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Article from Whakapai, one of the volunteers form the Star and Shadow Cinema

Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Ahhh! Texas, the lone star state. Famous for ten gallon hats, oil barons, the Bush family and the triangulated head shot. Outside of Alaska, Texas is also the biggest state in the us with its miles and miles of highway that are sparsely populated leading to the legend of the psycho ready to pluck you of the road and have their nasty way with you.

Actually some of these Texas sicko types have been from Texas but no more than any other state in the US although they do churn out mass murderers in that peace loving corner of the planet. Austin Texas was also the birth place of the college professor and documentary cameraman Tobe Hooper.

While standing in the crowded section of a hardware store thinking of a way to get through the crowds he spotted chainsaws for sale and he got an idea for a film. Things could have been so different and this college professor could have gained similar notoriety to that of Henry Lee Lucas, John Wayne Gacy or our very own Fred West. Lucky for those folk in the crowded store Mr. Hooper became notorious for the film he made instead.

The Making

In 1973 on a small budget and a mainly local cast of college professors and students he began shooting the script written by Kim Henkel and himself for one of the most influential slasher flicks of all time, ‘Headcheese’. The filming lasted for more than a gruelling 4 weeks in the blistering heat of a Texas Summer. Because of the low budget, the crew filmed every day of the shoot, doing 12 to 16 hour days.

Icelandic/American actor Gunner Hanson, who plays the crazed and confused Leatherface had to wear the same costume and mask throughout shooting which was never washed for fear that the costume may be damaged. Over and above the smell of an un-bathed Leatherface, there was the formaldehyde, animal corpses all under heavy lighting during long days.

The set design by Art Director Robert A Burns is almost beautiful with its furniture of bones and stretched skin. These were collected by Burns as he drove around the countryside trawling for cattle bones and other animals in various stages of decomposition.

Banned

The film which on release became ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ has had a controversial history. Despite there being no nudity, no sex and hardly any blood the film has been banned in various countries including the UK, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Singapore, West Germany, Brazil and still remains banned in some countries today.

The funny thing is that when Tobe Hooper put the film forward for certification he was looking for a PG certificate. The excuse for this was its graphic depiction of violence. Despite this, the film has been quoted as being influential by many directors including John Carpenter for ‘Halloween’ and Ridley Scott for ‘Alien’.

Critical Acclaim

The film also has a 90% rating on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ and holds a permanent place in the New York Museum of Modern Art. Things to look out for in this masterpiece, the uneasy opening in the graveyard with the camera flashes of bones, accompanied by spine tingling sounds of scraping and screeching. The frantic hitchhiker picked up by the young teenager who has a taste for head cheese, the scrapings from inside cattle skulls. Leatherface’s states of frantic confusion as young teenagers keep popping up in his house it is almost bemusing to see his distress as he offs one teenager another appears.

Whakapai