Texas Chainsaw Massacre Poster Analysis

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie was first released on 1st October 1974 in the USA, it spawned many sequels and was then later remastered and re-released, the most recent release being 2013, which was also in 3D. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is mainly of Horror genre but also fits into the Crime and Drama genre. It also falls in to the sub-genre of Slasher film. The main image of this poster for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is of the killer himself, wielding his trademark chainsaw weapon. As he is the most dominate character in the film he dominates the poster(s) as well. Typically in horror movies the killer is usually deformed, this again in the case of the killer. The Killer, known as ‘Leatherface’ wears a mask which is fashioned out of the skin of the victims he kills, and he and his family eat. This shows the deformity of this killer, but under the mask, he is equally deformed. His whole family are inbred, which leads to his facial deformity, which he hides under his mask. The mask and chainsaw are the most iconic images of ‘Leatherface’ the killer from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The main and most dominant colours are red and black. The black could connote the darkness of the events of the film; also a fair chunk of the film is set in the night time, so the darkness there could be the connotation for this. This is typical of the horror genre, many horror films are set in the night time, so that the killer can move much more freely than in the day, when there are lots of people about. However, this is not always the case, some horror movies are set in the daytime. For example parts of some of the ‘Wrong Turn’ films are set in the day time. The red on the poster and on the chainsaw obviously connotes the red of blood. Which is very fitting seeing as this is based on a “Massacre” where a lot of blood is likely to be shed, regardless of the weapon. Red is also a typical colour within the horror genre, usually because there are major casualties in horror movies. Besides the red connoting blood it could also but used to connote danger. If you saw a rather large man running at you with a bloodied chainsaw you’d likely see the danger in this and would want to run. The tagline on this poster is “THE SAW IS THE LAW” this is very fitting because this small area they live in is basically lawless, even more so when Leatherface kills the only police officer around and his father takes charge as the only officer in the area. The only law of this land is the saw. If Leatherface or more so his saw believes you should be sentenced to death, he will find you and he will kill you.