Amazon.co.uk Review
This sensational, extremely influential, 1974 low-budget horror movie directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Salem’s Lot), may be notorious for its title, but it’s also a damn fine piece of moviemaking. And it’s blood-curdling scary, too. Loosely based on the true crimes of Ed Gein (also a partial inspiration for Psycho), the original Jeffrey Dahmer, Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of teenagers who pick up a hitchhiker and wind up in a backwoods horror chamber where they’re held captive, tortured, chopped up, and impaled on meat hooks by a demented cannibalistic family, including a character known as Leatherface who maniacally wields one helluva chainsaw. The movie’s powerful sense of dread is heightened by its grainy, semi-documentary style–but it also has a wicked sense of humour (and not that camp, self-referential variety that became so tiresome in subsequent horror films of the 70s, 80s and 90s). OK, in case you couldn’t tell, it’s “not for everyone”, but as a landmark in the development of the horror/slasher genre, it ranks with Psycho, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. –Jim Emerson

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Amazon.co.uk Review
This sensational, extremely influential, 1974 low-budget horror movie directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Salem’s Lot), may be notorious for its title, but it’s also a damn fine piece of moviemaking. And it’s blood-curdling scary, too. Loosely based on the true crimes of Ed Gein (also a partial inspiration for Psycho), the original Jeffrey Dahmer, Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of teenagers who pick up a hitchhiker and wind up in a backwoods horror chamber where they’re held captive, tortured, chopped up, and impaled on meat hooks by a demented cannibalistic family, including a character known as Leatherface who maniacally wields one helluva chainsaw. The movie’s powerful sense of dread is heightened by its grainy, semi-documentary style–but it also has a wicked sense of humour (and not that camp, self-referential variety that became so tiresome in subsequent horror films of the 70s, 80s and 90s). OK, in case you couldn’t tell, it’s “not for everyone”, but as a landmark in the development of the horror/slasher genre, it ranks with Psycho, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. –Jim Emerson

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Amazon.co.uk Review
John Woo’s forays into Hollywood cinema have revealed just how childish a lot of his material can feel when it is delivered without the clouding medium of subtitles. In his earlier Hong Kong movies it is possible to allow that the melodramatic, risible and at times confusing dialogue–a disgruntled gangster exclaims “Nobody dares not give me face!” and after being shot about 43 times two of the heroes concede “Yes. We’re not right”–is at least in part due to clumsy translation. However, when added to a complex plot of twin brothers, undercover cops and honourable gangsters in A Better Tomorrow II, it can often be quite difficult to keep track of what is going on, especially if you haven’t seen the original. Restaurant owner Ken (Chow Yun Fat), “secret” twin brother of the dead main character of the first movie, leaves New York and returns to Hong Kong after an old friend’s daughter is murdered. There he re-assembles the group of four heroes from the original movie to exact revenge and bring down a counterfeiting ring. The film loosely addresses Woo’s pet themes of loyalty, betrayal and honour but, as always, any exposition is merely the excuse for a series of violent and over-the-top shoot-outs. Here the action is a long time coming, but delivers much as you would expect–violent, explosive and with a nice line in tongue-in-cheek humour. Yun Fat is cool as ever, with shades and a toothpick, gliding through scores of faceless, blood-splattered henchmen with a gun in each hand. In fact, the final bloodbath is so frenetic that it seems to lack the deliberate and graceful choreography of other Woo classics, such as Hard Boiled and The Killer, but A Better Tomorrow II is typical enough of his work to easily satisfy all but the most unforgiving action fans. –Paul Philpott

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Tremors didn’t actually break any new ground (even though its tunnelling worm monsters certainly did), but it revved up the classic monster-movie formulas of the 1950s with such energetic enthusiasm and humour that it made everything old seem new again. It’s also got a cast full of enjoyable actors who clearly had a lot of fun making the film, and director Ron Underwood strikes just the right balance of comedy and terror as a band of small-town rednecks battles a lot of really nasty-looking giant worms. The special effects are great, the one-liners fly fast and furious between heroes Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward (and yes, that’s country star Reba McEntire packin’ awesome firepower), and it’s all done with the kind of flair one rarely associates with goofy monster flicks like this. –Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Tremors

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