Despite being banned from theaters at its initial 1974 release for its shocking violence, Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” remains among the most influential horror films in history — and one that’s inspired countless remakes, sequels, spinoffs, and imitators. Hooper, who would later direct the cult series “Salem’s Lot” (1979) and the ’80s phenomenon “Poltergeist” (1982), was a documentary cinematographer and an assistant film director at the University of Texas-Austin in the early ’70s. Co-written by Kim Henkel, “Texas Chain Saw” was remarkably only his sophomore feature following his 1969 psychedelic debut “Eggshells,” which Henkel also co-wrote and starred in.
In “Texas Chain Saw,” Sally (Marilyn Burns), her brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain), and their friends go on a doomed road trip in Texas County. On their way to Sally and Franklin’s family slaughterhouse, the journey goes off course when a hitchhiker splatters blood on their RV, and masked serial killer Leatherface infiltrates the domestic setting.
There is minimal gore in the death scenes, but the screams and scares still bewildered critics in 1974. The LA Times wrote at the time, “Henkel and Hooper seem less concerned with a plastic script. Craziness handled without sensitivity is a degrading, senseless misuse of film and time.
” However, fans rejoice over the gripping pouncer as they notice Henkel and Hooper’s dark sense of humor and their admiration for the m.