The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is credited with creating important elements in the slasher genre and for its unrelenting tension. Starring a cast of relatively unknown actors and clocking in at a short 83 minutes, the movie is considered among the best in the slasher subgenre of horror films. The movie premiered in theaters 50 years ago on October 1, 1974, setting a new bar for just how scary movies could be.
Tobe Hooper, the man behind The Funhouse, Poltergeist, and Toolbox Murders directed and produced the film and co-wrote it with Kim Henkel. Featuring Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface the story follows a group of friends on a road trip who end up in the clutches of a psychotic family of cannibals. Though it was originally marketed as a true story, only some plot details and the inspiration for Leatherface were based on the real life killer Ed Gein.
The film was made for under $300,000 and to save on production costs, filming was done seven days a week for very long hours. The most grueling scene was easily the dinner sequence. It was shot in a span of 27 hours straight with temperatures inside the house reaching over 100 degrees in a room filled with rotting food and dead animals, no air conditioning, ventilation, or electric fans. In the DVD commentary Hansen said that he was so uncomfortable during the scene and frustrated that the fake blood wouldn’t come out of the tube attached to the knife he was using to threaten Burns that he actually cut Burns’ finger to complete the scene. The look of shock and pain on her face during the scene is completely real.
The cast members did not talk to or see Hansen in his Leatherface costume until their death scenes to make their fright more authentic. When the movie was first released it was so horrifying that people walked out on the sneak previews of the film. It was banned in several countries and many theaters stopped showing the film when complaints were made that the movie was too violent.
Are you brave enough to watch it?
