The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a breakthru in modern film horror. Not since Psycho has their been a film so gripping and so thrilling. Back in 1973 when writer/director Kim Henkel and director Tobe Hooper came together to do this, they had a vision, a very specific, original vision. And the rest is history.....
Now their vision has become the most horrifying horror film ever made. "It did for meat-eating, what Hitchcock did for shower taking," Marilyn Beck - FROM HOLLYWOOD.
Upon its release into theaters back in 1973, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was something brand new and very unorthodox to film standards of that time. It was very graphic and intense, much more than anything that had come before. And the MPAA could not decide on a rating. At first they wanted to stick with a solid X rating as it was much more intense than any R rated move of its time, but they decided not to go with the X rating as it might create the impression that it was of pornographic nature. So with little choice, they went with the classification of Unrated, which has now 20 years later been given the R rating as films of this time are just as graphic if more than this. Just as it took 30 years to place an R rating on Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho.
Texas Chainsaw has been a something that all horror films which have come after have been compared to. But none of them could surpass it, some have come close but none of them have succeeded. It is afterall a work of art and cannot be duplicated, by anyone. Especially the classic narrative of John Larroquette.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was loosely based on real-life serial murderer Ed Gein, a soft-spoken handyman who also inspired the Norman Bates character in Psycho. Nice guy. Police in Plainfield, Wisconsin, arrested Gein in 1957 after they discovered the dismembered body of a missing woman hanging upside down in a shed behind Gein's house. Officers also found a human heart in a pot on Gein's stove, a dozen human heads, some lampshades and seat covers made from human skin, and a few human death masks hanging in the basement. Gein, you see, was so obsessed with his dead mother (sound familiar?) that he killed two women who resembled her. He robbed the graves of several middle-aged women who reminded him of dear dead Mom as well. Gein was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and shipped off to a mental hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. He was later retried, convicted, and remanded to the same hospital, where he died of respiratory failure in 1984 at the age of 77. If you're a glutton for even more gore, rent the 1974 film, Deranged. This campy horror flick, masquerading as a pseudo-documentary, follows Gein as he robs graves, throws dinner parties with the corpses, and murders and mutilates unsuspecting neighbors.
Like most horror films, Texas Chainsaw was an acquired taste so to speak. You had to have a taste for true horror to actually enjoy this film. This as well as its three sequels, have been real hush hush except for the fans of course. Whenever a sequel would come to theaters, there were the non-fans going and talking shit like, "oh great. not another stupid Chainsaw flick." Well they don't know shit. These film kick ass. And it is us fans that line up, buy the tickets and rush to the front row with our popcorn, dog dogs and large Coke.
In the years that followed the release of Texas Chainsaw in 1974, three sequels came to be.
In August of 1987, Cannon Pictures released Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 which was directed by Tobe Hooper again, returning after directing the first Chainsaw. This was more a satirical spoof than anything but it is still fun to watch. This film brings back the two survivors of the film chainsaw film. Jim Seidow's character of the cook, and Leatherface which was played by a different actor than the original Gunnar Hansen, which out of all the men who have dawned the mask of Leatherface, was the best. And of course there was the narration by the infamous John Larroquette.
In the summer of 1989, New Line Cinema bought the rights to the series and released Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. This film was a much darker more sinister look at the cannibal clan. The only character to survive the events of Texas 2 was Leatherface, the unstoppable beast, as it were. Leatherface somehow managed to crawl his fat retarded ass out of the room just before the explosion. But unfortunately John Larroquette. did not make it out of the room, and now for the third film in the series we do not have the voice of Larroquette. to guide us into this movie. We must settle for a shitty replacement. This movie is good, better than part 2.
In Fall of 1995, Ultra Muchos/ River City Films released for a test running, the next chapter, The Return of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This was later pickup by Sony's Colombia Tri-Star Pictures and is scheduled for a re-release in Fall of 1997 under the title Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. This film is a weird fucking picture which brings back veteran writer Kim Henkel who wrote the original Texas classic. This story is choppy and a little hokey. There is mention aliens, for god sake, aliens. I always thought that they were doing all this food good meat for their barbecue and Leatherface was trying to find a new face to cover the retarded one he has. It was simple now this movie has gone and fucked it all up. Yes in each and every movie, Leatherface has been part of a new family. And in all of them he seems to have a brother in the family he is in. It is a glitch and should not be questioned cause it cannot be fixed.
Go to INTERVIEWS PAGE for interviews with the cast and crew of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, conducted by none other than your devoted webmaster, Me.
MEET THE FAMILY - The Original Cast From the Original TCM
Go here for my RETURN OF THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE page.
Go here for Gunnar Hansen's Personal Home Page or email him at gunnar@acadia.net
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