The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Turns 50

In 1974 a small independent horror film that only cost $80,000 at the time of production, would end up making $30.9 million and being a major horror film influencer for many years to come and that film is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

The film is set in Muerto County, Texas where five teens are on a road trip. During this road trip they passed by a slaughterhouse and little did they know, a nightmare so unreal was going to happen to them all and the world would be introduced to a masked man named Leatherface and to his family.

The budget for the film was very limited and they had to use the likes of real blood, a real human skeleton and animal bones in shots, actress Marilyn Burns’s index finger was cut for real in the scene where Leatherface was feeding Granpa due to the tubes for the blood were not working at all, and so many more.

The character Leatherface and his actions were based on real events from two notorious serial killers Ed Gein and Elmer Wayne Henley. The actor Gunnar Hansen stated that Leatherface had an intellectual disability and thus was never able to learn how to speak properly at all.

The film series would go on to create numerous sequels and the most recent was back in 2022 and it was ok at best. There were also numerous comic books, two books, a few video games, and a cameo in other video games such as being a player character in Mortal Kombat X.

If you want to see a very good horror film that will give you some nightmares and maybe even make you want to stop eating meat for some time, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will do that for you.