I highlighted the word “ see” in the sentence above because I want to pick up on Wickman’s essay and develop the idea of Texas Chain Saw Massacre as a film about meat-specifically I want to make the case that the film highlights practices of seeing and not seeing that are absolutely crucial to how the meat industry functions. Wickman wonders why film critics haven’t written about this theme-quoting Tobe Hooper himself as saying “it’s a film about meat.” Wickman adds that “once you begin to see the theme it is about as subtle as Leatherface’s sledgehammer.” Like a cow, Kirk is bashed between the eyes with a sledgehammer and like a pig carcass, Pam is hung on a meat hook and then crammed into a storage freezer.įorrest Wickman summarized Ager’s analysis in “ The Ultimate Pro-Vegetarian Film is the Last Movie You’d Expect,” for Slate in July, 2013. Rob Ager made a video commentary on animal cruelty in the film ( on YouTube), arguing that it demonstrates “our brutality to animals we breed for food and clothing.” Not least, Ager claims, the film puts the human characters in the place of animals for the slaughter. While the film is certainly on one level about the cataclysmic events of the late 1960s and early 1970s, it is also about the politics of meat-eating and industrial slaughter, both of which remain compelling issues in 2015.įans of the film have recognized how it seems to put the ethics of slaughtering cattle and eating meat front and center. Tobe Hooper’s 1974 film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, does exactly this. The most powerful horror films, moreover, continue to engage with social issues well after their particular moment of production. Horror films have long been recognized for their ability to reflect troubling social and political concerns: it’s one of the many things that makes horror films valuable, makes them more than just a reveling in shock and gore.
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