One of the most notorious movies ever made, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is known around the world.  Even if you find someone who has never seen it, chances are they will at least have heard of it and most likely will tell you how it is the goriest, grossest movie ever made.  The title alone spawns this misconception which by now has become almost a sort of urban legend.  Truth told, the chainsaw meets the flesh for one explicit moment, and the main antagonist Leatherface is on the receiving end of the carnage but it speaks volumes for the film’s reputation that it still continues to fuel the misconception to this day.

The plot is well known and deceptively simple:  a small group of young friends become victimized by the demented cannibalistic Sawyer clan, the stand out oddball among oddballs being, of course, the chainsaw- wielding Leatherface.  TEXAS CHAINSAW is an exercise in brutality and the atrocities visited among the group, especially Marilyn Eastman’s Sally, are horrific and helped propel the movie into cult status.  The set design is magnificent with rotting bones scattered throughout the Sawyer’s house as well as furniture made with human and animal remains which help give a hopeless and hellish feel to the proceedings;  add the harsh almost documentary lighting, which makes you really feel as if you are in the putrefying, sweltering room suffering along with our heroine. 

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE has had many incarnations on home video from horribly degraded VHS tapes to custom laserdisc sets.  The Blu-Ray of this title is a mixed bag as this is quite possibly the best this movie has ever or will ever look.  The transfer is identical to Dark Sky’s 2006 standard DVD release of their “Ultimate Edition” right down to the color correction from the previous edition which gives the nighttime scenes an odd bluish tint.  Daytime scenes are vibrant and crisp and are a beauty to view with none of the orange tint that seems to plague many of the earlier VHS releases.  As stated, the exterior nighttime scenes are extremely soft with massive grain evident throughout.  I was a bit surprised as I figured these night scenes would have been given the most restoration due to the fact that they have always been an overly dark and problematic area on any given release.  This is a flaw with the original source prints but, with the film being over 30 years old, I am happy that these scenes have been touched up as much as they have.  It does not take away from the overall value or experience of viewing this on Blu-Ray however the night scenes do stick out as a drop in picture quality. 

Extras have been carried over from the Ultimate Edition which includes trailers, outtakes & deleted scenes and audio commentaries including a previously unreleased bit featuring various cast members.  Exclusive to this Blu-Ray release are a new interview with Terri McMinn who played Pam entitled “Off the Hook.”  Though not especially riveting, it’s worth a look for novelty value and for Chainsaw completists.

This release of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is a worthy addition to anyone’s Blu-Ray collection however anyone who owns the previously released Ultimate Edition should see that it’s sufficient in its presentation.  Other than the novelty of having this movie on Blu-Ray, there is no real incentive to double dip.  The HD format extenuates some wonderful and impressive cinematography but also exposes some obvious flaws in the digital authoring.  The film itself looks wonderful in spots and it is easy to forgive those where it does not.  It is nice to have this on Blu-Ray, but ultimately it is not necessary, further fueling the general consumer opinion that there is no real benefit in owning some of the titles that are being released in the HD format with such minimal quality in the video upgrade.