In the winter of 1973, Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel began production on their screenplay Head Cheese, inspired by real-life serial killer Ed Gein. Armed with an arsenal of 16mm cameras and a budding crew of actors, including Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, and Gunner Hansen, Hooper shot and constructed one of the most violent, terrifying, and undeniably influential films in the horror genre: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Hooper’s unflinchingly voyeuristic presentation of human depravity ultimately landed the film within the “Video Nasties” category, banned in multiple international markets, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia. Despite criticism of the film’s macabre contents, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has become the topic of numerous cultural critiques.
Making The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Production of the film began in 1973, with Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel forming Vortex, Inc. and acquiring partial funding from friend Bill Parsley, who formed his own company, MAB, Inc. In exchange for $60,000, Hooper and Henkel gave MAB ownership rights to 50% of the film’s profits. Hooper relied mostly on local actors he’d known personally when casting, few of whom had made their break into professional productions. The late Gunnar Hansen, who portrayed the chain-saw-wielding Leatherface, would have to convince Hooper that he was of sound mind before being approved for the role. Later, Hansen claims to have visited a special needs school in order to study the mannerisms and behaviors of students to prepare for his role as Leatherface, who he determined to be intellectually disabled.
The making of the film was as much of a nightmare as the film itself. During production, the cast was kept in two camps: the Sawyers and the victims. The actors were asked not to shower to maintain visual consistency, which didn’t pair well with the Texas heat. This made it easier for the cast to appear less willing to approach each other during filming. The temperature inside the house peeked above 100 degrees, only to increase when filming the dinner scene, which took place at night, was shot during the day with a large black tent covering the premises. Not only did the heat inside become unbearable, but the bones began to release a noxious odor as they cooked, resulting in a number of cast and crew vomiting. And that was just the bones. The food and meat in the film were real, resulting in an even more unbearable environment. Despite the horror experienced on set, the film was expertly manufactured and succeeded in presenting a macabre atmosphere pregnant with violent imagery.
While Ed Gein is most commonly cited as the influence behind the Leatherface’s iconic mask, Hooper described a much more unsettling influence during an interview with Barend de Voogd. Hooper said,
“Our family doctor treated everything from a skull fracture to immunization. He told me that when he was in pre-med school, he skinned a cadaver’s face, cured and dried it, and then wore it to the school’s Halloween party. That image stuck.”
The origins of the mask and the film’s inspiration have been subject to criticism regarding the film’s opening scrawl, voiced by John Larroquette (who was paid in a bag of marijuana), which claims the film is based on true events. However, Hooper has described the facade of a “True Story” claim as a reaction to the Watergate scandal and being lied to by the government. In this sense, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre can be seen as a true criticism of American exceptionalism and traditional Southern values.
Legacy
An entire economy could be extracted from the influence of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, with a franchise consisting of seven sequels and a remake. A novelization of the original film was released in 2004, written by Stephen Hand. Various comic book adaptations and series have been released from Northstar Comics, Topps Comics, Avatar Press, and Wildstorm Comics. Legendary director Wes Craven, who’s cemented his own place in popular culture and stands as a landmark for influencing the horror genre, was inspired by the film when developing his 1977 mutant-cannibal film The Hills Have Eyes. Rob Zombie’s Firefly family draws a distinct connection to the Sawyers, specifically in House of 1000 Corpses, going so far as casting Bill Moseley who appeared in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre II. Films like Wrong Turn, Motel Hell, and Escape from Cannibal Farm wear the film’s influence blatantly, with the latter being described by some reviewers as a direct rip-off of Hooper’s classic.
Pop-Culture
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre transcends its cinematic influence, with the video game adaptation released in 2023 being the most direct. Leatherface appears as a playable character in the video games Mortal Kombat XL, and Dead by Daylight: Leatherface. Several films, television series, and novels spanning Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, Robot Chicken, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, and South Park pay homage to the film and its chain-wielding heavy. During the release of heavy metal band Slipknot’s 2004 album “Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), vocalist and frontman Corey Taylor wore a mask strikingly similar to that worn by Leatherface. The bands Texas Toast Chainsaw Massacre and Texas Chainsaw Mascara both borrow from the film’s title, albeit satirically. We’ve even included a Leatherface Plush Cushion in one of our Nerdy Merchandise articles. The merchandise doesn’t stop there, however, with Funko and McFarlane Toys releasing Leatherface figures.
Cultural Criticism
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre finds itself at the center of various cultural criticisms. One popular form of analysis considers the film’s views regarding vegetarianism. The film puts humans in the position of factory-farmed animals, ultimately pleading for their lives under the threat of death by machinery. Early in the film, Franklin attempts to describe the evolution of the industrialized slaughtering of cattle for meat, beginning with the hammer to the head and ending with a description of the pressurized bolt guns currently used. During the scene with the hitchhiker, the process of making head cheese is described before Pam declares that it sounds horrible, denying Franklin’s insistence that she’d like it if she didn’t know what was in it. Tobe Hooper has commented on the vegetarian analysis, claiming,
“I gave up meat while making that film. In a way I thought the heart of the film was about meat; it’s about the chain of life and killing sentient beings, and it has cannibalism in it, although you have to come to that conclusion by yourself because it’s only implied.”
Regarding American traditionalism, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre places the Sawyers in the position of the conservative or traditional American while the survivors play the role of the progressives. After Franklin describes the more modern approach to slaughtering cattle, using the pressurized bolt gun, the hitchhiker protests. He states that the new way has put people out of jobs and that the old way of killing was better. Not only is he defensive of the more gruesome approach, but he is also proud of his work and presents the crew with pictures of the cattle strung up and mutilated. This same sentiment can be seen during the dinner scene when the chef encourages Grandpa to kill Sally with a hammer. Of Grandpa, he claims, “Grandpa’s the best killer there ever was. Why, it never took more than one lick, they say Why, he did 60 in less than five minutes once.” Grandpa’s attempts to grip the hammer initially fail, followed by the hitchhiker’s encouragement. This symbolizes an attempt to maintain or conserve antiquated values despite the obvious evidence that they are failing and no longer offer the results previously expected if those results were ever realized at all.
Metal and Meat
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has become a cornerstone in film history and transcended the horror genre. The film, the film’s primary antagonist, and the saw itself have been cemented as icons of horror in popular culture and the psyche of a generation of horror lovers. In the words of Drayton Sawyer, “The saw is family.”
