Macabre Monday: The Saw is Family
“You think I’m dumb, maybe not too bright
You wonder how I sleep at night
Proud of the glory, stare down the shame
Duality of the southern thing” — Drive-by Trucker
While watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), I thought about how it presented and viewed the south and southerners. The southern setting of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre lies as a core part of its DNA. Even with the inclusion of Texas in the title, location draws upon certain connotations about the franchise. Tobe Hooper, who directed the original and sequel, is from Texas. Leatherface and the other Sawyer family members and other films such as Two Thousand Maniacs and Deliverance popularized the redneck/hillbilly horror subgenre. As a result, the South and Southerners within the films are viewed negatively as monsters or inhuman. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also holds a special place in my heart since Texas Chainsaw 3D was filmed in my hometown.
But let’s focus on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise specifically. The core nature consists of outsiders visiting rural Texas and getting involved with a clan of cannibal killers. The first film has a group of hippies leaving the city to see Sally and Franklin Hardestys’s grandfather’s grave due to reports of grave robbing. They decide to visit their grandfather’s home while waiting for the gas station to refuel. As soon as they wander off the path, they run into the Sawyers, and they are picked off one by one. The Sawyers do not initially engage in cannibalism out of their own choice but due to survival after the slaughterhouse closes. While it may appear barbaric and backward to everyone else, it makes perfect sense in their minds. After all, they’re a family.
Underneath the surface of the franchise lies that element, the rural south abandoned by industry. As a result, it forces the south to adapt and survive against city life, leaving it behind. The films present it heightened and over-the-top, but the commentary remains. Even the remake series keeps the closure of the slaughterhouse as the reason for their cannibalism. The remakes take it a step further by having the town consist solely of the family. Rechristened as the Hewitts in the remakes, the reveal of their connections drives home how much the city is standing on its last leg. The Hewitts represent the backward nature, and it overlaps by having them run the town. The town exists as one large family aiming to survive.
Outside of cannibalism and the chainsaws, the central horror of the franchise is derived from the otherness. Instead, cannibalism and murder contribute to that notion of the other. There exists a contrast between the cannibals and their victims. There are apparent differences between the two groups, whether hippies, yuppies, or young upstarts. The conflict pits the ordinary victims against the othered. Factor in the victims being outsiders to the rural environment furthers the horror. Outside of Hooper being a Texas native, the size of the state and the distance between towns and cities contribute to the rural image we hold of it. Texas may exist, but Texas within the movies does not. Instead, it’s more of a fictional idea portraying the horrors we have towards the rural aspects.
Outside of the rural environment, the hillbilly/redneck aspect of the subgenre lies upon the said group. Portraying rural Southerners as poor and uneducated contributes to negative stereotypes about the region. The crass and crude nature of the Sawyers/Hewitts perfectly aligns with those stereotypes and conflates them to a heightened degree. Looking outside of Texas Chainsaw, the most famous movie involving this group is Deliverance which also features them as inhuman monsters and significantly impacted popular culture’s perception. In the remake, uncle Monty Hewitt, an amputee, feigns needing help as a means of inappropriately grabbing Erin. The monstrous aspect of the Sawyers/Hewitts defines them and conflates their lower-class status. As a result, it becomes intertwined and difficult to untangle.
As a Southerner, I am interested in how the horror genre portrays the region. Granted, this is only scratching the surface, and it is a topic I wish to explore more in the future. I may do a part two, but that will probably be sometime in the future. Let me know if you want me to revisit the topic.
Thanks again for reading. You can keep with the blog and get updates by following it on Instagram @thebloginthewoods or by following/subscribing to The Blog in the Woods via Medium. Continuing “Found Footage-February,” I will be looking at Willow Creek and Rec on Thursday and Saturday. Also, I will link my review of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) as soon as Slay Away publishes it.
