Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre takes an interesting approach to the idea of female empowerment. When looked at through a feminist lens the film has many of the features that we associate with a classic female empowerment horror story. It not only features the final girls but we also see a gender confused killer that takes the form of the films central antagonist Leather face. When we first see this villain he appears wearing the face of what we can only presume was one of his former male victims. Later he reappears wearing the face of a female victim. By choosing to depict the killer in this manner the film makers are able to project both masculine and feminine traits on to our masked killer making him a perfect representation of the gender confused antagonist. While the depiction of the films "monster" seems to closely follow the guidelines for a horror story of female empowerment the film takes a detour from standard conventions with its depiction of the female leads triumphant moment. While most horror films of this kind show females gaining power through their use of phallic shaped weapons The Texas Chainsaw Massacre strays from this convention. Instead, the film shows our lead escape by means of a mere coincidence in which one of her tormentors is killed by a passing semi-truck allowing her the opportunity to escape. By rejecting the common genre trope of the shift in power the Texas Chainsaw Massacre avoids the idea of female empowerment through physical retribution. We see that our heroine is not able to gain retribution for her murdered friends yet her endurance of the physical and mental torment forced on her by her captors allows her to survive. While she may not have avenged her friends her escape causes tremendous strain for her tormentors as can be seen in the chainsaw rampage that Leather face partakes in at the end of the film implies that Sally was the victor even if she achieve it by unconventional means.