The home has been a source of horror in the creative imagination since the very origins of the human artistic tradition. From ancient Greek tragedies (Oedipus Rex) to the domestic tragedies of the Renaissance (Hamlet), and the Gothic literature of the Romantic era (Fall Of The House Of Usher), writers of drama and literature alike have located their most horrifying tales within those four walls where we should be the safest. But what is a home without a family to fill it? Following in the Gothic tradition of housebound horror, many more recent creators identify the family itself as the embodiment - or source - of the evils that lurk there.
In the modern era, these cultural fears have distilled into a particular fear of the breakdown or decay of the traditional nuclear family. While some celebrate the evolution of what it means to be a family, traditionalists fight tooth and nail to combat what they perceive as a perversion of the institution of the family itself. Particularized into the tradition of the ‘American Gothic,’ the genre was pioneered in the 20th century by the likes of William Faulkner, Shirley Jackson, and Toni Morrison, American Gothic literature tends to reckon with themes like our country’s violent history, rural or wild landscapes, our culture’s penchant for puritanism and isolationism, and the degeneration of an old way of living. At the center of almost every story is a family serving as the shock absorber of our failings as a society. And while there is no shortage of Gothic film and literature examining the fallout of intra-family conflict, fewer texts present the family unit itself as an agent of profound horror. However, two classic horror films center around families who kill together: THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) and THE STRANGERS (2008).
First, I’d like to point to the similarities between these films. In each, the slasher villains are a trio of killers. While neither trio may truly be a biological nuclear family (mother, father, child), each portrays those archetypes while carrying out their grisly crimes. In THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (TCM), the three killers are listed in the credits as ‘The Hitchhiker,’ ‘Leatherface,’ and the ‘Old Man,’ and - as further research has informed me - are technically brothers within the lore of TCM. While their near-dead Grandfather rots in the attic beside the corpse of his wife, there is no sign of the brothers’ parents. Instead, to fill the parental void, Leatherface and the Old Man embody a perverse ‘mother’ and ‘father,’ respectively, while The Hitchhiker behaves like a rebellious teenager.
In THE STRANGERS, where the killers are known as the ‘Man in the Mask,’ ‘Pin-Up Girl,’ and ‘Dollface,’ the family dynamic between the three is not immediately apparent. However, there are moments of interaction between them that suggest that the Man in the Mask and Pin-Up Girl are mentoring the younger Dollface in murder. She seems reluctant to kill Kristin and James and is the only attacker who speaks to them. Then, as they ride away side-by-side in a single-row pickup truck, Pin-Up Girl tells her, “It’ll be easier next time” (undoubtedly the scariest line in the film besides “Because you were home”).
While THE STRANGERS is best known as a representation of upper-middle-class home invasion paranoia, it is replete with anxieties about family values as well. Just before they are terrorized by the titular killers, Kristin and James have just come home from a failed marriage proposal, which Kristin turned down. In these moments of disturbed domesticity, the couple tries to navigate their relationship, despite Kristin not being “ready” for marriage. But like something out of her commitment-issue nightmare, along comes a mock family to drive the point home. If even these transient murderers can maintain filial bonds, Kristin’s own reluctance - mirrored in Dollface - is rubbed in her face when her relationship is brutally ended (“till death do them part”).
The Strangers’ lack of intimacy is contrasted by the pseudo-incestual ‘Sawyer’ family of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. If THE STRANGERS could be classified as ‘Suburban Gothic,’ then TCM is quintessential ‘Southern Gothic.’ Made destitute by the “humane” technological advances of the nearby slaughterhouse - the only employer in their community (besides the US military) - the Sawyer brothers have essentially been abandoned by civilization, and instead live like wild animals imitating a nuclear family structure. While Leatherface dons an apron and makeup (on his mask-face), the Old Man is a classic disciplinarian, who beats Leatherface when he makes mistakes. Meanwhile, The Hitchhiker taunts and emasculates the Old Man, as if he is trying to assert himself as the ‘man of the house.’
When the kids turn up, they represent a New America colliding with the old, at a time of intense cultural and political upheaval in U.S. - the Vietnam War. As they each go to their doom, they are slaughtered like no more than livestock, meat to satiate the hunger of the family impoverished by a nation moving on without them. Just as their way of living feels outdated, so do the roles they play in the infamous dinner scene. Inverting the classic home invasion horror troupe, the victims are actually the ones who trespass on the Sawyers’ land, only being targeted by them after entering the decrepit house uninvited. Like a twisted play on ‘stand-your-ground,’ Leatherface hunts them all down after they intrude on his preparations for dinner.
While the family is nearly sacrosanct in American culture, our society polices the roles of mothers, fathers, and children with near-constant surveillance and propaganda. However, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and THE STRANGERS show us what can go wrong when we prioritize the nuclear family structure above all else. These tales show us the dark side of familial devotion that comes at the cost of empathy for those outside our own clans. Outsiders are not to be feared - whether you’re a wealthy suburban couple or a poor rural Texan. Instead, we must foster understanding and compassion for the strangers in our lives.
