Chainsaws in popular culture

The common logging and woodwork tool the chainsaw is common sight in popular culture.

In Film

Chainsaws have appeared in countless films being used for their intended purpose, but this rarely if ever is given a prominent role in the plot. More prominent however is portrayals of chainsaws as weapons or torture devices.

Despite chainsaws having been around since the 1930’s, they were not seen used as a weapon in film until the 1970’s, likely due to Hayes Code censorship restrictions on portrayals of graphic violence.

One of the first known films to portray a chainsaw as being used as a weapon was Wes Craven’s 1972 film The Last House on the Left, which would be referred to as “The original Chainsaw Massacre” in ad campaigns during later re-releases.

In 1974 probably the most famous and influential chainsaw use in a film was seen when Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released. The film, loosely based on famous murderer Ed Gein, would etch the chainsaw into the public mind as an object of gruesome terror, even though actual chainsaw to flesh contact was only seen once in the whole movie. It would be followed by a direct sequel two standalone sequels and in 2003 a remake which would receive it’s own prequel. Following it’s release many horror films, especially lower budget ones, began to incorporate chainsaw gore scenes, a trend which continues to the present day.

1984 would bring the next most famous horror film use of the chainsaw with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 (The previous film also contained a chainsaw, but it was ultimately not used for violence). In the films most infamous sequence protagonist Ash Williams attaches a chainsaw to his stump to replace a severed hand (which he had removed with said chainsaw). The chainsaw hand would have appearances in the film’s sequel, various spin offs and would be parodied often.

Due to the high level of gore associated with the chainsaws use as a weapon, appearances as such outside of the horror genre were uncommon. One notable one was in Brian DePalma's 1983 gangster film Scarface. The scene in question depicted a Colombian gangster dismembering another gangster to extract information.

In Television

Due to television’s higher level censorship chainsaw violence is rare and usually only described with both the attack and the damaged body left unseen. An example of this is an episode ("Born Again") of The X Files revolving around the ghost of a police officer dismembered with a chainsaw by corrupt colleagues, all flashbacks skip over the actual murder.

One notable exception is the series Dexter in which chainsaw attacks are occasionally seen, most notably in dreams and flashbacks regarding the protagonist’s mother’s death. This is due to the larger amount of content freedom given to programs created for pay-television, of which the series is one.

Chainsaws have made appearances in cartoon series, usually as a source of comedy. These have ranged from more young adult audience fare (The Simpsons, Family Guy) to even children’s series, for instance the series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy contains a chainsaw wielding character based on Evil Dead’s protagonist Ash.

In Video Games

The first chainsaw appearance in a video game was unsurprisingly the 1982 Texas Chainsaw Massacre Atari game. However this game, with antagonist Leatherface chasing down victims on a highway for points would see low sales and limited exposure due to many stores refusal to sell it, along with fellow horror film adaptation Halloween.

Though chainsaws would be used as weapons in the 1970’s/80’s horror film inspired cult Splatterhouse game series, and used by enemies in some beat-em ups (such as the Robocop arcade game) the next major appearance would not be until the 90’s. In 1993 pioneering first person shooter Doom included a chainsaw as a weapon; giving chainsaws in horror games the same cult position they held in horror cinema. Some of the horror games to use chainsaws would include the Quake series, the Resident Evil series, Dead Rising, the Silent Hill series, Manhunt, Dead Space, and the Evil Dead spin off games.

Largely in reference to Scarface, chainsaws would also appear commonly in organised crime themed video games. These include the Grand Theft Auto Series (starting with the Scarface inspired GTA: Vice City), 50 Cent: Bulletproof, Saints Row 2, and of course the Scarface game.

Though less common, chainsaws (or more specifically fictional chainsaw inspired weapons) have also made appearances in some sci-fi war games such as the Gears of War series and games based on the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.

Some real time strategy games, for instance Warcraft 3 have units which use chainsaws to fell trees thus fulfilling its intended purpose. It should be noted that in these games said units can almost always use those chainsaws as weapons as well and apart from this few video games portray chainsaws in any context other than a weapon.

Object of Comedy

Although the original portrayals of chainsaw violence worked on it’s capacity to inflict gory damage upon a human body or sadistically produce pain, it’s prominence in low budget “b-movies” has since produced a separate image of the chainsaw as a comedic, often campy expression of over the top terror.

This image is often drawn upon in cartoons, comedy series and comedy films. It has appeared occasionally as part of the post-Scream wave of self referential horror, for instance David Arquette’s The Tripper.

One of the most famous stereotypes of comedic chainsaw portrayal is that of the chainsaw wielding lunatic in a hockey mask (seen for example in the Simpson’s episode Cape Feare). Ironically horror cinema’s archetypal hockey mask killer Jason Voorhees has never actually been portrayed wielding a chainsaw in a film, though chainsaws have been used against him in some films.

Relation to reality

Despite their substantial ability to inflict damage on living creatures, real life chainsaw attacks and murders are uncommon. This likely is due to their heavy unwieldy weight, loud noise, risk of user injury and high price compared to other potential close quarters weapons.

One real chainsaw murder is referred to in interviews with Brian DePalma as having been the inspiration for the chainsaw scene in Scarface. The real case, which DePalma apparently saw crime scene photos of whilst researching the film, involved multiple victims and bodies stuffed into metal drums. DePalma described the murder as part of his appeal that Scarface should be passed with a R certificate on the basis that its graphic content was based in reality as screenwriter Oliver Stone had gleamed from months of research with both police officers (some of whom testified in the films defence) and actual drug traffickers.

Due to the devices unwieldiness most actual chainsaw murders are likely performed upon restrained victims.