Stephen King Opens Up About How THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE Shook Him to His Core
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre isn’t just one of the most important horror films ever made, it’s a movie that still crawls under people’s skin nearly fifty years later.
The 1974 classic from director Tobe Hooper is now the subject of a brand new documentary, Chain Reactions, directed by Alexandre O. Philippe.
The film explores the legacy of Hooper’s nightmare through the eyes of five creators deeply impacted by it: Stephen King, Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and Karyn Kusama.
Even though King has terrified generations of readers with his own work, he admits that Hooper’s masterpiece rattled him in a way few films have.
“I should say that I never saw Texas Chain Saw Massacre when it came out. I saw it in 1982 in Colorado. I was a young father and I was writing to stay ahead of the bill collectors.
“I was in the theater almost by myself. That’s when a movie really has a tendency to work on you, to get its cold little fingers under your skin. It had that kind of washed-out ’70s look, for want of the better term.
“You could tell that this print had been around for a while, and it’s better for it, because it just looks fucking real. It works because there’s no artifice about it, there’s no buildup, there’s no character nuance.
“I mean, there are scenes in the graveyard … they’re not extras, they’re not Hollywood people at all. They look like they came from the nearest little Texas town. It’s fantastic.”
That stripped-down realism is exactly what made the film so disturbing. Unlike other horror movies that lean on atmosphere or elaborate setups, Hooper’s film drops viewers into a world that feels lived in and almost too authentic. It’s no wonder King calls it fantastic even as he describes how deeply it unnerved him.
I remember when I first saw the film on VHS when I was a young teen. That movie messed me up and wrecked my brain. I wasn’t sure how to process the movie that I watched and those visuals haunted me.
Chain Reactions will open in New York City on September 19 through Dark Sky Films before expanding. Horror fans who’ve ever been haunted by Leatherface and his chainsaw will no doubt want to see how one of the greatest horror storytellers of all time breaks down the raw power of this landmark movie.
Via: Variety