I mean he was very demanding in the sense that he had a very clear vision of how he wanted to shoot a scene, but great. And I wondered about that because I thought he was really good to work with. "The first time I saw him years later he actually was clearly nervous that I had walked into the room and he sort of backed away. "It's an odd sort of thing," Hansen says of his relationship with the director. "Because I knew what I wanted and I knew how to get it." "By the time I finished the film, I think everyone hated me," Hooper says. (Photo courtesy MPI/Dark Sky Films) Courtesy Hooper wasn't afraid to push his actors. Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper. "My memory of shooting this film is that it was miserable and hot and very hard work," he says with a laugh. And then I had a wool suit and wore wool trousers the whole time." So even though I could breathe through it fine, it was tight up against my skin, so I was always soaking wet under it. For me I think it was also bad because I wore a mask. "And it was Central Texas, which means it was quite humid. "I think it was one side or the other of 100 degrees for almost all of the shooting," Hansen recalls. The question Hansen is most often asked about the making of the film is: "Was it fun?" His stock answer? "Not a bit of it." That the film was shot in Texas in the middle of summer did not help. "With maybe the exception of Deliverance and The Last House on the Left, I cannot see any other movie that has that kind of impact on the viewer." The shoot was excruciating. "Because of Hooper's very realistic tone, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre creates an experience for the viewer that is beyond any other movie-the fact that you absolutely follow the journey of some people into something that is so crude, so violent and brutal, and unflinching," says writer-director Alexandre Aja, whose own horror moviemaking resume includes High Tension, a remake of The Hills Have Eyes, and this month's Horns, starring Daniel Radcliffe. The film's realism is, of course, a major part of its legacy. "People are convinced that it did happen." -Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) "Most people are surprised and don't know whether to believe it or not, but there are some who actually get angry when I say, 'No, it didn't happen.'" "People are absolutely convinced that it did happen," says Gunnar Hansen, who starred as Leatherface and wrote a book in 2013, Chain Saw Confidential, aimed at separating the film's facts from fiction. The film's visceral style, coupled with the (false) conceit that it was based on reality, is yet another reason why people are still talking about the film today. It was coming from a part of my reality." The movie was marketed as a true story. So it was a reflection of my feelings about the political environment, especially here in Austin, where I had a beard and sandals. These things really weren't happening in the '70s, but now they are-and three or four times a day. An example of that is that in the van the news is on the radio a couple of times and the news has these horrible stories on it about things like an office building in Atlanta collapsing. "The film was, to me, a part of what I felt like we were moving into in the future. "I was reacting to life around me, as I knew it," says Hooper of the message behind the movie, which proved somewhat prophetic. Though it's easy to think of the film as a straight-up horror movie, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre also belongs to the New Hollywood movement that was happening during the 1970s, an era when films were being influenced by the pervasive disillusionment resulting from events like Watergate and the Vietnam War. It's a chance for audiences to revisit the political underpinnings that led to the film's creation in the first place. The film is an allegory for the Vietnam War.įor Hooper, the newer, shinier Chainsaw is more than just a piece of moving-picture memorabilia. As the film's special five-disc Blu-ray 40th Anniversary Black Maria Limited Edition made its way into stores via Dark Sky Films, we caught up with Hooper and some of his fellow masters of horror, including Rob Zombie and Alexandre Aja, who revealed some things you might not know about Leatherface and company. In the case of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which originally hit theaters on October 1, 1974, writer-director Tobe Hooper has opted for the latter. While some men make do with a flashy new sports car or girlfriend to ease the transition, others opt to have a little work done. Hitting the big 4-0 is a turning point in any man's life, cannibalistic serial killers included. This story originally published on in 2014 as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre passed its 40th anniversary.
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