I'm a horror fanatic (who's too scared to watch a few, select movies), so I've seen my fair share of spooky flicks.
In fact, when it comes to the greatest horror movies of all time, I've seen a vast majority of them. So, believe me when I say this, but I've watched literally hundreds of horror movie endings. Like, no fooling. Literally hundreds.
Of those hundreds, I can say with absolute certainty that the greatest conclusion I've ever seen is still from 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Yes, the entire film is great, and I recommend it to you if you haven’t seen it yet. But, that ending has stuck with me for more than 25 years now, ever since I first saw it. Here's why.
The Ending Is Arguably The Most Unsettling Part Of The Entire Movie
Have you ever watched the underappreciated gem, The Butterfly Effect? Well, one thing I absolutely love about that movie is just how unsettling it is.
That said, it's nothing compared to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The whole film is shot in a way that it looks more like a documentary than a fictional story. So, when we see characters being killed, one by one, it really feels like we shouldn't even be watching it, as it’s more like we're witnessing murder.
This is all unsettling in itself, sure, but it's the ending that truly strikes a chord for me, since Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) is still on the loose! Not only that, but he's crazier than ever! In the final scenes, the lone survivor (a.k.a. the “Final Girl”), Sally (Marilyn Burns) escapes the hell house following a night of terror. This is after a man who looks like a corpse tries to hit her over the head with a hammer, mind you. Well, upon escaping, she’s pursued by the hitchhiker from earlier in the movie, as well as Leatherface, who’s wildly chasing her with his chainsaw.
The hitchhiker gets run over by a truck, which you feel good about, but Leatherface is like an uncaged animal. The truck driver tries to save Sally, actually throwing a wrench at Leatherface, but the madman gets back up again as Sally hops into another truck while Leatherface chases after her.
When she gets away, Leatherface swings his chainsaw wildly, and…that’s it. No comforting resolution. No comeuppance for Leatherface. Just the sound of his angry, whirring chainsaw as he spins around in circles. This abrupt conclusion always gets me since it’s such a skin-crawling ending! He is still out there, and he will likely (Definitely!) kill again.
Yes, There Were Sequels, But Leatherface Swinging Around His Chainsaw Didn't Need Any
Like any horror franchise, there are multiple sequels and remakes to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (and, also like most horror franchises, most of them aren’t good).
That said, the ending of the first movie is so effective that I genuinely feel like they should have ended it right there.
Because Leatherface swinging around his chainsaw is the perfect conclusion to the story. It doesn’t make any sense, as he’s obviously lost when it comes to getting every victim. We also don’t really know what he even feels since he doesn’t talk. He does scream when he cuts his own leg, so we know he’s a man and not just some ghoul like Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. But, at the same time, what kind of a man is he?
That’s the beauty (and the terror) of it all. We don’t know. And, the idea of a lunatic still on the loose – and hungry for more carnage – is absolutely horrifying.
The ending is also just so chaotic. Leatherface is literally spinning around in circles, as if he's looking for somebody new to kill, and the camera tries its best to follow his wild mannerisms. There’s nothing else in the series that feels so uncontrolled, visceral, and scary. Especially since the second movie is a straight up comedy.
It's A Happy Ending...Or Is It?
When Sally escapes, she’s laughing hysterically, which is a happy ending, right?
Well, that's one way to look at it. In a way, when she's watching Leatherface get smaller and smaller in the distance as the truck drives off, it could be a laugh of triumph. Like, I beat you, you son of a bitch! I won! I survived!
Or, it could be the sign of somebody who has finally cracked completely under all of the pressure, which is how I always interpreted the laughter at the end.
We'd learn in subsequent films that Sally was actually traumatized by the events of the first movie, but I love the ambiguity of those final moments.
It kind of feels like a happy ending since she survived, but what’s there to be happy about? All of her friends are dead.
Lastly, I Don't Think Any Other Horror Movie Ending Has Left A More Lasting Impression On Me
Finally, I don’t think any other ending to a horror movie has ever gripped me and made me think back about it more than this ending.
Because here’s the thing. Even though I love horror as a genre, there are very few horror movies that I genuinely think stick the landing. There’s Hereditary and Midsommar, of course (which I still often debate which is the better horror movie). There’s The Fly, which also has a rather abrupt, and icky conclusion. And, of course there’s The Shining, with that scary image of Jack Nicholson in the photo.
Other than those aforementioned movies, I honestly can’t think of an ending to a horror movie that really made me shiver like the one in Texas Chain Saw. It’s the kind of ending where I don’t even have to watch the whole movie over again, and can just go to YouTube to watch the last few minutes.
It’s also the kind of ending where I can spend a whole article discussing it. Because, much like the opening scene to Terminator 2: Judgment Day has stuck with me for my entire life, the ending scene to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has also lived in my head, rent free, for all these years.
What do you think? Do you also love this ending? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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