#Texas chain saw massacre 1974 movie#

As history now recalls, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as its title calls it – joined a growing club of low-budget horror movies that changed the genre forever.

#Texas chain saw massacre 1974 movie#

At one pivotal moment, a special effect failed to work properly so Burns had her finger sliced open for real, so that Dugan’s “grandfather” could lick the blood from the wound as the camera rolled.Īll of this for a movie that, at least in theory, should have shown at a few grindhouse theatres and drive-ins before vanishing without a trace. Marilyn Burns, who played the film’s tormented “final girl,” had it even worse: she was forced to spend hours tied to a chair, covered in fake blood. Several actors, including 18-year-old John Dugan, who plays a catatonic “grandfather,” had to spend hours each day in stifling old-man makeup. Funds didn’t stretch to a wardrobe of multiple costumes, so the cast were forced to wear the same filthy outfit day after day in order to maintain continuity. The stench was so bad that some crewmembers were throwing up outside between takes.ĭirected by Tobe Hooper, then a largely unknown 20-something filmmaker from Austin, the film’s painfully low budget only added to the misery. The interior location where much of the film’s third act took place, an old farmhouse outside Round Rock, was dressed with animal bones and blood, which had begun to stink in the broiling Texas air.

The heat and humidity were almost unbearable. Not only did the first gain fame and glory but it also gained six sequels, one prequel, comic books and a video game released in the 1980's.In the summer of 1973, the cast and crew of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were suffering through what was, by most accounts, a thoroughly miserable shoot. In 2012, the film was named by critics in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine as one of the 250 greatest films. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was inducted into the Horror Hall of Fame in 1990, with director Hooper accepting the award, and it is part of the permanent collection of New York City's Museum of Modern Art. In 2010, as well, The Guardian ranked it number 14 on its list of the top 25 horror films. In a 2010 Total Film poll, it was again selected as the greatest horror film the judging panel included veteran horror directors such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and George A. Empire also ranked it 46th in its list of the 50 greatest independent films. In 2008 the film ranked number 199 on Empire magazine's list of 'The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time'. It was named among Time magazine's top 25 horror films in 2007. In a 2005 Total Film poll, it was selected as the greatest horror film of all time. Entertainment Weekly ranked the film sixth on its 2003 list of 'The Top 50 Cult Films'. In 1976, it won the Special Jury Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in France. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was selected for the 1975 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight and London Film Festival.

The slasher inspired many famous directors and films, such as Ridley Scotts Alien and a whole generation of film makers. Tobe Hooper directed the original slasher classic, which is considered the grandfather of the slasher genre and helped reinforce the many traits many slasher films now have a final girl, power tools as weapons and the great hulking masked killer looming around and extracting violent murders on the people around him.