„I can't imagine why anyone would want to make a movie like this, and yet it's well-made, well-acted, and all too effective. […] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre belongs in a select company […] of films that are really a lot better than the genre requires. Not, however, that you'd necessarily enjoy seeing it.“ – Rezension in der Chicago Sun-Times vom 1. Januar 1974, abgerufen am 14. Dezember 2011.