Review: Devil’s Advocates – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre / Author: James Rose / Publisher: Auteur Publishing / Release Date: Out Now
Released just in time to cleanse your memory of the recent cinematic disaster, this book takes a look at Tobe Hooper’s original, definitive, version.
The book opens with a brief biography of Hooper prior to TCM (including his début, Eggshells), we then get a brief outline of the awful conditions in which the film was made and the film’s chequered history with the British Board of Film Censors (as they were back in 1974). Author Rose wisely avoids filling too many pages on topics which have been covered numerous times in print and on film, and gets down the main meat of the text; a scene by scene analysis of the film.
Going into intricate detail and theorising the film like never before, Rose takes new perspectives on the much loved and genre defining classic, such as reading the film as Gothic, its role in defining the ‘final girl’ trope, and the cannibalistic nature of the family.
For such a slim tome, there’s plenty to digest, and it’s refreshing to see the film treated with such reverence and intelligent reasoning. While it may be a little too academic for the casual fan, those wanting more than the usual angles will find plenty of chew on.
You may think you know Hooper’s film, but after reading this Devil’s Advocate dissection you will look upon it in a whole new light.
