Monstrum (Jun 2019)
The Demythologizing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Abstract
Highlights the mythical elements of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the stripping of such qualities of cosmic dread in the stylistically self-conscious, but ultimately more thematically hollow, 2004 remake by Marcus Nispel. The essay tracks the later film's failure as a postmodern retrospective reimagining of gender dynamics, stripped of the productive nihilism of Hooper's original, independent vision. With a preface "in memoriam" by Will Dodson.
