The Rio Theatre’s Friday Late Night Movie series kicks off October with one of our all-time favourites is the canon of classic midnighters: Tobe Hooper‘s iconic 1974 slasher masterpiece, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (gore-geously remastered in 2014!).
Just as Alfred Hitchcock‘s PSYCHO was based on the life of deeply disturbed farmer Ed Gein, so is this little story of depravity and dementia. When a sister and her brother take a group of friends to visit the farmhouse of their deceased grandfather, they discover that just next door lives a whole family of repugnant psycho killers. Most noteworthy is “Leatherface” (Gunnar Hansen), the chainsaw-wielding fellow who has something of a penchant for human flesh. Though the film did not enjoy immediate success at the box office, it has since gathered a hefty cult following, and is considered by many to be groundbreaking work in the genre of horror.
More than just a mere slasher or exploitation film, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE works almost entirely because of the absolute commitment from its principle cast; there are very few instances of a character in a film (horror or otherwise) whose silent, wordless presence is capable of delivering the tremendous balance of sheer terror and pathos that Gunnar Hansen convey as Leatherface, whose performance as the chainsaw-wielding cannibal who terrorizes a young woman (another of the film’s phenomenal performances from scream queen Marilyn Burns) and her friends is as tense and frightening today as it was in 1974.
“Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork,THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema.” (Rotten Tomatoes)
Friday, October 3
Doors 11:00 pm | Movie 11:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.
Tickets HERE
Late Night Date Night! Bring a friend, date, or leather-loving pal and get two-for-one entry… If you dare!