12 Movies to Watch if You Like ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’

With a new sequel out on Netflix, we gift you with a hand-picked list of movies you'll like if you're a fan of the gory franchise.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Cabin Fever (2002)

I’m sure you’re not at all surprised that director Eli Roth — a.k.a. the modern master of gore himself — made it onto this list. And while all of Roth’s movies serve as a more than suitable recommendation for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre enthusiast, from the unabashed torture-fest that is Hostel (2005) to the delightfully disgusting cannibal-party of The Green Inferno (2013), in my humble opinion, Cabin Fever is the one that deserves a special spot on here.

Roth’s impressive directorial debut follows a group of kids who spring break in a cabin deep in the woods — again, usually not a recipe for success in horror movies. While there, a deadly flesh-eating disease spreads among them and, of course, Roth doesn’t spare us images of rotting skin, or sounds of slippery blood and infected pus. Although Cabin Fever ultimately yielded mixed reviews, I truly believe it’s one of the greatest gross-out horror movies of all time, boasting the perfect mix of teen stupidity, fantastic gore, and an effective portrayal of the horror of being stranded in the middle of the woods.

Available on Sling, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, and Sling TV.


The Furies (2019)

If you’re a sucker for the survival-game-themed horror flick, then The Furies will be right up your alley. The feature directorial debut of Tony D’Aquino follows a woman who wakes up one morning to find that she has been kidnapped and unwillingly entered into a game where women are hunted by men for sport. The movie is a fun commentary on the objectification of women in slasher films, drawing out the genre’s power structures as clearly as possible. It also has a lot of awesome gore, including a classic head-split moment and a razor to the face. As a bonus, the predators wear grotesque, lumpy masks, which were more than likely inspired by none other than Leatherface himself.

Available on YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime Video.


Wolf Creek (2005)

When it comes to rural areas, you can’t possibly get more terrifying than the Australian Outback — it’s a treacherous desert filled with scorpions, snakes, a scorching sun that has taken the lives of even the most prepared of adventurers, and, of course, the occasional serial killer. Oh, and this breeding ground for scary things also accounts for over 70 percent of the giant country of Australia. So when, in Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek, three inexperienced backpackers venture into the heart of the Outback, it’s hard not to have your mind spin with the possibilities of all of the awful things that could go wrong.

Loosely based on real backpacker murders, the movie follows a trio whose car breaks down in the middle of the Outback. An eccentric local named Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) comes to the group’s rescue — or so they think. Unsurprisingly, Mick’s intentions aren’t all that pure, and he ends up imprisoning and torturing the travelers one by one. What’s so chilling about Wolf Creek is that it asks which is ultimately more terrifying, being hunted by a sadistic killer or being stranded in the Outback? This exploration of the horrors of the rural landscape can certainly be related back to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, as can the movie’s epically sadistic cat-and-mouse-style chase scenes.

Available on Amazon Prime Video.


The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

In 2008, Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers hit theaters and became one of the most beloved home-invasion horror movies of all time. Ten years later, Johannes Roberts came out with a sequel called The Strangers: Prey at Night. Both are slow-burn depictions of a family being preyed upon by sadistic masked killers, and, while the original is an undoubted cult classic, the sequel features more gore, more chases, and overall more scenes that are bound to get your blood pumping.

The Strangers: Prey at Night grossed a whopping $32.1 million worldwide against a $5 million budget. And while it doesn’t necessarily diverge from the standards and expectations of the home-invasion movie — jump-scares galore, a girl running down the road covered in blood, to name a few — there’s no denying that it’s a heck of a good time.

Available on Netflix, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, Vudu, and Amazon Prime Video.


Hatchet (2006)

In my humble opinion, the swamp is a criminally underutilized venue in horror films. Luckily, we have Adam Green’s Hatchet, a movie that really capitalizes on the potential terrors of the environment. It follows a group of people who travel to New Orleans and attend a haunted swamp tour. Unfortunately for them, when they accidentally get stranded in the bayou, they are met with the vengeance of a man-creature hybrid who kills any and everything that enters his territory (so… kind of like an evil version of Shrek).

From that point on, they are at odds with the dark, sludging swamp, as well as a deformed killer whose ugly mug puts even Leatherface to shame. Hatchet strikes a perfect balance between harrowing and funny. And while it didn’t exactly break the box office, it did garner enough positive reactions to earn not one, not two, but three sequels: Hatchet II (2010), Hatchet III (2013), and Victor Crowley (2017).

Available on Tubi, Vudu, and Amazon Prime Video.


Straw Dogs (1971)

Last but not least, we have one of the most famous — and most controversial — home invasion-adjacent films of all time. Directed by Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch), Straw Dogs is an adaptation of Gordon M. Williams’s 1969 novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm. It follows David (Dustin Hoffman) and Amy (Susan George), a young newly married couple who move to Amy’s hometown of Cornwall and are not taken to kindly by the locals. The village men taunt the couple in increasingly terrifying ways, culminating in a notoriously bloody and violent third act.

Straw Dogs was met with a mix of reactions. Some critics applauded the movie’s performances as well as what they perceived to be a critique on misogyny, while others criticized it for its gratuitous violence. For better or worse, Rod Lurie remade it in 2011 with James Marsden and Kate Bosworth in the lead roles.

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Aurora Amidon: Aurora Amidon spends her days running the Great Expectations column and trying to convince people that Hostel II is one of the best movies of all time. Read her mostly embarrassing tweets here: @aurora_amidon.