The hitchhiker claims to be an employee of the slaughterhouse, and talks graphically of some of the more unsavory killing methods practiced there. The kids pay no heed to the reports of killings, at least until they pick up a freaky hitchhiker outside a slaughterhouse. There have been several killings in the area that have the residents on edge. It begins with some young people are driving through East Texas in a van. From there Hooper’s career continued along the same uninspiring path, with bummers like THE MANGLERand THE TOOLBOX MURDERS doing nothing to help matters-and no, the 2003 Michael Bay produced TCM remake didn’t either! LIFEFORCE and INVADERS FROM MARS did little to restore Hooper’s declining stock, and nor did THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, although it wasn’t all bad. POLTERGEIST may have been Hooper’s biggest moneymaker, but it also did his reputation irreparable damage due to allegations that its producer Steven Spielberg directed most of the film himself. His immediate follow-ups EATEN ALIVE and THE FUNHOUSE weren’t much. Unfortunately Tobe Hooper’s post-CHAINSAW output has been erratic at best. Those conditions contributed immeasurably to the madness and ugliness of the finished film. The delirious climax was shot over a torturous 30 hours, in a sweltering house stuffed with rotting animal flesh, with cast and crewmembers allowed outside only for brief stretches (to vomit). Initially titled LEATHERFACE, the film was lensed on location in South Texas under horrendous conditions. He ended up with an R, of course, and made history with one of the most brutally intense films of all time. Believe it or not, director Tobe Hooper was hoping for a PG rating. The most surprising thing about this 1974 film, a favorite of gore hounds the world over, is that it isn’t very gory.
I’ll say my peace, though, as I, like quite a few other commentators, feel it’s a deserved classic. Truthfully, not a whole lot remains to be written about THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, certainly one of the most iconic genre films of all time.