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"Aaah! Chainsaw! The great communicator!"
The Doom Guy, Doom Comic

"Chainsaws historically have now probably been used more often against zombies in games than against wood in real life."
Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, Zero Punctuation, on Left 4 Dead 2

Basically, chainsaws are good. Good here having the meaning of "totally unstoppable weapons of mass destruction." Nothing can stand before their roaring, multi-toothed might; only death awaits any who challenge a chainsaw-wielding maniac.

A favorite tool of horror villains and zombie hunters alike. The reason for its coolness lies in its drawbacks. It is very dangerous, it weighs quite a bit, makes a lot of noise, and will tear through anything it touches even if it's the person wielding it. Oh, and the angular momentum of the spinning chain makes it a bit unpredictable, too.

A common way of playing with this trope is to make a chainsaw part of a Swiss Army Weapon.

See also Vibroweapon, Rule Of Cool, Awesome But Impractical. Compare An Axe To Grind and Sinister Scythe, where other gardening/logging implements are used as weapons.

While the trope name refers to chainsaws, it has mutated to include the use of circular saws as well.

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