The document analyzes and compares the film posters of the 2013 version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre versus the 1974 original in three sentences: The 2013 poster uses more graphic imagery of realistic human masks and the tagline "Evil wears many masks" compared to the basic 1974 poster and tagline "Who will survive! And what will be left of them?". It also references the original through the classic Leatherface mask but does not include the word "massacre" in the title. Another poster for the 2003 version emphasizes new characters like "The Tea Lady" over Leatherface to attract audiences and curiosity through unexpected elements.

1. Film Poster Analysis

2. 2013 vs 1974

3. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: 2013
VERSION vs 1974 ORIGINAL
 Contrary to the usual conventions of movie posters, Texas Chainsaw's image(s) overpowers the information such as Production company and Film
distributors, and the only vaguely prominent text is of course the title, but also the tagline and the release date. As a devout TCM movie fan, I have
noticed a variety of purposed differences in a vague attempt to separate this prequel from the numerous remakes and prequels existing. This could
have been for copy right issues, or whether the original director had endured too many remakes to a point of ridicule. The first difference was of course,
the title- Contrasting to the other remakes, whom all share the same title although added further onto it- E.g.- Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning,
etc- The 2013 remake doesn't at all include the word 'massacre' into the movie title. Despite this, fans are still aware that this film will associate with
Leatherface and have a near identical narrative to the previous, simply due to the unique selling point of being located in Texas, and of course a
chainsaw massacre. Regardless of the characters, with having merely 'Texas Chainsaw' as a title, the obvious connotation would be this horror classical
chainsaw wielding killer. On an interesting point, I noticed that this film had eroded the rest of the remakes by only referring to the 1965 original- they
do this by depicting the classic Leatherface mask's on the cover, along with new invented ones. This not only reinforces the idea of a sequel, but also
will appear to TCM fans due to the recognition of the first being evident in the publishing, and even more so visually demonstrating the evolvement of
the movie, as its still continuing its legacy almost five decades later. However, despite the obvious association with the original TCM, the tagline is
entirely different. As the media develops and horror related imagery becomes more realistic, the Texas chainsaw massacre's have gradually became
more graphic, widening audiences expectations. This also relates to the theory that the audience are almost immune to such graphic imagery, thus
being partially attributable to the first Texas chainsaw, which in todays society would be deemed as mild- whereas when it first came out, caused such
a mass anguish to a point of being illegal in various regions. Due to the legal issues, the cover of the original Texas chainsaw massacre was very basic in
aesthetic. Although it is crucial to consider the lack of photo editing skills as such, the 2013 poster can already be perceived as rather graphic, and
even the tagline "Evil wears many masks" is more horror related in comparison to the originals B-movie mode of address "Who will survive! And what will
be left of them?" Accompanied with cartoonesque illustrations of Leatherface and his signature weapon. The 'faces' of Leatherface have changed
throughout the decades, prior to audience immunity to graphic violence, Leatherface 'masks' are rather comic and certainly don't appear realistically
human, whereas the masks on the 2013 version are increasingly evil as well as horrifically realistic, especially when they're constructed to appear a
skinned version of one of the cast's face.
 On a critical note, the 2013 poster portrays a variety of human masks on three platform, although to fully establish the expansion of this character and
the changes from 1974 to 2013 would have been to construct the masks in a chronological order, using the three shelves to their advantage. The fact
the marks are relatively new and unrecognised to the usual fan, doesn't give the movie the full justice. Although I must admit, this movie is utter horse
shit. The Texas humidity and filthiness of the house is a theme carried throughout the films, although it wasn't as evitable in the first, probable to the poor
quality of filming able to detect it, and is certainly carried out on the 2013 poster where these masks are situated next to a variety of human taxidermy
and organs as such, as well as obscure medical equipment and rather beaten down ancient mahogany shelves- of course, enabling the audience to
detect the horror genre.

4. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: 2003
DESCENDANTS OF THE VILLAIN THE VICTIMS

5. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: 2003
Interestingly, when analysing covers for yet again another remake of the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre’s release poster, I noticed that they had produced multiple versions all depicting one
singular character, or aspect of the film such as the sewing machine that Leatherface uses to
create his masks. The most plausible reason for this is to emphasise the fact that Leatherface isn’t
the most significant character and to perhaps avoid re-using the same conventions of the previous
re-makes and sequels. When taking into consideration the excessive following and reputation this
film has, and the fact Leatherface is the most prominent association, displaying posters with
additional cast members outstands the audiences expectations and even to a certain extent,
produces excitement for the release as new characters such as ‘The Tea Lady’ whom when
placed in the strange context of this movie, appears quite scary in her appearance and title, even
more so the fact her character wasn’t apparent in the original nor any remakes following.
Noticeably these posters share the same convention in that they both claim this movie was based
on a ‘true story’, which I hasten to add that this statement is entire fabrication as these films did not
portray any relevance to the event that occurred involving Ed Gein, although the producers are
aware that by asserting this they will attract a wider audience out of sheer curiosity, or at least
research further into the ‘true’ story therefore encouraging audience engagement. The use of
producing multiple posters, dedicated to each individual character is a convention I may follow
for the production of my film’s poster.