‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ at Fifty Is Not as Horrifying as You Remember

On a recent rainy evening in Manhattan, five Texans gathered for a talk at the Museum of Modern Art. The discussion touched on the topics you’d expect: Technique. Composition. Cultural context. Thematic intent. And then there were more unusual questions raised. Like, when Leatherface drops Pam onto the meat hook, do you really see the moment of impalement?“People on YouTube will write, ‘I saw the hook go through her chest!’ ” said actress Teri McMinn. “They’re adamant about it.”We were assembled for a fiftieth anniversary screening of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which first screened at MoMA less than year after its theatrical release. Just like Degas, de Kooning, or Abramovic, Chainsaw is in the museum’s permanent collection. It has been…

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