Sound: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Sound: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Opening)

(0:00 - 1:13)

• The use of Silence throughout adds to the seriousness of the film and the corruption within it. Soon a voice over is added, which reads out the paragraph that is shown on the screen. 
• By using a very monotonous voice this too adds to the seriousness of the issue that the film studies closely.

Diegetic (1:13- onwards)

• The use of diegetic sound is the first things that we are able to hear, we can hear the digging of soil, groans, pants and grunts possibly highlighting that the activity is quite strenuous. 
• We can also obtain that this was a one person job as there is no conversation or other characters heard whilst the digging in ongoing. As the diegetic and non diegetic sound is developed together, the diegetic sound becomes a lot more prominent as we are able to hear the sharpening of knives, and the sound of flesh being cut. 
• However, the sound of flesh within horror movies is over exaggerated and could merely be a recording of someone in a recording studio dropping raw meat onto the floor. 

Non-Diegetic:

• In combination with the diegetic sound the no diegetic sound begins roughly 10 seconds into the diegetic sound.We can hear a dissonant/chromatic sound.
•  Theres a sharp outburst of a scraping sound that could have been imitated by an electric guitar pressing a plectrum against one of the strings very quickly to give off a sharp and brutal sound. 
• The use of the scarping sound can be significant to the use of the chainsaw within the film as well as it also resembling the sound of someone scraping two knives against each other. 
• In combination with this technique, glissandi is also used - the technique of sliding from one note to another therefore producing a droned sound. As the chainsaw like imitation is heard the corpse is shown briefly and the outbursts of sound matches the outburst of image that we can see. It also matches the duration of the clip we are shown as well as the duration that the lighting lasts for. 
•  The texture of the opening from 1:13 is homophonic therefore there's only really one melody, however in this circumstance there is no absolute melody. The foundation in which the chainsaw effect is used creates a whirring sound, this could have been created by percussion instruments using beaters to follow the shape of the drum creating a hollow sound creating an ambiguous tone. 
• Additionally there is no set key providing a freedom within the sound and is therefore flexible and created a tense atmosphere.
• We are then able to hear a news report being played from a TV or radio and this is used as a sound bridge from the shots in the work room to the outcome of what we are made to believe the antagonist was working on. 
• We are then soon shown the corpse and we are still able to hear the news report, whirring of the chainsaw (electric guitars) and the clash of the cymbals. 
• The clash of the cymbals are played off the beat along side a cow bell, due to this we can feel the corruption that the storyline may hold. 

-Credits

• When the credits begin the news report is still ongoing however the electric guitars and percussion become a lot more prominent and overpowering. 
• There is an increase in bass instruments, perhaps the double bass and this adds to the tension however it's played very unsteadily adding to the flexibility of the piece. 
• Finally, we are then able to hear a sustained note played by the guitar and this is actually the only note that is sustained since the sound was added in, but the note is made to sound weary and hesitant by using a lot of vibrato. Soon the sound becomes so overpowering that the sound of the news report is drowned out.

The use of electric instruments was manipulated to imitate the sounds of machines such as a chainsaw or screams. This provides viewers with context before the film has actually begun. Furthermore, within horrors the sound used is always exaggerated to scare the audience although when watching the film we are unaware of how exaggerated they are as it's what we expect from a horror.