future shock-franchises as Halloween, The Evil Dead, and The Blair Witch Project”. Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times described the film as being “cheap, grubby and out of control”, and that the film “both defines and entirely supersedes the very notion of the exploitation picture.” In a Total Film poll conducted in 2005, the film was selected as the greatest horror film of all time. Leatherface has gained a reputation as one of the most disturbing and notorious characters in the horror genre, and The Times listed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as one of the 50 most controversial films of all time.
Horror filmmaker and heavy metal singer Rob Zombie sees the film as a major influence, most notably in his film House of 1000 Corpses, released in 2003. Isabel Cristina Pinedo stated, “The horror genre must keep terror and comedy in tension if it is to successfully tread the