American horror: history, themes, and cultural impact

American Horror

If there was ever to be a classic American horror film, perhaps no other film suits the role of this title as Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic horror film entitled Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Since the movie's popular release, it has greatly effected (and continues to effect) the development of American culture. What makes this horror movie unique and thus sets it apart from other is its underlying political message.

Among the many subject matters brought up in Texas Chainsaw Massacre are questions surrounding the issue of how best to deal with the different situations in which people are exposed to as a result of the impact culture has on them. Americans particularly are bombarded with multiple ordeals that involve comprehending often times conflicting and various cultural norms and working through them. Social theorist Carl Marx spent much of his life explaining the process that an individual uses to work through these cultural challenges. According to Marx, a human being will look towards economic class as a mechanism of interpreting, understanding and dealing with cultural differences.

The movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre has characteristics of Carl Marx's social economic theory. In the movie, the villains are portrayed as being low class citizens of the society while the victims are the spoiled rich kids on a vacation. Thus, the Marxist anecdote for coping with social trauma is seen as the villains rise up and, in this case, over throw the ruling class, just a Marx said would happen in his Communist Manifesto.

Although at first comparing a horror film that involves the brutal murder of people to the political theories of Carl Marx may seem like a stretch, when one actually studies the text of Marx's various treatises, it becomes apparent that Marx indeed believe that at some point in time it would be the proletariat (or the lower class) who would bury the bourgeoisie (the rich class). Take for example what Marx states in his Communist Manifesto:

The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable." (Marx, 1848).

From this quote alone, it is clear that Marx saw the battle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, or the lower class and the ruling class, as being one of a fight to the death for the lower class could never be anything more when the ruling class remained in existence.

The theories of Carl Marx can best be summarized as a theory of inevitable class struggles. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles," Marx states in the opening of the Communist Manifesto. Thus, Marx's central foundation for all his political theories was the belief that capitalism would be replaced by socialism, which eventually would usher in communism.

The political theory of Carl Marx hinges on his unique view of human nature. According to Marx, a person's identity is determined by where and when that person is. In other words, the social context of a human being takes precedence over ones behavior. However, Marx believed that part of human nature was to transform nature, most often through work, which eventually became the nature in which defined the person due to the resulting economic classes it created. Eventually this work led to an alienation and separation of jobs, thus creating a capitalist society. The class who must sell their work are the proletarians and those who own the means to do this work are the capitalist, or bourgeoisie.

The movie the Texas Chainsaw Massacre revolves around the general plot of a group of rich, young friends who go on a road trip to rural Texas. On the way, the group's van runs out of gas and they are forced to go to an old family friend's home for help. Here the group is attacked by a family of cannibalistic people, including the notorious chainsaw loving Leatherface. On their way the group picks up a hitchhiker who seems to be visibly sick from the heat and possibly crazy. However, the hitchhiker goes on to torment and violently threaten the group, so they leave him on the side of the road.

Once the group finally reaches the house, Kirk and Pam go and search for an old childhood swimming hole. When they reach the location, they find that its dried up but, hearing the sound of a nearby generator, the two go to a nearby farmhouse to see who is around. Kirk goes inside where he encounters Leatherface and becomes the villains first victim by way of a sledgehammer. Pam goes in to see what is taking Kirk so long and she too is killed by Leatherface by being hung onto a meathook.

Night soon approaches and the remaining friends begin to worry about Pam and Kirk. Jerry goes out searching for them and is killed by Leatherface as he goes on the hunt for prey. He eventually finds Sally and Franklin and springs upon them, repeatedly drives his chainsaw through Franklin's body. At this sight, Sally immediately flees by running through the forest towards the house. She first hides in here but, after realizing that it in fact belongs to Leatherface, she again flees into the night with Leatherface on her chase.

Sally eventually makes it to a gas station where she pleas for help. Instead, the owner attacks her with a broom, puts a sack over her head and forces her into a truck. It turns out that the gas station owner, known as Old Man, is in fact Leatherface's older brother. Old Man takes her back to the house where the hitchhiker, also part of the family, is arriving at the same time.

In the morning, Sally manages to escape and is chased through the countryside by the knife-wielding hitchhiker and the chainsaw wielding Leatherface. Just as the hitchhiker reaches her and begins to stab her, he is run over by a passing semi-truck. Sally jumps into the truck while Leatherface attacks the vehicle with his weapon of choice. The driver throws a wrench at Leatherface, knocking him down and causing him to cut his own leg. The driver then flees, leaving Sally on the road. Just as Leatherface is about to get Sally, a pickup truck passes by and she is able to jump in the back. The film closes with a classic scene of Leatherface waving his saw above his head in frustration while standing in the middle of the road.