![]() It is not until Sally and Franklin get ambushed by Leatherface in the hard to maneuver, thorny woods does Sally realize the horror that she is up against. The chainsaw wielding Leatherface (Hansen) makes short work of the first three teens, taking them out and chopping them up before Sally even knows what is happened. When Sally Hardesty (Burns) and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Partain) took a road trip with some friends (Vail, Danziger and McMinn) to investigate rumors of their own grandfather’s tomb being robbed, they never expected to become a part of the horror. What started as digging up the recently deceased, smoking thighs and making a mean head cheese quickly turned into a crime of opportunity when fresh meat literally arrived at their front door. What should a group of healthy teenagers have to fear? It is not like psychosis can run in the family, right? Well, when times get tough, craziness comes out, and hey, a family’s got to eat, right? Why not make a little money on the side? Once the Sawyers had lost their jobs at the slaughterhouse, it was only a short step for them to find other means of getting food. Only Hitchcock’s Psycho Norman Bates had come before as a mainstream villain, and he was only one guy. While common in movies today, the idea that a psycho could be living in even the most ordinary of conditions was still a relatively new one in 1974. No one could ever say that these people were not passionate about their project. At one point, when the Hitchhiker has to cut Sally’s finger to feed Grandpa, the blood pump wouldn’t work, so, being the trooper that she is, Marilyn Burns let Edwin Neal actually cut her with a scalpel. The crew was nervous that the local laundry would lose or discolor the actor’s costumes, so with only one outfit per actor, shooting in this hot, humid and rotting environment must have made for an overpowering costume closet. Renting the equipment was also expensive, so the shoots for the film would last 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week for over a month. With the 90-110 degree days and the inability to cool the house down, one could just imagine the smell, making the situation a true life horror. He even sprayed slaughterhouse blood on the walls. Limited by such a small budget, Burns drove around the Round Rock, Texas filming location, looking for dead and rotting cattle to pile onto the abandoned farmhouse floors and build the house’s furniture. With The Texas Chainsaw Massacre art director Robert Burns had his work cut out for him. The ultimate vegetarian film, Texas Chain Saw Massacre reminds viewers that, while meat is murder, murder is also meat. Current news events, such as the atrocities of the Vietnam War, helped to cement in Hooper’s mind the ease at which a human brain can snap out of reality and revert back to reptilian savagery. The many ingredients which went into Hooper’s long pork stew, including the cannibalistic, human hide wearing serial killer Ed Gein, was the gritty and graphic coverage of violence by the San Antonio news stations, the ideas of isolation, darkness in the woods, and the versatility of a chainsaw as a tool to get one through a crowded hardware store. Even after a few more scenes were left on the cutting room floor, the MPAA would only budge to an R rating. ![]() ![]() Instead, the film was originally rated X by the MPAA, banned in Britain and pulled from theatres in Canada. Strangely enough, Hooper actually hoped for a PG rating for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, since the amount of onscreen blood and gore is kept to a minimum. Combining a true story, creative ideas, inventive effects and directorial passion went on to earn not only recognition for Hooper, but also a place in history in our horror-soaked hearts. Partain, Allan Danziger, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Edwin Neal, John Dugan, and Jim Siedow. The cast consisted of Marilyn Burns (who passed away this past August at the age of 65), Gunnar Hansen, Paul A. ![]() A grainy, gritty, dirty movie that found footage filmmakers try desperately to emulate, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was directed by Tobe Hooper, co-written by Hooper and Kim Henkel and filmed on a shoestring budget of less than $60,000. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this month, the first American slasher movie took the horrors of supernatural Universal monsters and turned them into human beings. One of the most influential films ever made, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been sawing its way into movie viewers hearts since 1974. ![]()
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