Why Was It Banned? - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors in March 1975. BBFC secretary Stephen Murphy had pre-viewed the film and recommended the distributors make a few cuts to the final scene to increase its likelihood of certification. Despite this it was refused a certificate on the grounds that the overall tone and atmosphere of the film was too traumatising with no obvious way to resolve this through cuts since the explicit violence in the film was in fact very minimal and restrained. 

Regarding theatrical film release in the UK it is local councils which maintain legal authority over what films can be shown publicly although in most cases they defer judgment to the BBFC. Greater London Council allowed the film to be shown with an X certificate in 1975 in a version cut by 28 seconds. The distributors then sought local releases across the UK and a small number of UK council areas certified the film. 

When James Ferman took over as BBFC secretary in 1975 he took the same view that the film was too problematic for a general audience labelling it ‘the pornography of terror’ and the film would remain unreleasable under Ferman’s tenure. Numerous attempts were made to make edits to the film for general release but Ferman realised that these made little difference to the overall impact of the film. 

Before the Video Recordings Act of 1984 films could be released on home video formats without a BBFC certificate and in 1981 the film was released by Iver Film Services in a number of formats. There was a 8mm version of the X certificate and multiple VHS releases of both the X certificate and the uncut version. Wizard Video also released an uncut VHS version. After the Video Recordings Act came into force all of these editions were removed from sale and although the film has been wrapped up in the Video Nasty scandal it was never prosecuted for obscenity charges. 

When James Ferman left the BBFC in 1999 a number of the films that were unreleaseable under his premiership were now able to be reconsidered. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre began to play a number of film festivals in London in the late 90s and although they maintained that they film remained unsettling the board concluded it would not be as troubling to modern audiences. The film was passed uncut with an 18 certificate for theatrical and home video release in March 1999.