Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick

I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at the title—*Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick* sounds like a midnight movie gimmick. But within 20 minutes, Harris had me convinced this wasn’t just clever branding; it was the only way to frame how *Texas Chain Saw* clawed into the American psyche. The book’s strongest sections dissect the film’s sound design (that godawful dinner scene) as a metaphor for Nixon’s tapes, and Bradshaw’s narration *leaning into* the audiobook’s own sonic textures—pauses, whispers, sudden volume spikes—makes the comparison visceral. It’s not just analysis; it’s an immersion. That said, the audiobook stumbles slightly in its latter half, where Harris’s eagerness to tie *every* ‘70s horror trope to Watergate starts to feel like a stretch (does *The Exorcist* *really* need a cameos here?). And while Bradshaw’s performance is largely stellar, his attempts at Southern accents for Hooper quotes occasionally veer into caricature. Still, the production shines elsewhere: the use of archival audio clips (Nixon’s resignation speech bleeding into chainsaw revs) is inspired, and the pacing keeps what could’ve been a dense academic text feeling like a feverish rant from your most paranoid film-buff friend. If you’ve ever suspected horror movies are secret histories, this is your Rosetta Stone—flaws and all.