The Connventions of a Horror Film: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

This is the Theatrical trailer to Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003). This is remake of the orgianl 1974 film and is based on a true story set in Travis County, Texas during the summer of '73.

The trailer establishes where the film is set and when; "August 18, 1973" and "Travis county, Texas". Texas is consider as a "dessert " state. The location that they are in as the group of young adults are driving through is a very dessert area. There are no other cars on the road, no trees, no people (expect for a girl, who is alone). There is dust blowing up from the ground as they drive to connote that is avery dry and issolated area which no one can live in because it's so dry that crops can't grow. In this setting no one is around to help.

As I have mentioned before this is a remake of the orginal 1974 movie and is based on true events from the summer of '73. There is no past in the trailer that can tell us why the murder is killing people in a "massacre".

However, there is a old, "creepy looking" house in the middle of nowhere where we, as the audience, can gather that the murderer will be there ready to kill again.

The locations within the house vary from outside to basements. No matter where they go there always lurking in the dark, "What the hell was that?", and there reactions to hide from whatever it is are our primitive instincts of surival and also to create the terror that they are probaly feeling. In the trailer we can hear the fear in the dialogue of the group of protagonists and the screams that both the males and females make.

There is natural lightining when the group are driving through the dessert. This connotes that it is daytime a time when there is sussposed to be people out but in the trailer there isn't apart from the "hitchiker" (as the group call her), which is strange and makes us wonder one question. Why? Also there is natural light bursting through the windows in the house to connote that even though its daytime the killer is in the house and not fussed what time it is. He kind of gets a "kick" from this like most horror antagonists.  There is also low-key lightining to create shadows. This creates fear as one of the girls sees something in the shadows and not knowing whats there is probably one of the biggest fears there is. That is defiently shown on screen.

Within the mise-en scene there are lots of icongraphy that suggests that this is a horror film. I am going to talk about a few of the main ones. There is an old china doll in the trailer which suggests that the house was once a home to children and innocence before it was turned into a place of evil. Also most people find that china dolls are creepy because of the horror film Child's Play (1988). Also there is skelton to connote death, possibly a past death or a warning for the future.

In the film a group of teenagers are returning home from a concert in Mexico and drive through Texas. Then the meet the hitchiker who tells them "they're all dead". Who's dead? is the main question so the group goes to investigate which leads them into something that can only be described as "hell" and the home to leatherface. It's fight for surival for the group. In the end the girl Erin escapes with a baby while the killer, leatherface, is still alive. The narattor states at the end; "The crime scene was not properly secured by Travis County Police. Two investigating officers were fatally wounded that day. This is the only known image of Thomas Hewitt, the man they call Leatherface. The case today still remains open". There is a whole franchise of Texas Chainsaw Massacre; e.g. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II (1986), Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1990) etc. This is typical of American horror, which allows the killer the to surive, somehow, to be able to make sequels and therefore more money. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an example of this along with Hallowenn (1978) in which Mike Myers escapes and a trilogy was made.

The main characters are a group of 5 young America adults both females and males; Erin, Kemper, Morgan, Andy and Pepper. Let me begin with the 4 characters that are going to die (in order); Kemper, Andy, Morgan and Pepper. In the narrative the killer, leatherface, has no real motive to kill them. I will later come back to why he kills them in a bit.

At the beginning of the trailer we see Kemper and Pepper "making out" at the back of van. This shows us that they are the "sexual" couple of the group. Morgan and Andy are smoking in the car at the beginning of the movie. Kemper says that Erin "She didn't drink the tequila. She didn't smoke the weed." This suggests that they did drink large amounts of alhcool and "do weed". Also the group bought weed without Erin finding out.

Erin is our Final Girl as she is aware of her surrondings. She doesn't snoke, drink or do weed like the others. It seems that she is completely different to Pepper in the sense that she is not a sexual object for the male audience. She seems to be more concered about other things as she hints to her boyfriend Kemper, that she's been with for 3 years, that she wants to marry him. "Maybe I didn't go to Mexicio  to watch you get shit-faced for four days.... A tear-cut diamond ring that goes right here on my beautiful little finger."

The youth wear clothes that connote their character types, e.g. Erin wears a vest top and jeans with a hat while Pepper wears a tight top and skirt. This shows that Erin is sensible as she is wearing apporiate clothes as it's going to be hot as they go along in the car and that Pepper is a "slut". Remember that the characters are in Texas in 1973.

Leatherface (Thomas Hewitt) is the killer of the film. As the name suggests he wears leather faces of the people he has brutley killed. Horrible isn't it, but its true. We don't see in the trailer into the end to create suspense and fear. Who is he? Like I mentioned before there is no clear motive why he kills. The real motive is to surive. Him and his family are human eating cannibals.

There is a sheriff that appears in the trailer but seems to be useless as he asks "who's killing them?" But it seems that he is part of the Hewit family, who are the canibals, and the real monsters of the narrative as "they control Leatherface". So who really is the killer/ monster? Leatherface or his family? Or both? Is leatherface just a puppet on a string? On the left there is a image of the orginal Hewitt Family. Scary aren't they. In a way you could argue, is Leatherface a victim? The creation of his "disfunctional", "monsterous", "canibal" family.

In some sense the group of youths are abit stupid because the hitchiker killed herself before saying "we're all going to die. Anybody else after that would go far away and "call the cops." But not them they go to find what happened which is kinda brave. 

This film has the theme of good vs. evil. The group of youths have to escape from the Hewitt family who are trying to kill them. Unfortunely only 1 out of the 5 surives while the others fall into the cluthes of the evil Hewitt family. It seems like the family have escaped as the case still remains unclosed even today. This connotes that evil is never really destroyed and justice sometimes isn't done.

In some ways the film and trailer has connventions of both Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde along with Dracula. Leatherface and his family show us that we all of us have some kind of madness inside us, which is evil, trying to force itself out to create terror. Also the Leatherface is driven to kill people by physchopathic family. He has some sort of lust or desire for it. Like he gets a thrill from it.