THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE is one of the most important American movies ever made. There, we said it!

It’s hot, it’s gross, it’s tense, and it’ll test your patience — Tobe Hooper’s cult classic set the table for literally every slasher movie ever made, but it still holds its own among the horror heavy hitters in any generation since.

On this episode, the Boys (each with varying degrees of familiarity with the series) discuss the main themes of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, the morbid beauty of American decline, Nixon, and dinosaur parts.

References:

• “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Hippie Road Trip Masterpiece (Film as a Self-Care Text About How It’s Totally Fine to Go No Contact With Your Family)” by Phil Kolas for Perisphere, the Trylon blog


• “Massacre for Sale: Houses on the Market Right Now That Look Like the House from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” by Ben Jarman for Perisphere, the Trylon blog


• Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices!


• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets


• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog

#NixonlandHorrorInTheVietnamEra #DCP

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Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell from THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 351: THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)

2:38 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:04 - Why THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE still feels “important”

8:54 - THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE as a franchise

19:26 - Preying on a primal fear of the Other

29:36 - The movie’s three main themes

37:12 - The hitchhiker and how we get sucked into this world

52:20 - Tropes, screaming, bodies, meat, and the ending

1:10:19 - The Junk Drawer

1:16:20 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1974

1:21:40 - Cody’s Noteys: T-Rex’s Brain, Claw, Ass, and Fur (T-rex biology trivia)