Here's a video of William Friedkin (Exorcist director) with Tobe Hooper (TCM director).
They discuss the TCM before it gets a screening of the 40th anniversary edition. Lots of interesting facts behind the making of the movie for anyone interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZmvtErqAv8
Dirk Diggler
2025-04-03 13:56:22 +0000 UTC
damn.. he was definitely a weird guy. Whenever I see anything farm related I think of Robert Pickton
Alexandra Wells
2025-03-27 20:40:55 +0000 UTC
This wasn't based on a true story per say. However, Leatherface was loosely based on real life psycho the infamous "Butcher of Plainfield,"Ed Gein. He was a weird guy that robbed graves of body parts and made things out of them, a leatherface mask for example. He did kill a woman and was declared insane after they caught him. Ed Gein was also the inspiration for Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs.
Dirk Diggler
2025-03-26 22:42:53 +0000 UTC
OU i'll have to check these out. I don't eat meat because I love cows and pigs and I can't separate in my mind and now if I try to eat it my stomach cannnnot handle. I've given up chicken and turkey since farm sitting, i bonded with a chicken that kept running to me every time I come outside so that sealed the deal haha.
Slaughterhouses being a base layer for the movie already made it uncomfortable, then every other layer made me squirm but I loved it. interesting how that can be haha
Alexandra Wells
2025-03-24 13:19:33 +0000 UTC
Oh nice! I saw your post on Letterboxd, but didn't expect a reaction so quickly. Your expressions are the best. 😆 That's what make reactions worth watching, and you give the most genuine I've seen.
One of the absolute best films ever made. I rented it as a kid and remember just sitting in silence afterwards. As someone who adores cows, doesn't eat them and has several as pets, it's an even more grueling watch. The deeply unsettling sound design is mostly made up of sounds poor animals hear in such places. I read this quote from an interview with Tobe Hooper which stuck with me:
"I had an experience in a restaurant one time where there was a large trolley with beef being carved up, and I just transposed different images onto it. Like, what if there was a nice little cow there with a bowtie and a knife carving up humans. I was a vegetarian for a couple of years after that. And I guess on the drive from Austin to Dallas on the weekends, I’d pass this slaughterhouse. It’s the same slaughterhouse that’s in the movie, actually. It always disturbed me."
Hooper has a certain trademark insanity that is present in most of his work. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre IS that insanity in it's most potent chaotic form. The art director was Robert Burns. He's responsible for every nasty thing you see in the house. He went on to direct his own film, Mongrel, which does borrow a bit of that Hooper madness. He also starred in Confessions of a Serial Killer, an underrated take on the Henry Lee Lucas case. Interesting career.
Big rigs like the one at the end (which is hauling a cattle trailer 😞) wouldn't start up again right away after stopping like that, which is why they get out and run.
Perhaps the only thing more grueling than the film itself was the shoot. I listened to a commentary way back, and Gunnar Hansen hated the guy who played Franklin. 🤣 It was fun hearing the stories. Which reminds me - if you want to see Hansen picking up a chainsaw again in lighter fare, check out the schlocky creature feature, Mosquito. That movie was a staple of my video store youth.
Truth Hound
2025-03-24 11:42:50 +0000 UTC
I hatedddd when he was twitching, I figured the whole slaughterhouse talk would be foreshadowing especially when the hitchhiker/brother said they still use the sledgehammer the "good ol way" - also yeah leatherface was SPRINTING
Alexandra Wells
2025-03-23 17:30:09 +0000 UTC
A perfect example of the macabre is that room Pam tripped and fell in (filled with bones and furniture made with bones) or even Leatherface's mask made out of someone else's face. Did you pick up on the foreshadowing conversation in the van? Franklin talking about the slaughterhouse and needing to hit more times and then the first victim has the twitching spasms and needs to be hit again. And Sally's chase scene is wild, it's like 6 minutes. Leatherface doesn't look like he's in good shape but he can run marathons.💪😅And legend has it that the big rig driver in the yellow shirt is still running away to this day.🏃
Dirk Diggler
2025-03-23 10:56:53 +0000 UTC
The family laughing at Sally screaming is one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve watched so far
Alexandra Wells
2025-03-23 02:40:58 +0000 UTC
Leatherface was provoked. 3 of them trespassed by entering his house uninvited. And then when it's bedtime and he's trying to get some sleep Sally and Franklin make a big racket honking the horn and screaming Jerry!🤣 of course we didn't tell you it's a family. That would be a spoiler.😁
Dirk Diggler
2025-03-23 02:39:44 +0000 UTC
😂😂😂😂 I do
Alexandra Wells
2025-03-23 01:38:04 +0000 UTC
I love how it was shot, still thinking about it haha
Alexandra Wells
2025-03-23 01:37:46 +0000 UTC
Leatherface's chainsaw dance in the sunset is poetry in motion! I like that you fight off invisible flies when something's particularly gruesome. Gonna look for that as a tell in the future, lol.
Apetass
2025-03-23 01:37:18 +0000 UTC
Might be my favorite horror film.... So EXCITED!!!
The amount of innovation in this film cannot be overstated.