Hacker Cinema
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1974 · Film · 83 min
Directed by Tobe Hooper
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
2 neutralfrom 2 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
3 comments on Hacker News
> The same movies are shown in Scandinavian cinemas
Maybe it's better now but Scandinavia has had their moments of censorship keeping those "same movies" out of theaters. Sweden banned The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Mad Max, and even ET (for ages under 11). Norway banned Ichi the Killer, I Spit on Your Grave, and A Serbian Film.
There used to be a option here in Sweden and elsewhere in the world, and it was called the national censors. They would look at movies, tv, music, books, and decide if it posed a serous problem where someone could 'accidentally' be exposed and harm the efforts to be well-adjusted citizens.
And, in most part, it was not that bad. Sure, Swedes could not watch the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and the UK banned Monthy Python, and the US banned Show Girls, but was it really so bad? Well, maybe... Okey it was pretty bad and society discarded that system for a very good reason.
During the 90s, people argued that teens watching movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre would get a twisted notion of what normal was. The detrimental effect on teens was seen as such large that they banned the cartoon darkwin duck for TV, and blamed TV violence for the increase in violent crime amongst youths.
Those claims has since proven at best to be speculative, at worse outright media fabrication. Studies have shown that even very young kids can distinguish that what happens on a movie is not real, and that the social rules that gets shown on a movie does not exist in real life. Teens and adults has a more mature brain and longer life experience that if there was an effect, movies would have destroyed them long before.