Consider the chainsaw.
A piece of motorized machinery that moves sharp, metal teeth along a chain, rapidly cutting its way through just about anything you could reasonably want to cut. To many, the chainsaw is a piece of gardening equipment, perfectly suited to chop down trees. But to horror filmmakers, the chainsaw is a weapon of mass tissue destruction, a gory death-dealing device wielded by maniacs and, occasionally, maniacs heroically fighting those other maniacs.
The irony is that horror filmmakers are a little bit closer to the chainsaw's original intention. Invented in the 1780s by doctors John Aitken and James Jeffray, the device was originally intended to saw through human tissue. But in a well-intentioned, medical way. Not in a creepy "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" way.
And yet, by putting "Chainsaw" in the title (or "Chain Saw" if we're being specific), Tobe Hooper's incredible horror classic pretty much claimed chainsaws as part of its identity.
A piece of motorized machinery that moves sharp, metal teeth along a chain, rapidly cutting its way through just about anything you could reasonably want to cut. To many, the chainsaw is a piece of gardening equipment, perfectly suited to chop down trees. But to horror filmmakers, the chainsaw is a weapon of mass tissue destruction, a gory death-dealing device wielded by maniacs and, occasionally, maniacs heroically fighting those other maniacs.
The irony is that horror filmmakers are a little bit closer to the chainsaw's original intention. Invented in the 1780s by doctors John Aitken and James Jeffray, the device was originally intended to saw through human tissue. But in a well-intentioned, medical way. Not in a creepy "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" way.
And yet, by putting "Chainsaw" in the title (or "Chain Saw" if we're being specific), Tobe Hooper's incredible horror classic pretty much claimed chainsaws as part of its identity.
- 4/22/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
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