The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

There were lines of gibberish written in the script for Leatherface. Tobe Hooper would sit with Gunnar Hansen and tell him what the lines meant, and the actor had to figure out a way to say that without actually speaking. In the scene where the Old Man comes home and starts yelling at Leatherface about the door, Hansen remembers a take where he communicated a little too verbally. Hooper told him "there was too much intelligence in the character," and the shot was redone. "My one chance to have a line," says Hansen.

The blood the hitchhiker smears on the van is gone in the long shot a few seconds later.

Opening credits prologue: The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived very, very long lives, they could not have expected nor would they have wished to see as much of the mad and macabre as they were to see that day. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare.

The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

AUGUST 18, 1973

Restored version released in 1998 on DVD includes outtake and alternate footage.

Featured in Filmgore (1983)