Review by Booklist Review
Half film analysis and half sociological joyride, this book uses the best horror film of all time as a jumping-off point for deep dives into distressing seventies history. Lanza recounts anecdotes from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's tortured production and mob-managed distribution but interweaves them with contemporary tales of political turmoil and serial murder, painting the film as a clear product of its era. The Zodiac Killer, famed atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and Johnny Carson all get substantial space here, and Richard Nixon practically shares lead billing with Leatherface. Forgotten comets, CB hoaxes, sunspots, and the tragedies of hitchhiking also get their due. It's ridiculously ambitious in scope, but the author shepherds his far-flung subjects into a strikingly coherent narrative. It helps matters that Lanza (Elevator Music, 1994) often writes with amusing Kenneth Anger-style phrasings (""the slobbering succotash of metaphysical speculation""), delivering the bad news in a way that's pleasant to read. Definitely not a conventional tale of moviemaking or a step-by-step thematic examination, this book is best suited to libraries with large film collections.--Craig Lefteroff Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This cultural history from critic Lanza (Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films) is focused in its specifics and clever in its conceit. Surveying the American cultural landscape of the early 1970s through the lens of Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Lanza portrays the era as one of turmoil, rapid change, and violence. Lanza profiles real-life analogues to the film's psychopath villains, including the San Francisco Bay Area's never-caught Zodiac Killer and Houston's Dean Corll, "the Candy Man." He also examines the zeitgeist more broadly with chapters on Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, changing conceptions of family based around the work of Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing, and even the relaxing of obscenity laws and the mainstreaming of pornography with 1972's Deep Throat. Lanza finds many rich connections between these trends and Hooper's movie, some literal-for instance, that it was released by the same mob-connected company responsible for that earlier porno hit. Others are more abstract, such as Lanza's reflection on how the film's two families-one besieged and hapless, the other unstable and violent-relate to Laing's theories. This is a smartly written, well-structured survey worth the attention of both horror film fans and sociologists. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
One viewing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it is glaringly obvious how this 1974 low-budget independent slasher pic influenced the horror genre. Echoes of the flick's antagonist Leatherface can be seen in villains Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, but what influenced Massacre? Lanza (Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films) seeks Leatherface's origins in this insightful cultural history. Although director Tobe Hooper and cowriter Kim Henkel claimed that the film was based on true events, this was merely a marketing ploy. Lanza argues that the real inspiration was increasing violence in American life in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Richard Nixon, Charles Manson and the Family, and serial murderers such as Ed Gein and the Candy Man killer all make appearances. VERDICT This smart and well-researched analysis of a cult classic is recommended for horror fans.-Amanda Westfall, Emmet O'Neal P.L., Mountain Brook, AL © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
