The strange fact that inspired ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, Tobe Hopper’s horror classic

In the history of the horror genre, few films can claim to have had the same influence as Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece, Lto Texas massacre.

His contribution to slasher history is enormous, inspiring filmmakers to reinvent the genre’s clichés in powerful ways.

The film chronicles the journey of a group of friends who travel to rural Texas and end up slipping into a world of rampant chaos and unimaginable violence.

Is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired by real events?

Although the events of the film are fictional, it was actually marketed as a “based on true events” feature film to appeal to a wider audience.

Banned in many countries for its graphic violence, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre It has stood the test of time. The recurring image of humans as meat throughout the film has even contributed to its popularity within the vegan movement.

Not only that, director Guillermo del Toro said it was “the movie that made him a vegetarian.”

Despite the fact that some details of the story, and the iconic character of Leatherface, the director was inspired by the serial killer Ed Gein.

However, the actual origin of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is strange. In Joseph Lanza’s book, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Film That Terrified A Rattled Nation, the writer sheds some light on Hooper’s original source of inspiration.

The hardware store inspired “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”

According to Lanza, the vague structure of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre it began to form in the mind of Hooper, the director, during his 1972 vacation. Lanza noted that the filmmaker “was in a crowded hardware store, leery of the Christmas spirit and desperate for an outlet.”

The writer went on and recounted that the director “Seeing a bunch of chainsaws on a vertical display rack, he fantasized about pushing his way through the swarm of shoppers.. She suppressed her dream of a Christmas bloodbath, but once she escaped and settled back in her house, visions of chainsaws spun in his head, setting off a chain reaction of story ideas“.

Tobe Hooper and his violent life

Lanza also explained how the violence was totally tied to Hooper’s life, as he was actually present when Charles Whitman committed the incredible and tragic mass murder at the University of Texas at Austin.

On August 1, 1966, Whitman, a student and former Marine, shot from the clock tower on the University of Texas campus, killing 14 people and wounding 31 others, one of whom died years later from complications related to his wounds.

That same day, Whitman had killed his wife and mother. The incident was one of the worst mass murders in a public space in US history. and the first to be developed “live” in the mass media era.

This tragedy left an indelible mark on Hooper’s worldview, providing a bitter counterpoint to the hippie movement of the 1960s.

Nevertheless, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a mix of Hooper influences, as the Leatherface character was also inspired by the words of a doctor who “bragged about making a mask out of a corpse during his medical student days”.

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