9. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell didn’t really know what they were doing. They weren’t really musicians. This is hands down my all time favourite film. It never loses any of its power. And the score adds to the stink of the film. Because it’s a filthy film. It feels like you’re smelling it and the score is terrifying. It’s like they went into a studio with lots of pots and pans and put the noise through millions of FX pedals. Just creating this cacophonous noise which is unlistenable really. It never came out. Apparently the tapes are lost and there are loads of rights issues anyway. I don’t know if you could listen to it… I’d be terrified to listen to that soundtrack on my own. I was talking to [Death Waltz artist] Jay Shaw about this film. I commissioned him to do a piece on it for me and he’s phenomenal. His take on films is unlike anyone else’s which is why I asked him to do Halloween III. And [he said] that film is about the decay and decline of American family values. He did it in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 although the film’s not successful. I think he’s a clever guy. You can watch it as a horror movie but then the better horror movies are like that. You can watch them as a straight horror intended to scare the shit out of you or you can watch it with one eye on the subtext. As well as being my favourite film ever it’s got my favourite camera shot of all time in it. Even more than Kubrick, who I really love. It’s a really simple tracking shot where a character is sitting on a swinging bench and she gets up. And I know it’s looking at her ass and probably that’s why I liked it when I was 15 but as you get older you see this shot following her and the house comes into play and you know that the house is an evil [presence] in the film.
