[Editorial] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 vs 2003: The Birth and Evolution of the Final Girl Trope

“The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths [...]. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them, an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes of American History, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” - The opening narration of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

Leatherface, the chainsaw-wielding and hulking antagonist of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), was a gift given to horror fans by visionary filmmaker Tobe Hooper. The concept of a violent—often childlike in the original version— beast of a man who wears the faces of his victims’ grabbed audiences in the 1970s and is still a horror cultural icon today, synonymous with powerhouse slasher icons like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Jason Voorhees.   

Carol J. Clover, author of the widely referenced gender discussion of horror films Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992), coined the now-popular term and horror movie trope “Final Girl”. We can all thank the 1974 Tobe Hooper film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for what is arguably our first real Final Girl, Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns). 

“[...] Sally survives the ninth round: long enough to see what has become of her fellows and is in store for her, [...] long enough to undergo all manner of torture, [...] and long enough to bolt and rebolt, be caught and recaught, plead and replead for her life, and eventually escape to the highway. For nearly thirty minutes of screen time - a third of the film - we watch her shriek, run, flinch, jump or fall through windows, sustain injury and mutilation. Her will to survive is astonishing.” (Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chain Saws. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Print.)

Rookie director Hooper set out to change horror with his first film and he created and evoked the dawn of the American slasher film, predating the iconic John Carpenter slasher film Halloween (1978) by four years. But, aside from the creation of the Final Girl, the film is iconic on several levels: it was the true birth of the teen slasher film. It rattled audiences with its gore and premise - though, notably, the majority of the gore is more implied than shown - and it challenged audiences by pushing the envelope by creating a film of absolute unease and dread at a relentless pace. The film—edited by director Hooper himself— was cut frame-by-frame very intricately and deliberately. These edits include famously intense shots such as Marilyn Burns’ eyes from various angles as she screams (and screams and screams) while strapped to the “armchair” during the family dinner she is captive at. To this day, no one can scream as Burns screamed in that scene alone. Burns really shows her acting chops in this piece. The ending of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is one of the most superior horror endings of all time with Burns’ Sally Hardesty making the great escape from the pursuing Leatherface by jumping, dripping head-to-toe with blood, into the back of a passing pickup truck and screaming/hysterically laughing as the pickup drives away, while Leatherface - his final victim eluding him - does a haunting dance with his chainsaw (a very real chainsaw) in the Texas heat. It is a rare flower of tense beauty in the horror genre.

“Drive-In Critic” and cult horror icon Joe Bob Briggs cites The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) as his favorite film and has reviewed, studied, and mused over the film for years in several publications, including his own books. 

“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre changed many things - the MPAA ratings code, the national debate on violence, the Texas Film Commission, the horror film itself [...]. Yet for [...] decades now, the status of the film has constantly been on the rise. In 2000, the British Board of Film Classification finally lifted its twenty-five-year ban on the film’s distribution in England. [...] Very few horror films survive the teen generation that first sees them, yet the myths and legends that surround Chain Saw have continuously expanded.” (Briggs, Joe Bob. Profoundly Disturbing. United States: Universe Publishing, 2003. Print.)

This original telling of the tragic tale of five youths is still in heavy rotation today on streaming platforms, new versions of physical media, and even on the big screen with regular showings in movie theaters and drive-ins. It is hard, nigh impossible, to live up to such a classic and necessary horror film. We have very few instances of horror remakes making the grade, among those being undeniable titles like The Thing (1982) directed by genre giant John Carpenter, The Fly (1986) by body horror specialist David Cronenberg, and, yes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) by Marcus Nispel (who combined the double-worded Chain Saw to simply Chainsaw). These three horror films, now classics in their own right, all have something in common - they upped the ante of the original form of the film and made it their own while still remaining reverent to the original versions. It is a very fine line to walk to accomplish this task.

When the reboot, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), hit theaters in the early 2000s, it was met with approval from the oft-naysaying horror community. It was gritty, with perfect casting such as Jessica Biel as our new Final Girl, Erin, and famed character actor R. Lee Ermey (The Sheriff) as our main and frightening antagonist alongside Andrew Bryniarski’s Leatherface. The beauty of this remake is that, while reverent to the original film, it accomplishes the necessary uniqueness to make a remake work and, in this 2003 version, the filmmakers wisely chose to show the gore and violence that was merely implied in the 1974 version. We see Leatherface play out his twisted artistry with his legendary chainsaw with no cutting away from the blood and gore and extreme violence. We as the audience sit through real terror as The Sheriff disables the mobilities of the five youths, setting up the victims for Leatherface’s machinations. The van suicide-reenactment scene makes me sweat with anxiety on every single repeated viewing.

The most important update made in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) is the role of our sole survivor, Erin. Jessica Biel’s Erin is a fighter and embodies the modern Final Girl. Sally from the original film survives by sheer willpower and desire to escape. Erin is the new and updated version of a survivor who, while screaming and fleeing, isn’t too afraid to set traps and be clever in her desire to escape her tormentors. Unlike Final Girls of yesteryear, she isn’t quiet and unassuming, she is a force to be reckoned with. She isn’t the “good girl” anymore, but instead in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), she uses her “misspent youth” in juvenile detention halls and learns things like how to pick locks and to hotwire cars (skills she puts to use several times in the film). Upon seeing Leatherface wearing the face of her murdered lover/fiance, she immediately gets to work trying to save the group after her moment of disenchantment and heartbreak. She completely encapsulates the grief and fear in that moment before she gets to her plan of action and the viewer immediately senses that this is something she will process much later on… if she survives, and survive she must.

The no-holds-barred approach to this remake was absolutely a stroke of genius. A shot-for-shot version of the original film or a version similar in tone would have flown under the radar. We see Leatherface really get to work on these young adults, something missing and needed and, most of all, wanted by fans. Even on repeated viewings, I get as nervous and tense as the characters. R. Lee Ermey brings an added layer of anxiety and dark humor to the film, a role that is reflective of the role of The Cook in the 1974 version but ever so much more menacing and dangerous. The ultimate reveal in the 2003 version is the first-time viewers see (after 3 previous inferior sequels to the original film) what is underneath Leatherface’s many human skin masks. It is a brief moment but iconic, a quiet peek into the mythos of the character. 

From the haunting and relentless portrayal of the original Final Girl Sally in the 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to the tough and determined survival of Final Girl Erin in the 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all fans of the films can see the grand metamorphosis of the Final Girl trope from inception leading to the current incarnation of the survivor horror fans get today. 

You can listen to the reflections and behind-the-scenes facts on a groundbreaking episode of my horror podcast here: The House That Screams: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

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