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on 10/23/2012
Interesting. These two films are incredibly realistic for the most part, and I suppose that that realistic sense gave them a bit of...well, raw realism. I'll go with Texas Chainsaw for the time being.
For me, Cannibal Holocaust has a sort of _mystique_ that overshadows the actual film. When I heard or read the title somewhere as a kid, I instantly knew I had to see it, and scoured every seedy VHS place in the area for a copy. No luck. This was before everyone had the internet, so... Anyway, fast forward to when I finally stumbled upon it and saw it, I can't say I was really disappointed--I mean, the unpleasantness is palpable--but I sort of had an entirely different movie "built up" in my mind from all the anticipation. You know, it was just Italian horror. "Important", maybe, but also heavyhanded and kind of accidentally amusing. Imagine what I imagined at my most impressionable age seeing a title like Cannibal Holocaust. I feel like if I had that same experience with Texas (that one was a lot easier to find back then), it would have lived up to what I imagined to a greater extent. It totally nails the weird balance it goes for; glimpses of macabre gothic beauty in something unprecedentedly raw and unglamourized, a total paradox.
on 9/22/2015
Texas Chainsaw Massacre is better.
on 1/1/2016
Cannibal is more graphic and had a better commentary but its real low budget and is saved by decent editing, while TCSM is a legend of a Horror film and a really good riff on 70s serial killers and is a great loss of innocence film plus the characters seem like everyday kids and its shocking for the time and even rather today with no special effects!