriously, the dude plays it cool. I've always liked him since H20 and The Faculty, and he rocks in this movie.

This movie is all about staying one step ahead, and as a viewer, you'll try to do that too. I kept wondering what the twist would be, if this was the twist, if that was the twist, and I have my own interpretation of what the actual twist is, but regardless... all the twists or not-twists are great.

Solid movie, I definitely enjoyed it.

#Review

Posthumous Lance Reddick movie

You guys, I just saw a clip from a movie called Shirley, about Shirley Chisholm. It looks like Lance Reddick had a pretty substantial role in it! I'm not 100% sure that that is true, but it sure looked like he had a really important role, from what I saw.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(2024_film)

That isn't necessarily a movie that all of us would immediately rush out to see, but I am going to try to watch it just for the pleasure of seeing Lance R. He was so awesome. This is one of the last things he did, soooo... well, it's one of the last chances we'll have to see him in anything new.

Had to share.

Red (2008)

Good flick. Great cast. Brian Cox is out fishing when three teens hassle him and do something quite wicked. The rest is him trying to get justice while the parents of the evil boys try to sweep it under the rug.

Jack Kechum movies are always pretty twisted. This one isn't as disturbing as his later ones, but it's still very good. A cruel movie, and Brian Cox plays it real cool. I love that guy, one of those forever-old types.

#Review

A-Z Challenge 2024

Our host Zombie has gone AWOL so here are the rules from last time:

1. One point for each letter of the alphabet plus a # (so up to 27 entries in total).

2. Alphabetize the entry by the first significant word of the title (no "a", "an", or "the".)

3. For the # to count, it must be digitalised in the titles, e.g. 28 Days Later (2002)

4. Can be any genre.

5. Feature length movies only. Documentaries can count.

6. Begins August 1st at 12:01AM local time and you must start your final movie by 11:59PM local time on August 31st.

7. You can alphabetize the subtitle of a movie too. e.g. Spider-Man: No Way Home can be "S" or "N".

8. In the event of a tie, then the "winner" will be determined by most minutes watched.

Grab your spot below!

Trashepics Human Centipede




Zed's empire 60.8 million square km
Nickos Empire 43.6 million square km
British Empire 35.5 million square km
Mongol Empire 24 million square km
Ballz Empire 23.56 million square km
Russian Empire 22.8 million square km
Markuz Empire 21.31 million square km
Zombies Empire 19.77 million square km
Qing dynasty 14.7 million square km
Ashanti Empire 0.25 million square km
Box of Hairs Island full of cuntz 0.244 million square km
and bringing up the rear of the centipede
Vinnies Empire - aka his mom's basement in Queens 0.00000000005 million square km