**FearScale reports on Heart-Rate monitoring alone and does not take into account story structure, acting or plot when compiling the following results**
The review you are about to read is the result of the less than tragic viewing from our test subject. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is our fourth and final film in the Fab 4 competition (Jason, Michael, Freddy and Leatherface). An introduction to torture with much less blood and gore than you would expect from the title.
Test Subject: Leah
Age : 33
Gender: Female
Fears: Clowns, Confined Spaces
ANALYSIS:
A slow burn is noticeable from the beginning of the graph. Other than one minor spike for an unpredictable hitchhiker at 17:00 the film takes its time getting to the meat of the action. The introduction of Leatherface was abrupt and unexpected as seen in the mountain shaped mark at 35:00.
Leah’s highest peak comes from a jump-scare at 45:00 escalating her heart-rate to a respectable 89bpm. I’ve included a link to see the scene as well as the real-time monitor fluctuation.
The film does keep our subject at an above average walking pace for the third act however she becomes distracted by the over-acting and art-house shots that at the time of filming were unconventional. While true horror fans may see glimpses of the cinematic style that Rob Zombie would later re-create, our subject could only see the foolish backwoods hillbilly tropes that litter the horror genre today. This keeps her heart-rate from ever reaching note-worthy measurements.
CONCLUSION:
The events of this review led to bizarre results in the annals of American history: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre didn’t terrify our subject as we had hoped. While the bizarre nature of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre did induce uncomfortable moments, only a few scares truly raised the heart-rate to an impressive level. In fact, TCM came in a mere one heartbeat higher on average than A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Leatherface was not able to surpass the suspense and tension Michael brought to Halloween (1978). The film did however come in second place in our overall Fab 4 competition which at this point places Leatherface close to the top of a scare-tastic list of Horror Icons.
Resting HR: 60 bpm
Walking HR: 72-80 bpm
Average HR during the film : 79 bpm
Peak HR: 89 bpm
Calories burned: 248