TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE TURNS 40!!!!!!

 

The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

 

That's the opening narration we are all familiar with as a young John Larroquette whose payment for this few minutes of an opening monologue about the events that transpired to become known as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a simple joint. Yes, Tobe Hooper paid him with marijuana and with that simple act of drug payment we have history in the making as nearly 40 years later this opening narration is considered classic.

 

 

Now a lot of us horror fans who grew up in the Eighties, the era where gang here were born and raised it. Sorry none of us were around when it debuted in 1974. But as the four of us grew up and eventually found this movie on VHS around the ages 6-9 we all discovered horror at its finest. A movie about a guy wearing a mask made up of skin from the people he killed wielding a chainsaw as his weapon of choice. To make matters even better for us before we found Cannibal Holocaust this was the first movie that introduced us to the word Cannibals.

Now the film follows a group of friends who are traveling to visit the grave of their grandfather to find out about the reported vandalism and grave robbing that has been happening in the cemetery where he is buried. Marilyn Burns and Paul A. Partain play the roles of Sally and Franklin Hardesty, brother and sister role, Paul also had to portray Franklin as a paraplegic. During their trek they pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be more than they bargained for and he attacks them before they toss him out of the van and they continue on to a local swimming hole only to find it dried up and they find a house in the distance and that's when the horror begins.

Now the concept of this film came to Hooper while he was working as an assistant director at the University of Texas at Austin. He already had most of the movie mapped out using the woods, darkness and the elements of isolation. He then combined those factors with the Ed Gein story to bring his vision together. His original working titles for the film were Headcheese and Leatherface. Leatherface would eventually become the title of the third film in the Chain Saw Massacre film franchise. Now Hooper would produce this film for less than $300,000 and used relatively unknown actors in the film to keep his budget at a small cost. Relatively unknown actors who would go on to become cult icons to horror fans I mean look at Gunnar Hansen the man is completely awesome and Marilyn Burns is a complete sweetheart, sadly Marilyn passed away earlier this year. Though gone her legacy in the film will forever live on.

Hooper on this small budget had to film for long hours seven days a week, just so he could cut costs on the rental equipment he had rented. He struggled to find a distributor for the film due to its violent content and gore. He even trimmed most of the gore to hopefully get a "PG" rating but the MPAA wouldn't give it to him and slapped him with the greatest rating of all time "R". Upon its release in OCtober 1974 it was automatically banned in several countries and even some state side theaters stopped showing the film due to complaints about its violent content. But this word of mouth back in the 70's helped push this small budget film well past 30 Million Dollars earned. It was this film and its reputation that helped the film become a franchise as well as making Leatherface a household name amongst horror fans.

 

40 years later the film about a chainsaw wielding maniac has spawned 2 direct sequels, a remake, a remake prequel and then a sequel to the original storyline that would make it a direct fourth sequel. Comic book, trading cards, t-shirts, masks, and the list goes on and on with all the stuff that ties into Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm just happy I found this movie when I did when I was a young kid whose parents were very relaxed as to what I watched on television when I was young. I mean today parents are so worried that their kid may see this and go on a chainsaw crime wave. So in my closing all I can really say is............

Uh... yeah, maybe I've seen something like that up that way. Well now look, you boys don't want to go messin' around some old house. You're liable to get hurt. You don't want to go fooling around other folk's property. Some folks don't like it, they don't mine showing you.

by Bucky