#Actually, Halloween Isn’t A Knock-Off Of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

That the original was, itself, a mayhem-by-the-numbers knockoff of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ says a lot about the state of horror movies back then, but let’s leave that for another time.

First off, he seems to imply that the state of horror cinema of the 1970s was less than ideal when that was objectively not the case. This was an era where horror transcended its usual boundaries. We had mainstream serious horror like “Jaws,” “Carrie,” “The Omen,” “Alien,” and, of course, “The Exorcist.” We also had artistic horror films like Dario Argento’s “Suspiria,” David Lynch’s “Eraserhead,” and the dream logic insanity of Don Coscarelli’s “Phantasm.” 

There was a lot of drive-in schlock as well, some terrible films that will be forgotten by time and some that are super fun and will survive as cult oddities, but that’s true of just about any decade of cinema; you remember the hits.

My point is that the 1970s were objectively an amazing period of time for all cinema, especially genre. Saying that a “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” knockoff is indicative of the cinema at that time is a head-scratcher at best, even if it was an accurate critique of John Carpenter’s “Halloween.” And it is not.

Let me help you out there, Mr. Gleiberman.

The movie you want to accuse “Halloween” of being a knockoff of is not “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (although points for citing the correct title, with a space between “Chain” and “Saw”). Actually, it’s Bob Clark’s “Black Christmas.”