The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is considered a gruesome film, but it relies on the power of suggestion more than gore. For instance the infamous scene in which Leatherface hangs poor Terry McMinn on a meathook was done with camera angles, editing, and good physical acting. You never saw the hook touch McMinn’s flesh, and you never saw a drop of blood. Likewise, the monstrous cannibal Leatherface was more refined than people think. Sure, he skinned and dismembered people, but he also always wore a suit to dinner. Tobe Hooper went on to direct many other films, but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains his towering contribution to American cinema. With it he helped establish the teen massacre genre, and what would American movies be without that? Hooper’s masterpiece opened in Japan today in 2007, at the Miyazaki Film Festival.
Closed abbatoir turns out to be home to homicidal maniac. Who knew?