‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Added to National Film Registry

Every year, the Library of Congress adds 25 movies to the “National Film Registry.” The titles are chosen for their “cultural, historic, or aesthetic importance” to the country, and are then preserved by the Library for posterity.

2024’s eclectic batch of titles — some of which were suggested by average American citizens — includes Cheech and Chong’s famous stoner comedy Up in Smoke, the iconic Star Trek sequel Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the original Beverly Hills Cop, the timeless classic Dirty Dancing, the kids action movie Spy Kids, the Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men, the Facebook biopic The Social Network, and one of the first and most important slasher films ever, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

The 1974 independent horror film, which launched a franchise that continues to this day and helped inspire the entire slasher genre, will be preserved forever in all its gory glory by the Library of Congress.

READ MORE: The 2023 Inductees Into the National Film Registry

Here is the full list of 2024 inductees into the National Film Registry:

• Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895)
• KoKo’s Earth Control (1928)
• Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
• Pride of the Yankees (1942)
• Invaders from Mars (1953)
• The Miracle Worker (1962)
• The Chelsea Girls (1966)
• Ganja and Hess (1973)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
• Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
• Zora Lathan Student Films (1975-76)
• Up in Smoke (1978)
• Will (1981)
• Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982)
• Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
• Dirty Dancing (1987)
• Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)
• Powwow Highway (1989)
• My Own Private Idaho (1991)
• American Me (1992)
• Mi Familia (1995)
• Compensation (1999)
• Spy Kids (2001)
• No Country for Old Men (2007)
• The Social Network (2010)

What a fun and wide-ranging list. And it is somehow reassuring that the movie where Leatherface first chopped a person to bits is now enshrined in the hallowed halls of the Library of Congress. It just feels right.

If you would like to suggest a title to be added to the National Film Registry in 2025, you can do so at the Library of Congress’ website. (Go tell them that Gymkata needs to be preserved for all of eternity.)