Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

---

This video is the second in a series titled The Terror of Trauma that plans to explore the theme of trauma present in various horror films. This video focuses on Tobe Hooper's 1974 film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and how it pulls on iconography to explore the trauma of a declining rural, American South during the 1970s. These same choices also seem to lead the movie to explore the generational tension generated during this time, as well as an indictment on broadcast news' role in covering traumatic events.

If you enjoy this video then please give it a thumbs up and also subscribe to join me on an exploration of horror films that deal with trauma.

Be sure to check out Ryan Hollinger's video that explores some of the more formal elements present in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: youtube.com/watch?v=6k2HCHfMq0k&t=29s

Sources used:

Bloom, John. "They Came. They Sawed." Texas Monthly. November 2004.

Read it here: texasmonthly.com/articles/they-came-they-sawed

Frost, Craig. "Erasing the B out of Bad Cinema: Remaking Identity in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Colloquy 18:61-75 (2009).

Access it here: philpapers.org/rec/FROETB