The Texas Chain saw Massacre was made a very long time ago. However, its unsettling atmosphere, primal terror-stabs and pitch-black humour have rightly earned Tobe Hoopers debut
a timeless tag. Given the standard of his work in the three decades since, that movies triumph has to be seen as a happy accident, with further proof provided by Hoopers latest, which plays like it was made years before Chain Saw.
If Massacre was the masterwork, you could imagine Murders as the teenage tinkerings that came before: the gores more explicit, the shocks coarser and the dark humour more of an immature hyuck than a malevolent smirk. All of which is hardly surprising if you consider this is a remake of a daft 1978 video nasty, and that Hoopers clearly revelling in all the trad-horror trappings.
He happily goes overboard with the murder-weapon theme (we witness death by nail gun, by power drill and even by acid powder), and amusingly plays on our seasoned horror-gorging expectations. But while offering some trashy fun, its probably best appreciated viewed through beer goggles and across a living room strewn with half-eaten pizzas.
