My Heart Is a Chainsaw

As Jade’s investigation of the recent deaths converges with Letha’s path, Jones draws attention to the question of appearances. Appearances are deceiving, with beauty or status covering up monstrosity and necessitating that people read between the lines. The novel parallels the slasher movie tropes of masks and reveals the ways that both Jade and the Founders seek to cover up dark secrets in their own lives.

Hidden or deceptive appearances are a central concern of these chapters. The “Slasher 101” interludes discuss the use of masks and gloves in slasher fiction. Jade describes the use of gloves in Italian giallo films, a prototype to the masks seen in 1980s slasher films, arguing, “because everything is limited to what those killer eyes can see, black gloves are all the disguise that’s needed to keep an identity hidden as setup for the Reveal” (158). The notion of disguise is then metaphorically employed in the realities of social class and ideal family structure. When Sheriff Hardy records his past interaction with the recently deceased Deacon Samuels, he admits that he did not arrest him for the flagrantly dangerous practice of golfing with flaming golf balls and gasoline because of its aesthetic appeal. He tells his assistant, “I couldn’t ticket him up for something that beautiful, Meg. Or for burying treasure like a whole bucket of Dixon Fires out there either—oh shit, just hearing that, a Dixon Fire is on fire” (150). The pun on Dixon Fire brand golf balls and the literal fire that Deacon Samuels was using draws attention to how the beauty of fire distracts from its obvious danger to the community: creating a risk for forest fires. Jade also worries about the allure of wealth and beauty that allows the inhabitants of Terra Nova to subvert consequences. When Letha calls her after receiving her letter, Jade notices that she feels incongruously happy: “[S]he tells the Mr. Holmes in her head that she’s not falling in love with Terra Nova, sir, don’t worry. Not all of it, anyway” (156). The beauty of wealth and privilege serves as a form of disguise in these passages, concealing danger.

When Letha stages an intervention, parenthood also functions as a mask. Letha’s insistence that she had to “read between the lines” to understand that Jade’s letter implied that she had survived childhood sexual abuse by her father indicates the need to look carefully to find the truth. Letha tells Jade, ”Parents are good, parents are shining and right, they’re the gods of our world, so whatever they do can never be wrong. It must be your feelings that are wrong. […] Some of them are more, though. Some of them are monsters” (176), referencing the masks worn by slasher villains. Like the beautiful wealth of the Terra Novans that Mr. Holmes has previously compared to the ancient Greek Gods, parenthood instills a godly status that can hide the grim truth. Jade’s mother failed in her effort at Maternal Protectiveness the night she left and didn’t pursue Tab’s rape of his daughter, and while Letha tries to step into a protective role when she stages the intervention for Jade, Jade’s real mother fails again by not providing clear evidence or speaking with Jade herself.

Jade rationalizes that she needs to disrupt the deception caused by wealth, beauty, and familial status to protect Letha, wondering “wouldn’t it be even crueler to let Letha just keep bouncing through her skippy-drippy unicorn daydream of a perfect world, not to tell her about the shadow creeping in behind her?” (162). For Jade, paying attention to “ugliness” is a form of self-defense, suggesting one of her motivations for loving the horror genre. By acknowledging the most terrifying aspects of the world, Jade feels a sense of control over her own life. Jade’s paranoia proves justified when Letha reveals incongruous evidence pertaining to the supposed bear attack that killed Deacon Samuels. While the authorities found a bear track at the scene of the crime, Letha admits that “somebody pinched the candle out” (155), suggesting that the bear track was either staged or coincidental. Throughout the novel, Jade’s ability to look past the initial appearance of evidence and to question the motivations of others helps to protect her.

However, these chapters hint that Jade’s obsessive focus on masks and disguises might cause her to miss an obvious truth. When she writes about the subject of reveals in “Slasher 101,” she writes about how mystery slasher movies like Scream always allow the killer to monologue about how and why they committed their crimes. Yet, Jade indicates that this is not the case for supernatural killers: “Nightmare has Freddy giving his lecture through the whole franchise with quips, because while Tina does pull his face off, showing his animatronic skull, Freddy’s really only more himself without it, which isn’t really a Reveal, just a magnification” (194). This foreshadows the ending of My Heart Is a Chainsaw, where Stacey Graves herself is the killer, not a masked impersonator. The murders she commits are not disguised, only misinterpreted by Jade and the local community. The lack of reveal regarding the scarred child predator Freddy, whom Jade has already compared to Tab Daniels, mirrors the absence of a twist regarding his role in Jade’s past. Letha has interpreted Jade’s letter correctly, spotting the signs that Jade is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and Jade later admits that this is true. The subverted expectations of a shocking reveal suggest that Jade’s slasher film genre awareness ironically serves as a mask as well to expose the truth, which will lead to the search for Justice Versus Revenge.