The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Film Analysis

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Director: Tobe Hooper
Year: 1974
Budget: $83,532

IDENT

• A Vortex/Henkel/Cooper Production

The film begins with exposition. "The film you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in paticular, Sally Hardisty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived a very, very long lives, they could have not expected nor would they wish to see as much of the mad and maccabre as they were to see that day" this paragraph continues, it leaves the audience with the clue that the film will be about what happened to Sally Hardisty and her brother, and also makes the audience curious.
"August 18 1973" exposition is used to anchor the time era.
There is diagetic sound of somebody 'digging' e.g. with a spade before any visual shots are shown.
The screen is black, then a flash appears for around 1 or 2 seconds, a close up of a rotting finger is shown, whilst it is shown, there is diagetic sound of an old fashioned horn or something alike. This could be connotation of photos of the body being taken with an old fashioned camera.
Non diagetic music is played to build tension in the opening.
Transition shots showing close ups of different parts of a rotting body are shown which denote that this person is dead, connoting that they have been left to decompose, or/and that they were murdered.
Close ups of rotting hands and other parts of the body could possibly make the audience feel uncomfortable and unsteady the heartbeat, as narrative enigma is being used and they do not have any power in knowing what is happening, it keeps the audience interested and entertained.
There is a close up of a mouth, the mouth is almost fully rotting away yet the teeth are still clearly shown, denoting how long the body has been left there, and connoting that the body is definatly of a human.
The screen turns black again, there is diagetic sound of thumping and out of breath noises which could connote tension and struggle.
The first clearly visable shot is shown which is a close up shot of a human head out in broad daylight, looking decomposed and possibly burnt, with an off colour tone goo like substance all over the face of the human body. The shot moves outwards into a long shot, showing two bodies placed in a cemetery, which is where the dead lie. The two bodies could possibly be referring to 'Sally Hardesty and her brother Franklin' from the exposition at the beginning of the opening.
Diagetic sounds of a radio are used to use exposition of why the dead body is there and how the police are involved.
THE OPENING LASTS 3 MINUTES AND 19 SECONDS.