Texas Chain Saw Massacre crowned greatest horror flick in Total Film poll
Press Association guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 September 2010Magazine sees experts on chillers and thrillers choose low-budget 1974 'video nasty' as best in genre
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/29/texas-chainsaw-massacre-top-horror
A poster for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was released in 1974. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive 
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been voted the greatest horror movie ever.
Total Film magazine asked leading directors and stars from the horror world to choose their favourite.
The low-budget film, which was released in 1974, was for many years banned as a "video nasty", but by the late 1990s it was given a video certificate and went on to be shown on television in the UK. Directors such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and John Landis were among those who voted.
On-screen talents - most of them characters who have been masked - including Robert Englund (Freddy), Kane Hodder (Jason), Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) and Doug Bradley (Pinhead) also took part in the poll for the November edition.
Tobe Hooper's movie - apparently inspired by a real story - sees five young Americans stumbling across a dilapidated house inhabited by a family of cannibals.The Exorcist from (1973) was runner-up, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho- from (1960) third. Carpenter's The Thing, made in 1982, was the most recent film to make the top 10.
Jamie Graham, deputy editor of Total Film, said: "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is essentially an old dark house tale fitted with mallets, meat hooks and power tools.
"We see nothing, feel everything, the aggressive camera, brutal editing, clanging sound design and grainy, grubby visuals striking home like a sledgehammer to the skull."
Total Film's Greatest Horror Movies Ever Made:1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
2. The Exorcist
3. Psycho
4. The Shining
5. The Thing
6. Halloween
7. Alien
8. Jaws
9. Dawn Of The Dead
10. Suspiria
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been voted the greatest horror movie ever.Total Film magazine asked leading directors and stars from the horror world to choose their favourite.
The low-budget film, which was released in 1974, was for many years banned as a "video nasty", but by the late 1990s it was given a video certificate and went on to be shown on television in the UK. Directors such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and John Landis were among those who voted.
On-screen talents - most of them characters who have been masked - including Robert Englund (Freddy), Kane Hodder (Jason), Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) and Doug Bradley (Pinhead) also took part in the poll for the November edition.
Tobe Hooper's movie - apparently inspired by a real story - sees five young Americans stumbling across a dilapidated house inhabited by a family of cannibals.The Exorcist from (1973) was runner-up, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho- from (1960) third. Carpenter's The Thing, made in 1982, was the most recent film to make the top 10.
Jamie Graham, deputy editor of Total Film, said: "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is essentially an old dark house tale fitted with mallets, meat hooks and power tools.
"We see nothing, feel everything, the aggressive camera, brutal editing, clanging sound design and grainy, grubby visuals striking home like a sledgehammer to the skull."
Total Film's Greatest Horror Movies Ever Made:1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
2. The Exorcist
3. Psycho
4. The Shining
5. The Thing
6. Halloween
7. Alien
8. Jaws
9. Dawn Of The Dead
10. Suspiria
