The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 1974 American independent horror film produced, co-composed, and directed by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hansen. The plot follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead. The film was marketed as being based on true events to attract a wider audience and to act as a subtle commentary on the era's political climate. Although the character of Leatherface and minor story details were inspired by the crimes of murderer Ed Gein, its plot is largely fictional.
Hooper produced the film for less than $140,000 and used a cast of relatively unknown actors drawn mainly from central Texas, where the film was shot. Due to the film's violent content, Hooper struggled to find a distributor, but it was eventually acquired by the Bryanston Distributing Company. Hooper limited the quantity of onscreen gore in hopes of securing a PG rating, but the Motion Picture Association of America rated it R. The film faced similar difficulties internationally, being banned in several countries, and numerous theaters stopped showing the film in response to complaints about its violence.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was released in the United States on October 11, 1974. While the film initially received mixed reception from critics, it was highly profitable, grossing over $30 million at the domestic box office, equivalent with roughly over $150.8 million as of 2019, selling over 16.5 million tickets in 1974. It has since become widely regarded as one of the best and most influential horror films. It is credited with originating several elements common in the slasher genre, including the use of power tools as murder weapons, the characterization of the killer as a large, hulking, masked figure, and the final girl. It led to a franchise that continued the story of Leatherface and his family through sequels, prequels, a remake, comic books, and video games. In 2024, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In the early hours of August 18, 1973, a grave robber steals several corpses from a cemetery near Newt, Muerto County, Texas. The robber ties a rotting corpse and other body parts onto a monument, creating a grisly display that is discovered by a local resident as the sun rises.Driving in a van, five teenagers take a road trip through the area: Sally Hardesty, Jerry, Pam, Kirk, and Sally's paraplegic brother Franklin. They stop at the cemetery to check on the grave of Sally and Franklin's grandfather, which appears undisturbed. As the group drives past a slaughterhouse, Franklin recounts the Hardesty family's history with animal slaughter. They soon pick up a hitchhiker, who talks about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse. He borrows Franklin's pocket knife and cuts himself, then takes a single Polaroid picture of the group, for which he demands money. When they refuse to pay, he burns the photo and attacks Franklin with a straight razor. The group forces him out of the van, where he smears blood on the side as they drive off. Low on gas, the group stops at a gas station but its proprietor says that fuel is unavailable. The group explores a nearby abandoned house, owned by the Hardesty family.
Kirk and Pam leave the others behind, planning to visit a nearby swimming hole mentioned by Franklin. On their way there, they discover another house, surrounded by run-down cars, and run by gas-powered generators. Hoping to barter for gas, Kirk enters the house through the unlocked door, while Pam waits outside. As he searches the house, a large man wearing a mask made of skin appears and murders Kirk with a hammer. When Pam enters the house, she stumbles into a room strewn with decaying remains and furniture made from human and animal bones. She attempts to flee but is caught by the man and impaled on a meat hook. The man then starts up a chainsaw, dismembering Kirk as Pam watches. In the evening, Jerry searches for Pam and Kirk. When he enters the other house, he finds Pam's nearly-dead, spasming body in a chest freezer and is killed by the masked man.
With darkness falling, Sally and Franklin set out to find their friends. En route, the masked man ambushes them, killing Franklin with the chainsaw. The man chases Sally into the house, where she finds a very old, seemingly dead man and a woman's rotting corpse. She escapes from the man by jumping through a second-floor window, and she flees to the gas station. With the man in pursuit, Sally arrives at the gas station when he seems to disappear. The station's proprietor comforts Sally with the offer of help, after which he beats and subdues her, loading her into his pickup truck. The proprietor drives to the other house, and the hitchhiker appears. The proprietor scolds him for his actions at the cemetery, identifying the hitchhiker as the grave robber. As they enter the house, the masked man reappears, dressed in women's clothing. The proprietor identifies the masked man and the hitchhiker as brothers, and the hitchhiker refers to the masked man as "Leatherface". The two brothers bring the old man—"Grandpa"—down the stairs and cut Sally's finger so that Grandpa can suck her blood, Sally then faints from the ordeal.
The next morning, Sally regains consciousness. The men taunt her and bicker with each other, resolving to kill her with a hammer. They try to include Grandpa in the activity, but Grandpa is too weak. Sally breaks free and runs onto a road in front of the house, pursued by the brothers. An oncoming truck accidentally runs over the hitchhiker, killing him. The truck driver attacks Leatherface with a large wrench, causing him to fall and injure his leg with the chainsaw. The truck driver flees while Sally, covered in blood, flags down a passing pickup truck and climbs into the bed, narrowly escaping Leatherface. As the pickup drives away, Sally laughs hysterically while an enraged Leatherface swings his chainsaw in the road as the sun rises.
Cast
Production
Development
The concept for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre arose in the early 1970s while Tobe Hooper was working as an assistant film director at the University of Texas at Austin and as a documentary cameraman. He had already developed a story involving the elements of isolation, the woods, and darkness. He credited the graphic coverage of violence by San Antonio news outlets as one inspiration for the film and based elements of the plot on murderer Ed Gein, who committed his crimes in 1950s Wisconsin; Gein inspired other horror films such as Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs. During development, several names for the film were considered, including Saturn in Retrograde, Head Cheese, Stalking Leatherface, and Leatherface.Hooper has cited changes in the cultural and political landscape as central influences on the film. His intentional misinformation, that the "film you are about to see is true", was a response to being "lied to by the government about things that were going on all over the world". It reflected the skepticism against the Richard Nixon administration in the wake of the Watergate, the 1973 oil crisis, the 1973 economic recession, and "the massacres and atrocities in the Vietnam War". The "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" that Hooper noticed while watching the local news, whose graphic coverage was epitomized by "showing brains spilled all over the road", led to his belief that "man was the real monster here, just wearing a different face, so I put a literal mask on the monster in my film". The idea of using a chainsaw as the murder weapon came to Hooper while he was in the hardware section of a busy store, contemplating how to speed his way through the crowd.
Hooper and Kim Henkel cowrote the screenplay and formed Vortex, Inc. with Henkel as president and Hooper as vice president. They asked Bill Parsley, a friend of Hooper, to provide funding. Parsley formed a company named MAB, Inc. through which he invested $60,000 in the production. In return, MAB owned 50% of the film and its profits. Production manager Ron Bozman told most of the cast and crew that he would have to defer part of their salaries until after it was sold to a distributor. Vortex made the idea more attractive by awarding them a share of its potential profits, ranging from 0.25 to 6%, similar to mortgage points. The cast and crew were not informed that Vortex owned only 50%, which meant their points were worth half of the assumed value.
Casting
Many of the cast members at the time were relatively unknown actors—Texans who had played roles in commercials, television, and stage shows, as well as performers whom Hooper knew personally, such as Allen Danziger and Jim Siedow. Involvement in the film propelled some of them into the motion picture industry. The lead role of Sally was given to Marilyn Burns, who had appeared previously on stage and served on the film commission board at UT Austin while studying there. Teri McMinn was a student who worked with local theater companies, including the Dallas Theater Center. Henkel called McMinn to come in for a reading after he spotted her picture in the Austin American-Statesman. For her last call-back he requested that she wear short shorts, which proved to be the most comfortable of all the cast members' costumes.Icelandic-American actor Gunnar Hansen was selected for the role of Leatherface. He regarded Leatherface as having an intellectual disability and having never learned to speak properly. To research his character in preparation for his role, Hansen visited a special needs school and watched how the students moved and spoke. John Larroquette performed the narration in the opening credits, for which he was paid in marijuana.