The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Right off the bat, Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shows that it's not in the vicinity of messing around. After all, this was a post-Night of the Living Dead world Hollywood was working in. Gone were the days of horror playing it safe -- there was some fresh blood on the scene, and they wanted to see it spill.

Now The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was made when anyone with a working camera and a decent enough script could make a movie, the clutches of the big studios having weakened with the creation of the MPAA. Hooper was fortunate to have arrived on the scene at this time, showing that his idea co-penned with Kim Henkel hit a nerve with audiences. (Case in point, this was nearly rated X -- the harshest rating the MPAA could dole out at the time -- for how grisly it was.)

The theme in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre of something wicked lurking beneath everyday life (as also seen in Hooper's later film Poltergeist) had also played a part in Hooper's own life, courtesy of an event that happened in his native Texas as he attended college. In August 1966, a gunman opened fire on the campus, with a police officer telling Hooper to stay put -- and promptly getting shot dead near Hooper moments later. Fact can be scarier than fiction.

Like Psycho the previous decade, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre used the actions of Ed Gein as inspiration -- more specifically, the gruesome horror show the police had stumbled upon within Gein's home. The sheer depravity of Gein's broken mind is recreated by Hooper, showing how one's normalcy can mask something truly unholy. (Again, also seen in other Hooper titles.)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre indicated (and vindicated) that there was a drastic change within Hollywood underway, one that wanted the guts (both figurative and literal) to be on full display. And with Jaws the following year, it was raw and unflinching, proving that the Hollywood of the previous generation was long gone. And a new one was just getting started.

My Rating: *****

Spontaneous Combustion

Tobe Hooper has always been something of an anomaly within Hollywood. After hitting it big with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he never seemed to reach the same heights afterward. (Even the success of Poltergeist continues to be overshadowed by rumors that Steven Spielberg actually directed it.) Though he shifted to television soon after, that's not to discredit his film work completely.

Now Spontaneous Combustion is hardly top-tier material from Hooper (or from anyone involved in this, really), but it still gets the job done. But boy, even then it's tough to get through at times. (Oh, the plights of late '80s-early '90s horror flicks.)

That's not to say Spontaneous Combustion is completely terrible, far from it. Hooper had a good idea for his picture, make no mistake; the problem is that everything around it stumbles at the starting gate. (Honestly, most of the actors oversell the half-hearted dialogue.)

Of course, there is one shining grace to Spontaneous Combustion: its star, Brad Dourif. Being the kind of actor who knows how to work with what he's given, he elevates the otherwise lackluster title. Though one has to wonder how much of a role Child's Play had on his casting here...

Spontaneous Combustion is by no means a masterpiece both Hooper and Dourif make it mostly tolerable. Though in watching this, it makes one think a retrospective on Hooper is due. Sure, there were some following his death in 2017, but there could stand to be a few more...even if a lot of his output fell flat.

My Rating: ***

Poltergeist

Many people are willing to claim that that 1980s churned out the best horror movies, Indeed, the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Evil Dead emerged but after less than successful sequels and remakes, they might become trite as time wears on. (There's a reason why there's a constant debate between original works and their remakes.)

With Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist, it spawned two sequels and more recently a remake. But none of them even remotely compare to the original. Even after numerous parodies, it still packs one hell of a punch (emphasis on "hell").

Mind you, there's still an ongoing debate as to whom was the one running the show: Hooper or produced Steven Spielberg. Yes, there are aspects throughout Poltergeist that are also found in various Spielberg titles but bear in mind he had a hand in the script so that could possibly explain away some things.

That doesn't make Poltergeist any less scarier, not in the least. This is one of several horror films to have a lasting legacy, the kind that endures homages and parodies in the years to come. Usually such an impact weakens the original work because of said homages and parodies. But that's not the case here.

Poltergeist most definitely has had an impact on both Hollywood and those who have seen it. (There's a reason for why the PG-13 rating came about a few years after its release.) And be honest, show of hands: how many of you saw this at a young age and were basically scarred for life afterwards?

My Rating: ****1/2