The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1974
Running Times: 83 mins
Length:
Format: 16mm (blown up to 35mm)
Colour Format: colour
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Vortex / Henkel / Hooper
Executive Producer: Jay Parsley
Producer: Tobe Hooper
Associate Producers: Kim Henkel, Richard Saenz
Production Manager: Ronald Bozman

SCRIPT
Script: Tobe Hooper, Kim Henkel

DIRECTION
Director: Tobe Hooper
Assistant Director: Sallye Richardson

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Daniel Pearl
Additional Photography: Tobe Hooper
Lighting: Lynn Lockwood
Assistant Camera: Lou Perryman
Camera Assistant: J. Michael McClary
Key Grip: Linn Scherwitz
Grip: Rod Ponton
Camera: Eclair
Lenses: Zeiss 8mm; Angenieux 12-120 zoom
Camera Equipment: Victor Duncan Inc, Dallas, Texas
Lighting Equipment: FPS, Dallas, Texas
Labs: Consolidated Film Industries, Hollywood, California, USA
Film Stock: Kodak 7252 Ektachrome

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editors: Sallye Richardson, Larry Carroll

MUSIC
Music: Tobe Hooper, Wayne Bell
Songs Perfomed By: Roger Bartlett and Friends (Fool For a Blonde); Timberline Rose (Waco; Glad Hand); Arkey Blue (Daddy's Sick Again; Misty Hours of Daylight); Los Cyclones (Feria de las Flores; Poco a Poco No)
Songs Recorded At: Hill on the Moon (Fool For a Blonde; Waco; Glad Hand)
Song Engineer: Jim Inmon (Waco; Glad Hand)

SOUND
Location Sound Recording: Ted Nicolaou
Post Production Sound / Boom Man: Wayne Bell
Sound Mixers: Todd/AO
Dubbing Mixers: Buzz Knudson, Jay Harding
Re-Recording: Paul Harrison

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Dorothy Pearl

SPECIAL MAKE UP EFFECTS
Grandfather's Make Up: W.E. Barnes

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Titles / Opticals: CFI

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Robert A. Burns

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Mary Church
Production Assistants: Ray Spaw, Robert Pustejovski, N.C. Parsley, Sally Nicolaou, Paulette Gochnour, Paula Eaton, Charlie Loving, Jerry Bellnoski, Jim Crow, David Spaw, George Baetz, Tom Foote

LOCATIONS
Locations: Austin, Texas, USA; Baghdad Cemetary, Texas, USA; Round Rock, Texas, USA

STUNTS
Stunts: Mary Church
Stunt Driver: Perry Lorenz

CAST
Marilyn Burns (Sally Hardesty)
Paul A. Partain (Franklin Hardesty)
Teri McMinn (Pam)
Jim Siedow (old man)
Edwin Neal (hitch hiker)
William Vail (Kirk)
Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface)
Allen Danzinger (Jerry)
John Duggan (grandfather)
Robert Courtin (window washer)
William Creamer (bearded man)
John Henry Faulk (storyteller)
Jerry Green (cowboy)
Ed Guinn (cattle truck driver)
Joe Bill Hogan (drunk)
Perry Lorenz (pick up driver)
John Larroquette (narrator)

PLOT SUMMARY

Five young people touring remote parts of rural Texas fall foul of a monstrous cannibal clan. The group is whittled away one-by-one by the chainsaw wielding Leatherface until only Sally is left. She's captured and taken to the family's home where she is prepared as the main course in their evening meal...

The best and most important of 1970s American horror movies, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre promises much with the most infamous titles of the decade and delivers in spades. Never as explicitly violent as has been claimed, the film relies heavily on an ever-mounting atmosphere of dread and unease to generate it's considerable suspense. The blueprint for the subsequent slasher movies, the film is interpretable on many levels (simple exploitation shocker; vegetarian tract; a comment on mass unemployment in 70s America; a redefining of American folklore (Leatherface has frequently been likened to James Fenemore's Leatherstocking, Hooper's creation being the modern, corrupted antithesis of Fenemore's character); a metaphor for contemporary sexual politics; and many more) and has proved to be one of the most influential genre films of all time. That director Tobe Hooper's career went into such a horrible nosedive less than a decade later is a matter of considerable regret. (Full Review)

Finland
Theatrical Distributor: Cinema Mondo

France
Theatrical Distributor: Bac Films (re-release)

Germany
DVD Distributor: Laser Paradies (40428)

UK
Video Distributor: Ivor Film Services; Blue Dolphin Film and Video (BDV2015)
DVD Distributor: Blue Dolphin Film and Video (BDVD001); Universal Pictures Video (9027111)

USA
Theatrical Distributors: Bryanston Pictures (1974); New Line Cinema (1983 re-release); Raven Pictures International; Rosebud Communications Releasing
Laserdisc Distributor: Elite (EE 0123)
DVD Distributor: Pioneer (0123)

Argentina
Rating: 16

Australia
Rating: R

Finland
Rating: K-18

France
Rating: -16 - the theatrical release was initially banned.

Ireland
Rating: 18

Netherlands
Rating: 16

Norway
Rating: 18 - initially banned and not released until 1997

Sweden
Rating: 15 - the scene where Pam is hung on the meathook was initially removed but eventually the film was released uncut in June 2001

UK
Rating: X; 18 - The cinema release was originally very restricted. It was shown in London under a GLC 'X' certificate but wasn't seen anywhere else in the country. An uncut version was released in the early 1980s (it was one of the first UK video releases) but it was withdrawn during the "video nasties" fiasco. It was subsequently released theatrically and on VHS and DVD, completely uncut, with an 18 certificate in the late 1990s.

USA
Rating: R

West Germany
Rating: 18

1974
October
1: USA - theatrical release

1975
March
12: UK - refused a certificate by the BBFC

December
6: UK - shown at the National Film Theatre, London as part of the London Film Festival

1977
December
7: UK - shown at Cinema Texas at the University of Texas, Austin

1982
May
5: France - theatrical release

1996
November
1: Finland - theatrical release

December
3: USA - laserdisc distributor (Elite (EE 0123))

1998
October
6: USA - DVD release (Pioneer (0123))

December
11: UK - limited theatrical re-release

1999
March
4: Portugal - shown at the Fantasporto Film Festival

April
9: UK - wider theatrical re-release

May
28: Portugal - theatrical re-release (in Lisbon)

October
1: USA - theatrical re-release

2000
May
22: UK - video and DVD release (Blue Dolphin Film and Video (BDVD001))

June
16: UK - televison broadcast (on FilmFour)

October
28: UK - televison broadcast (on Channel Four)

November
9: Iceland - theatrical re-release

2003
March
10: UK - DVD release (Universal Pictures Video (9027111))

April
19: UK - television broadcast (on Channel Four)

Who will survive and what will be left of them?

can you survive... it happened

For five young friends, a typical summer afternoon drive becomes a terrifying nightmare.

What happened is true. Now the motion picture that's just as real.

Once you stop screaming, then you'll start talking about it.

America's Most Bizarre and Brutal Crimes!...

Before Halloween... Before Friday The 13th... Before Scream... There Was The Saw.

Blutgericht in Texas - German title
Leatherface - working title
Massacre aux tronconneuses - French title
La matanzade Texas - Spanish title
Non aprite quella porta - Italian title
TCM - US 1999 re-release title
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - alternative spelling

SEQUELS
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994)

REMAKE
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

SEE ALSO
All-American Massacre (2000)
Blood Simple (1984)
The Bogus Witch Project (2000)
Deranged (1974)
Das Deutsche Kettensägen Massaker (1990)
The Evil Dead (1982)
Evil Dead II (1987)
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
The Funhouse (1981)
In the Light of the Moon (2000)
Lunch Meat (1987)
Motel Hell (1980)
Mother's Day (1980)
Nekromantik (1987)
Psycho (1960)
Redneck Zombies (1987)
Scream (1996)
Slaughterhouse (1987)
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1983)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth (2000)
The Texel Fretsaw Massacre (2004)
Three on a Meathook (1972)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
100 Years of Horror (1996)
The American Nightmare (2000)
American Psycho (2000)
American Psycho 2 (2002)
Boogeymen (2001)
Filmgore (1983)
Mad Ron's Prevue's from Hell (1987)
Serial Mom (1994)
Terror in the Aisles (1984)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait (1988)

KEYWORDS

cannibalism, chainsaws, texas, serial killers, families, splatter, slasher, astrology, hitchhikers, old dark houses, self mutilation, slaughterhouses, vans, wheelchairs, disability

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008