TCM Essay

Compare the two versions of TCM. How and why are they similar or different, paying close attention to ideas/theories about the ways genres repeat themselves and the wider contextual factors that have influenced any changes.

Both The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (2003) are both from the slasher genre and therefore follow the same generic convention such as the final girl and the stereotypical male killer.

However since they have been produced in two different eras, they have different audience expectations and the film and plot maybe slightly different. The 1947 TCM would appeal to a target audience of males and females as they have both male and females characters, also the age group of their audience would be 18-35 class, c1, c2 and d. The target audience for the 2003 TCM would be male and females again but for the age group of 16-35 and their class being b, c1, c2 and d as the effect of he 2003 TCM are more interesting. Also both TCM’s will attract different audience types as the 1947 TCM was censored and as a result it was not as gruesome as the 2003 TCM.

Firstly there is a difference in the narratives in both the 1947 TCM and also the 2003 TCM. The 1947 TCM opens up of a dead armadillo and then is followed by a medium shot of the five friends, who are going to check on relatives graves in a cemetery. They pick up a hitchhiker man, who is crazy. Where as in the 2000 TCM, there are also five friends but they are on there way to see a Lynyrd Skyynyrd concert and instead the hitchhiker is female instead of being male and shots herself instead of slitting her wrist like the male does in 1934 TCM.
Secondly the beginning of both 1934 TCM and 2003 TCM is different. The 193 TCM opens with a narration, with word scrolling down the screen, the deep voice set the atmosphere for the audience. Then there are a lot of flashing shots of rotting hands and teeth followed by complete darkness and a corpse with a close up shot of the sun to set the scene of a hot summer’s day in Texas. The 2003 TCM, opens with black and white footage of police going through a house and again words are scrolling down like the 1934 TCM.

Moreover the 1934 TCM is different as Todorov’s theory can be applied throughout it, as there is a equilibrium at the beginning and a disequilibrium, and finally there seems to be a happy ending as there is a final girl. Where as the 2003 TCM has disequilibrium

The final girl must follow a theory of sex equals death. This theory is applied in the 2003 TCM as the couple die as they have had sex.
There is a visible final girl in both 1947 TCM and 2003 TCM, this gives the idea that they are seen to be more superior to males as they are the ones who survive. This goes against the stereotype that women usually stay at home and are seen as housewives.

Overall both 1947 TCM and 2003 TCM are two very similar and also different movies. The final girl in 1947 TCM had relied on someone to come in and distract the leather face, but the 2003 TCM Erin had gotten away on her own without being hitched hiked unlike the first movie she also got her revenge on the Sheriff in the process by running him over in his police car. Also the two movies were different as they represent women in two different ways depending on the zeitgeist in the 1947 TCM women were seen as weak, where as in the 2003 TCM they are seen powerful.