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The 1976 film Network played on that in more satirical fashion, too.
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He used the serial killer Ed Gein (1906-1984) as some inspiration, who also inspired the likes of The Silence of the Lambs (1991).īut Hooper also used the sensationalist nature of 1970s media to ramp up the sense of paranoia and the sense of the impossible being possible. Tobe Hooper developed the idea in the early 1970s when he was at the University of Texas at Austin. Terrified moviegoers flocked to see it, amassing over $30 million in revenue. Off its tiny budget, which was round the $80,000–$140,000 mark, the film was a roaring success. This is played upon in the good fun spoof film Tucker & Dale VS Evil (2010). The difference there is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre CREATED so many of those jump scares for the slasher genre.įor example, the cast gets picked off one-by-one as Leatherface runs riot. What plays out are horror genre tropes you’ll already know as they’ve been done to death (ironically). They’re busy visiting a homestead, but happen across a highly disturbed family of cannibals. The central characters include a bunch of young friends, headed by Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns). Another landmark horror film that shaped cinema.Īnd whilst Jaws doesn’t have the same horrifying impact it did back in the mid-’70s, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre still makes for uncomfortable viewing. It’s interesting to note that, simultaneously, Steven Spielberg was filming Jaws (1975) at the time, too. In that, a cannibalistic witch fattens up two kids who’ve unfortunately stumbled across her. In many respects it’s a modern adaptation of the Brothers Grimm tale Hansel and Gretel. American director and screenwriter Tobe Hooper (1943-2017) manned this production!
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