The Black Phone (2021) is set in 1978, in a Denver suburb. Robin, Finney’s toughest friend, tells him he has been to the drive-in with his uncle and seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and it’s the best movie ever. He gives Finney a hard time for not having seen it. Finney says he will, maybe when they come on TV. Later Finney is home watching The Tingler, a 1959 William Castle movie, on television.
Chain Saw came out in 1974 and was still circulating on the cult and drive-in circuit, so a kid with an uncle willing to take him could have seen it. Finney could not. The line is period texture, and it is also a character beat: Robin has already been let into the adult, R-rated world, and Finney is still stuck with old syndicated horror.
Director Scott Derrickson has also talked about the film as shaped by ’70s horror, and Chain Saw is the title the script uses to put that on screen.
