There have been many gratuitously cruel movies, of course--slick little productions where the girls get blood on their tits and the men behind the camera gaze greedily at the bottom line. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a necessarily cruel movie, which is a very different animal indeed. I think there's a value in seeing the worst, the absolute worst, and that's what Hooper shows us--as clearly and as unrelentingly as if his life depended on it. There's no exit, no escape hatch, no levity or joy or beauty in this world at all. It's a total vision; indeed, a totalitarian vision. Watching this film is like being inocculated against some nightmare virus. It really is like a car crash; the closing credits may be an airbag, but you'll never forget what you've been through.