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Fifty-one years ago, director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew spent a blisteringly hot Texas summer working to bring us one of the greatest horror films ever made, the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here)… and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the film, Neca is releasing new action figures of the Leatherface and Hitchhiker characters! These action figures won’t actually make their way onto collectors’ shelves until May 2025, but they’re available for pre-order through Entertainment Earth and Big Bad Toy Store.

Directed by Hooper from a script he wrote with Kim Henkel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the following synopsis: When Sally hears that her grandfather’s grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin, set out with their friends to investigate. After a detour to their family’s old farmhouse, they discover a group of crazed, murderous outcasts living next door.

When we think about iconic final girls, it’s usually Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson, and Sidney Prescott who come to mind. These fantastic female characters have become horror movie legends, celebrated for their strength and resilience while inspiring a generation of girls to take back their power. Horror historians will also note the flawless Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) from Bob Clark’s Black Christmas while sci-fi fans will suggest Ellen Ripley. But before them all was Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns). The star and sole survivor of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre burst onto the scene in October of 1974 and forever changed the way we view women in film. On a road trip through Texas, Sally crosses paths with some of the most depraved villains in the history of horror and manages to live through a night of sheer hell. Though Hooper’s gritty masterpiece has stood the test of time,...

A restored 4k version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hits theaters today from MPI Media Group/Dark Sky Films on the 50th anniversary of the iconic indie scarefest by the late Tobe Hooper. It’s booked in 900 theaters with Regal, Cinemark, Cineplex, Marcus, Harkins and all Alamo Drafthouse locations.

Other venues include the Music Box Theatre’s 700-seat auditorium. The run starts today – the same day the original was released in 1974 — goes through Halloween and into the first week of November.

MPI is taking a flexible approach with theaters and exhibitors have been adding shows on solid pre-sales.

The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hanssen as Leatherface and follows five youths on a weekend getaway who fall victim to a butcher in a mask made of human skin and his family of cannibals. Violent and confrontational, it faced a storm of...

Fifty-one years ago, director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew spent a blisteringly hot Texas summer working to bring us one of the greatest horror films ever made, the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here)… and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the film, Dark Sky Films is bringing it back to theatres this October! The fiftieth anniversary re-release trailer, which was created by Mark Woollen, can be seen in the embed above. To find out if The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be showing near you, and to secure tickets to showings, head over to the Dark Sky website.

Update: The 50th anniversary of the film is also being celebrated in Austin, Texas, with the city’s Mayor, Kirk Watson, issuing a proclamation that has declared October 11th to be Texas Chainsaw Massacre Day! A press release invites fans to “join actors from the...

"You can make him stop!" "No we can't..." Dark Sky Films has revealed a new trailer celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre directed by Tobe Hooper. The film was also digitally restored & re-released in 2014 for its 40th anniversary. But now it's the big 50! Ttcm will be re-released in theaters again in October this year - check your local listings. Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw. With Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hansen. "Facing a storm of controversy, censorship, and outcry throughout its troubled release, this masterpiece of horror has stood the test of time to become a landmark motion picture and cultural milestone." Here's a...

Fifty-one years ago, director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew spent a blisteringly hot Texas summer working to bring us one of the greatest horror films ever made, the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here)… and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the film, Dark Sky Films has unveiled a new poster, along with a line of hats and shirts! You can see images of these items at the bottom of this article, and can make a purchase at This Link.

It should be noted that if you want a copy of the poster, you’ll need to grab it fast. It’s a very limited edition, with only 200 being printed. The poster is going for the price of $35, while the hats and shirts are $30 each.

Directed by Hooper from a script he wrote with Kim Henkel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the following...

Fifty-one years ago, director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew spent a blisteringly hot Texas summer working to bring us one of the greatest horror films ever made, the 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (watch it Here)… and to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the film, legendary drive-in critic and movie host Joe Bob Briggs is writing a book about the making of it!

During an interview on the Mistress Harley podcast (note: that link is for adults only), Joe Bob revealed, “I have just signed a contract with Dark Horse, which is mostly known for their comics, but they also do books. (With Dark Horse) I’m gonna do two books: we’re gonna reprint Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In, which is my original reviews … and then we’re gonna do a 50th anniversary book that’s the entire back story of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Back in August, we got a new The Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game from Gun Interactive and Sumo Nottingham – and while that game is available to play on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One, the folks at Spooky Pinball LLC have announced that they’re making their own game inspired by Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here), as they’re building a Texas Chainsaw Massacre pinball machine! A promo video for the pinball machine can be seen in the embed above.

More information on the pinball machine can be found in the image at the bottom of this article, including the reveal that only 888 units are going to be made! Pre-orders are going to launch on SpookyPinball.com at 10am Central time tomorrow, December 8th.

Directed by Tobe Hooper from a script he wrote with Kim Henkel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre...

August 22nd marked the 37th anniversary of the release director Tobe Hooper‘s sequel to his 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A sequel appropriately titled The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (get it Here). Many fans celebrated the film with star Bill Moseley on social media – and the occasion inspired Moseley to reminisce about the moment when he ad-libbed one of the most popular lines in the film: “Lick my plate, you dog dick!”

In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Moseley played the maniacal goofball Chop Top, who is revealed to have had a metal plate placed in his head after he received a head wound during the Vietnam War. He wrote on Facebook, “Damn, a whole lotta love for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 yesterday on the occasion of its 37th birthday! Love the movie, love the memories, love Chop Top! Funny, I’ve done so many different characters over the years,...

“My family’s always been in meat.”

Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre introduces a sadistic clan living in a rural pocket of Texas left behind by industrialization. As The Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) explains to Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her friends, his family’s business has always been in slaughter. However, technological advances left their practices obsolete, forcing them to turn to more extreme measures, replacing animal meat with human flesh. Sally doesn’t know it yet, but the Hitchhiker marks her group as his family’s next meal.

Though the family members change throughout the franchise, meat remains as integral to Leatherface’s family as the ‘saw itself, whether it’s The Cook’s (Jim Siedow) prized chili or good old-fashioned Texas barbecue. That extends beyond celluloid, too; many of the original filming locations from the franchise are now working establishments that frequently serve, well, meat.

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most influential and distinctive filmmakers of our time. His movies are known for their stylish violence, witty dialogue, eclectic soundtracks, and homages to various genres and eras of cinema. He has also been vocal about his admiration for other filmmakers and their works, often citing them as inspirations or influences for his own projects.

In a recent interview, Tarantino revealed his list of seven perfect movies that he considers flawless and masterful in every aspect. He said that these movies are “the ones that I go, ‘Ok, this is as good as a movie can get.’ And I don’t think I can do any better than that.”

CineArticles decided to rank these seven perfect movies according to their own criteria and preferences. Here is their list, from the least to the most perfect movie picked by Tarantino:

7. The Wild Bunch (1969) The Wild Bunch...

Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror film "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," just by its very aesthetic, is one of the grimier, more disgusting movies ever made. Shot on 16mm film, every frame looks stressed and overexposed, as if the film stock itself had been stored in a slaughterhouse. It's a film that looks like it was made by the killers who live inside of it. 

The mythology of "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is well-known to all horror aficionados, and has inspired a massive subgenre of feckless city dopes who get lost in the impoverished backwoods of America only to be slaughtered by the mutated locals. The film stands as a commentary on the great forgotten swaths of the United States, shoved aside by economic hardship and a lack of resources. In most cases, the forgotten people turn to cannibalism to survive. The poor feed on the well-to-do. 

The film itself...

A couple months ago, we heard that Dark Sky Films will be giving the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here) a 4K Uhd release in February – and you can find out all about that release at This Link. Two months after Dark Sky Films brings The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to 4K, the UK-based company Second Sight Films will be putting out their own 4K release of the film. The street date for the Second Sight Films release is April 10th, and copies can be pre-ordered Here!

Directed by Tobe Hooper from a script he wrote with Kim Henkel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the following synopsis: When Sally hears that her grandfather’s grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin, set out with their friends to investigate. After a detour to their family’s old farmhouse, they discover a group of crazed, murderous outcasts living next door.

(Welcome to Scariest Scene Ever, a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror with your tour guides, horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato. In this edition, Matt gets back to the basics of fear in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.")

Since I picked "The Bear" last time and got cheeky with "Scariest Scene Ever," this week I return to more traditional roots. A finger-lickin' American horror classic. Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" introduced Leatherface to the masses, and kickstarted one of the genre's most erratic slasher franchises. There are a few sequences that horror fans might choose as the scariest from the film, but one too iconic not to honor. We'll get there shortly.

There's little else to say about "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" that hasn't been analyzed to death over the internet, in barrooms, or through academia. Leatherface is on the horror genre's Mount Rushmore equivalent,...

Dark Sky Films has announced that they will be giving the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here) a 4K Uhd release on February 28, 2023! There will be two versions of the director-approved 4K restoration available, a regular edition and a steelbook edition, and you can take a look at the artwork at the bottom of this article.

Directed by Tobe Hooper from a script he wrote with Kim Henkel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the following synopsis: When Sally hears that her grandfather’s grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin, set out with their friends to investigate. After a detour to their family’s old farmhouse, they discover a group of crazed, murderous outcasts living next door. As the group is attacked one by one by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, who wears a mask of human skin, the survivors must do everything they can to escape.

The house from director Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here) – which was moved from the filming location in the ’90s and turned into the Grand Central Cafe and Club Car Bar, which sits on the grounds of the Antlers Hotel in Kingsland, Texas – was recently purchased by new owners. During an interview with Daily Trib, the new owners promised they would “preserve and protect the history and integrity” of both the Grand Central Cafe and the Antlers Hotel. On the cafe’s Facebook page, they even said they would be “going deeper into the world of Mr. Hooper.” And they have quickly proven their dedication to honoring the house’s history. They’ve even gone so far as to rename the restaurant in the house Hooper’s!

Here’s the official announcement: “The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie set located at 1010 King Court in Kingsland,...

Happy Monday, dear readers! We’re back today (after a slight delay) with the latest installment of Daily Dead’s 2022 Holiday Gift Guide, which focuses on a ton of great movie soundtracks released on vinyl throughout 2022. I’ve broken down all the titles by where you can find them, whether it’s on Waxwork Records or Mondo’s sites, or via other sites like Amazon and other retailers.

One of my favorite gifts to get every holiday season is soundtrack LPs, and I suspect it’s pretty similar for a lot of other horror fans out there, so be sure to check out the entire list so that it can help you as you finish up your shopping this holiday season.

Cheers!

Waxwork Records:

Nope Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Michael Abels

Oscar® winner Jordan Peele disrupted and redefined modern horror with Get Out and then Us. Now, he reimagines...

We’ve been following the progress of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game that’s being developed by Gun Interactive and Sumo Nottingham for several months now, but that’s not the only Texas Chainsaw Massacre game we have to look forward to. Trick or Treat Studios has also created a board game that’s inspired by the original Chainsaw film (watch it Here) – and that board game is now available for pre-order at This Link! The board game goes for the price of 59.95, and pre-orders are estimated to ship out around March 31, 2023.

Designed by Scott Rogers and featuring illustrations by Terry Wolfinger, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre board game has the following description:

The players’ van has run out of gas, leaving them stranded and at the mercy of the Slaughter family! Work together and push your luck to escape. In this cooperative game, all players win or lose as a group.

Last month, we heard that the house from director Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (watch it Here) – which was moved from the filming location in the ’90s and is now the Grand Central Cafe and Club Car Bar, which sits on the grounds of the Antlers Hotel in Kingsland, Texas – had been purchased by new owners. There was some concern the new owners wouldn’t be respectful of the house’s history… but in an article at Daily Trib, it has been said that they will “preserve and protect the history and integrity” of both the Grand Central Cafe and the Antlers Hotel.

The new owners of the cafe and hotel are Courtney Rhodes, Mike Rhodes, Simon Madera, and Hobie Sasser. Some renovations are planned, including upgrades to the hotel, and a community space will be added to the property to host concerts, Christmas celebrations, and market days.

Officially teased for Halloween yesterday, Dark Sky Films is bringing Tobe Hooper‘s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to 4K Ultra HD with a brand new upcoming release.

All we know at this time is that it’s coming next year. Stay tuned.

Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a game-changer for the horror genre back in 1974, shocking the world with its real world American terror and suggested violence.

In the horror classic, “Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.”

The late Marilyn Burns starred in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre alongside Edwin Neal, Gunnar Hansen, Jim Siedow, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, Teri McMinn, and William Vail.

Uhd

2023

Happy Halloween from @darkskyfilms! pic.twitter.com/V...

For years, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre house set on the same plot of land it was located on when director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew filmed the movie there in 1973. The road running past it was closed off, but civilization was closing in on it. The land where the house used to be is now taken up by a mixed-use development called La Frontera – but back in the ’90s, the house was sold and moved approximately sixty miles from Round Rock, Texas to Kingsland, Texas… where it was turned into the Grand Central Cafe and Club Car Bar, which sits on the grounds of the Antlers Hotel. Many Texas Chainsaw Massacre fan events have been held at the house over the years. But unfortunately, it has now been sold again and its future is uncertain.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre cast member Allen Danziger took to Instagram to...

Few movies, if any at all, are more gruesome than 1974's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." The groundbreaking slasher flick follows Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul A. Partain), and their friends as they roll into the fictional town of Newt, Texas in a green camper van. Their purpose is to check the burial site of the Hardestys' grandfather amid reports of grave robbings happening in the area, but the trip takes a deadly turn when the crew picks up — and quickly kicks out — a demented hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) and makes a pitstop at the nearby old Hardesty family homestead.

It turns out that the hitchhiker is a part of a sadistic, cannibalistic family. His chainsaw-slinging brother, Leatherface (played by a masked Gunnar Hansen), brutally kills Franklin and the other friends one by one until Sally is the final girl to hunt. Here is where the "The...

Any horror fan knows Leatherface, and the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movies are some of the most iconic in the genre.

The original movie, released in 1974, tells the story of a group of friends who end up stranded in rural Texas, where they’re picked off one by one by a family of cannibals. The movie was a huge success, spawning multiple sequels. The franchise is still strong today, with the latest film released in Feb 2022.

Whether you like the original film or the more recent entries in the franchise, there’s no denying that the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise is some of the most iconic horror films ever made.

If you’re a fan of horror movie series, then the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” series is worth checking out.

This post will list all the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movies in chronological order, so you can watch them all and experience the series in its entirety.

Tony Sokol Feb 7, 2020

Ryan and Andy Tohill set to breathe new life into an old leatherface as Texas Chainsaw Massacre begins again.

Sally and Franklin Hardesty are picking up one last goddamn hitchhiker. Legendary Entertainment has their hand on the starter rope of another The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot, according to Variety.

With a screenplay by Chris Thomas Devlin, the film will be directed by Ryan and Andy Tohill, who made their feature-directing debut with The Dig (2018). That movie was about a convicted killer with amnesia who gets out of jail to dig up a body he can’t remember. Much like the last film made from Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic: the 2017 film Leatherface directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo.

“The Tohill’s vision is exactly what the fans want,” producer Fede Alvarez said in a statement. “It’s violent, exciting and so depraved that it will stay with you forever.

Bill Mosley is keen to bring back his Texas Chainsaw Massacre character of Chop-Top, who had only a single appearance in the franchise in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, the first sequel in the long-running saga of Leatherface and the murderously cannibalistic Sawyer clan.

Chop-Top, so called due to the exposed metal plate in his skull, was portrayed as the primary antagonist of the film. He’s the one most enthusiastic about killing Stretch, the radio DJ that he and his famous chainsaw-wielding brother were sent to kill after discovering she inadvertently recorded their killing of couple of obnoxious drunken high schoolers. His demise at the climax of the film should prove no impediment to his return, either, since if there’s one lesson that can be taken from horror franchises, it’s that unequivocal death is only a minor inconvenience in the continuation of relentless slaughter.

The complication of...

“Do your thing, cuz!”

Not since Busta Rhymes challenged Michael Myers to a kung fu fight has one moment in a horror movie so signified that a beloved franchise had completely lost its mind. But unlike Halloween: Resurrection, which represents the desperate, pandering death rattle of the Halloween franchise, those four words spoken near the end of 2013’s Texas Chainsaw find the series embracing a lunacy it had left behind for 20 years and attempting to inject new blood into Tobe Hooper’s dynasty. Literally. [Spoilers for Texas Chainsaw follow.]

Though it made a boatload of money upon its January 2013 release (about two and a half times its $20 million budget), Texas Chainsaw—originally called Texas Chainsaw 3D, as it was the first in the series released in the 3D format—is the kind of widely reviled sequel that most horror fans mention in conversations about the worst modern franchise films, standing alongside Jason Goes to Hell...

As a special exclusive for Daily Dead readers, we have Carl Kelsch’s new short film, For My Facebook, available to watch now. Also in today’s Horror Highlights: Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan Blu-ray / DVD release details, info on Europe’s 4K Uhd Blu-ray release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and a Q&A with Restoration director/co-writer/co-star Zack Ward.

Exclusive: Watch the Short Film For My Facebook: Press Release: “It all started with a funny image that popped in writer/director Carl Kelsch’s head: a play on words that yielded the final shots of ‘For My Facebook’ (To say more would spoil the ending). With only a few directing credits under his belt, he recruited jack-of-all-horror-trades Louie Cortes (Dir. of Attack of the Brain People, writer of Blood Slaughter Massacre) to do Sound. Kelsch, who also operated the camera, got input from Cortes on blocking and framing.

Recognizing that it’s more than likely an unpopular opinion, I need to come clean and confess that I prefer Tobe Hooper’s 1986 sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, to its predecessor, which I’m also quick to point out is an unparalleled masterpiece of the genre. This has everything to do with personal taste. Tobe Hooper is one of my favorite filmmakers of all-time, and while I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen his 1974 classic, I probably revisit Part 2 every year. It’s one of my very favorite horror movies.

The third film in a trilogy Hooper made for Cannon Films in the 1980s (the other two being the brilliantly bonkers Lifeforce and Hooper’s remake of Invaders From Mars, released just a couple of months before TCM2 in ’86), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 was the movie the director had to...

In our ongoing recap of last week's Ultimate Horror Poll -- in which over 100 genre experts helped determine the 100 greatest horror movies of all time by voting for their personal "ten best" -- the time has come to take stock of every honorable mention and clarification given by the survey's participants that weren't included in the original piece. To be clear, voters weren't asked for honorable mentions specifically; but a handful felt strongly enough about their "bubbling under" choices to list them anyway (which proved extraordinarily useful in helping break ties on the Top 100). See below for a full listing, as well as explanations from Bloody-Disgusting founder/editor-in-chief Brad Miska and director Corin Hardy ("The Hallow") on why they voted the way they did. Honorable Mentions: Barbara Crampton (Actor, "Re-Animator") Dracula (1931) Jaws (1975) Nosferatu (1922) Poltergeist (1982) Vampyr (1932) Brad Miska (Founder/Editor-in-Chief, Bloody-Disgusting.com; Producer) -- See Full Explanations Below Beetlejuice (1988) Bill & Ted's...

Do: check the instructions (Wild)

This month sees the release of Wild, based on Cheryl Strayed's memoir about her solo hike along the gruelling 1,000 mile Pacific Crest Trail. Cheryl (Reese Witherspoon) certainly doesn't make it easy for herself, buying the wrong type of gas cylinder for her stove and thus being forced to subsist on a diet of "cold mush."

Don't: give up (Touching The Void)

Consider the obstacles that Joe Simpson faced during his calamitous attempt to climb Peruvian mountain Siula Grande: a broken leg; a fall into a crevasse; and zero hope of rescue after partner Simon Yates left him for dead. And yet, as recounted in classic documentary Touching The Void, Simpson gritted his teeth and dragged himself through hell to reach safety.

Do: stay calm (Life Of Pi)

Travel is unpredictable. One minute, like Indian teenager Pi (Suraj Sharma), you're emigrating to Canada aboard a freighter.

Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Jim Siedow, Gunnar Hansen, John Dugan | Written by Tobe Hooper, Kim Henkel | Directed by Tobe Hooper

When it comes to horror one of the most effective things is the unstoppable monster, the overpowering force that towers above the victim taking all control out of the situation and bringing death, pain and destruction. With Second Sight’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th Anniversary Restoration on Blu-ray we get to celebrate one of the true legendary monsters, one that is still effective today as it was the first time he lumbered his way through the doorway and onto our screens.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a deceptive film, with an infamous history of being one of the most intense experiences in horror there is a surprising lack of actual gore. What the film does though...

Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Jim Siedow, Gunnar Hansen, John Dugan | Written by Tobe Hooper, Kim Henkel | Directed by Tobe Hooper

When it comes to horror one of the most effective things is the unstoppable monster, the overpowering force that towers above the victim taking all control out of the situation and bringing death, pain and destruction. With Second Sight’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 4oth Anniversary Restoration on Blu-ray we get to celebrate one of the true legendary monsters, one that is still effective today as it was the first time he lumbered his way through the doorway and onto our screens.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a deceptive film, with an infamous history of being one of the most intense experiences in horror there is a surprising lack of actual gore. What the film does though...

There’s no denying the cultural magnitude of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 grindhouse classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Inspiring legions of seminal directors, as well as providing the framework for a growing horde of derivative copycats (not to mention a gaggle of flaccid sequels, prequels, and rehashes), it’s now reached its 40th year anniversary. Necessitating a half-year transfer process, the brand new 4k transfer was showcased at genre fests such as 2014′s SXSW & Fantasia Film Fests and a prestige re-showing at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. Though decades of horror films have refurbished Hooper’s methods to such a degree that the more infamous episodes of violence may seem less horrific by today’s torture porn standards, the film has lost none of its ambient potency. In all the glorious reconstitutions, no one has been able to outdo the gritty, grainy, and bizarre levels of unease accomplished here.

By now, we all know the well-tread story.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 1974 American slasher film, directed and produced by Tobe Hooper, who cowrote it with Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen, and follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead. Upon its release, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was banned outright in several countries, and numerous theaters later stopped showing the film in response to complaints about its violence. While it initially drew a mixed reception from critics, it was enormously profitable, grossing over $30 million at the domestic box office off of a $300,000 budget. It has since gained a reputation as one of the best horror films in cinema history and credited with...

Sundance just ended, and we are already preparing for the next big film festival, South By Southwest. Not too long ago, the festival announced a few of the films premiering this year, but now they’ve announced the main slate. The midnight selections and some inevitable late-breaking additions are still to be announced, but this should be more than enough to get you excited. Along with many World Premieres, and Sundance favorites like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Gareth Evans’ The Raid 2, the line up also includes an anniversary screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and an extended Q&A screening of The Grand Budapest Hotel with Wes Anderson. SXSW 2014 runs March 7 through 15 in Austin, Texas. Check out the line up after the jump.

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Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight unique ways to celebrate the art of storytelling. Selected from 1,324 films submitted to SXSW 2014. Films screening in Narrative...

The 2014 SXSW "Film Features Program" includes 115 titles, and along with the previously announced zombie culture documentary Doc of the Dead, there's a lot for the horror crowd...

...including special screenings of the original Godzilla and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, early looks at upcoming TV shows "From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series" and "Penny Dreadful," the U.S. premiere of Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Dance of Reality, and new films from the Spierig brothers, Nacho Vigalondo, and Jim Jarmusch.

The genre-heavy "Midnighter" lineup will be announced next week along with the list of short films, but in the meantime here are the horror highlights (or what we assume will be of interest given their descriptions) to be on the lookout for during the fest.

Note that new for 2014, they've introduced the "Episodic" category, created to highlight innovative new work hitting the small screen.

The 2014 SXSW Film Festival runs March 7-15 in awesome Austin,...

After announcing earlier this month that Jon Favreau’s Chef and the Veronica Mars movie will be making their world debuts at SXSW this year, the festival has revealed its full line-up, including further very promising world premieres, alongside appearances from some of the year’s most high-profile films.

The Midnight programme will be announced early next month, along with the Shorts line-up, and the complete Conference slate a little later as well.

Led by Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, Nicholas Stoller’s anticipated R-rated comedy, Neighbors, will be making its world debut at the festival, notably marked out as a ‘work-in-progress’ ahead of its theatrical release in May.

David Gordon Green’s acclaimed Joe will make its Us premiere, having bowed at Venice and then Toronto last year. Early reviews have Nicolas Cage giving one of the finest performances of his career, with Tye Sheridan (Mud) excellent alongside him.

Not sure if there is a Short Term 12 equivalent in this year’s Narrative Feature Comp, but on paper SXSW programmers are serving up a mean (and the usual lean group of 8 out of a whopping 1,324 film entries) for the upcoming competitiuon of eight which includes notable entries (that we’ve been tracking for a good time now) such as Zachary Wigon’s The Heart Machine, John Magary’s The Mend, Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns and Lawrence Michael Levine’s Wild Canaries. Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated docs of the year, on the non-fiction side we find Margaret Brown’s The Great Invisible. Below you’ll find a breakdown of the other sections (notable world preems in We’ll Never Have Paris and Faults (see Mary Elizabeth Winstead above), some Sundance items with Texan connections and other nuggets.

Narrative Feature Competition

Eight world premieres, eight...

When you’re on a role you’re on a role! Once again here is a list of ten actors who achieved cult movie villainy on the strength of one movie. Some of the actors faded into obscurity while others continued their careers without scaling the heights of their defining cinematic performance. Perhaps I should do a one for heroes! Nah! Villains are much more fun!

[Spoilers follow]

Rudolph Klein-Rogge (Metropolis – 1927)

Although dated, Fritz Lang’s utopian masterpiece still has the unique power to fascinate. Not only did the film make a star of Brigitte Helm, it introduced the father of all mad scientists, C A Rotwang, played with eye rolling relish by Lang’s favourite actor Rudolph Klein-Rogge. The Austrian born star specialised in villainous roles so he was a natural for playing the nutty inventor who creates the legendary female robot used to impersonate Helm’s freedom fighter. With his exaggerated mannerisms and facial expressions,...

Stars: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley, Bill Johnson, Ken Evert | Written by L.M. Kit Carson | Directed by Tobe Hooper

A key component of just why many sequels don’t satisfy is that age old complaint of repetition. The Saw and Paranormal Activity franchises are just the latest examples of films which don’t do anything all that different from the first in their intent aside from new characters, more complex mythology and the odd new Usp, something which made Paranormal Activity 3 in particular a more interesting installment than it probably should have been with its oscillating camera. Looking at franchises past though, there are quite a few examples where box office and critical results have been disappointing because the sequels are just too different from the original. One of the prime examples of this is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a film made by the director...

Directed by: John Luessenhop

Written by: Adam Marcus, Debra Sullivan, Kirsten Elms

Featuring: Alexandra Daddario, Tania Raymonde, Adam Yeager, Trey Songz, Shaun Sipos, Keram Malicki-Sánchez

I have a confession. Despite living in Texas, I've never been a big fan of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. I actually didn't see the original film until I was 25 years old, which shocked most of my friends considering what a horror buff I am. But it just wasn't a staple in my household. (My mom and I were both Jason fans to the core.)

I'm also not as venomously anti-remake as most of my friends. Do I wish Hollywood would get new material and invest even a fraction of those monumental budgets into indie films and original ideas? Absolutely. But from a marketing perspective, it's easy to see why they don't; these franchises are guaranteed cash in the bank, and many younger audiences aren't even familiar with the originals.

“After a decade of silence… the buzz is back!”

It’s surprising that it took as long as it did, but The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 didn’t arrive in theaters until a good 12 years after the original. At the helm once again was director Tobe Hooper, but this time screenwriting duties went to L.M. Kit Carson whose prior credits included Breathless and Paris, Texas. And because of the fast paced nature of the shoot which went into production almost immediately after being green-lit, Carson was on-set rewriting the entire time, in particular when at the last minute, a million dollars from the budget was cut forcing the filmmakers to implement changes while shooting and to make due with whatever they had.

You wouldn’t be able to tell any production problems with the finished product which at this point only gets better with age. The official sequel to Texas...

Like most of you out there, anytime a new entry in a horror franchise is about to hit theaters, I can’t help but revisit all the previous entries in that franchise to prep me properly for the theatrical going experience. And seeing billboards plastered all over town with Leatherface’s visage has put me in a post-Christmas Texas Chainsaw Massacre kind of mood! So what better way to ring in the New Year than with Leatherface and family? We’ll have to go back to the very beginning with Tobe Hooper’s infamous 1973 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I can’t remember exactly how I discovered the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but I do know that when I was around 12 years old, I was already helping myself to a steady diet of horror titles courtesy of the mom & pop owned video store on the corner from where I lived.

On a stifling and sticky August morning in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dread Central arrived on the set of Texas Chainsaw 3D to be greeted by an exact replica of the Sawyer House located in the middle of a dried up and desolate field in an abandoned area of a local Army base that felt appropriately untouched by time.

For someone who can still vividly remember the very first time she watched Tobe Hooper's 1974 original classic at the ripe age of 8 years old, standing in front of the iconic dwelling brought back waves of chilling nostalgia, which is something you don't necessarily experience while visiting the set of a brand-new flick all that often.

As we head up the dusty trail into the house, the inside of the Sawyer home is just as remarkable as the outside- production designer William Elliott painstakingly recreated every minute detail right down to the chicken...

Pictured below is heroine Heather Miller (Bereavement’s Alexandra Daddario) on the run from the latest Leatherface (Dan Yeager) in Texas Chainsaw 3D, which arrives January 4 from Lionsgate and also stars Lost’s Tania Raymonde, Scott Eastwood, Hatchet’s Richard Riehle and Bill Moseley, Chainsaw 2’s Chop-Top now stepping into Jim Siedow’s shoes as Drayton Sawyer. With throngs of voracious fans quick to dismiss certain sequels and remakes in this franchise, it becomes apparent that Luessenhop knows and respects that he is treading on (un)holy ground. “I’m a huge fan of what [Hooper] did, particularly with the original,” Luessenhop tells Fango, “and it’s a bit daunting to step into their footsteps. The last thing I wanted was a 1990s horror movie. What I’ve tried to do is make a traditional horror film for the first 60 minutes, which is what I think will keep you engaged. I...

Pictured below is heroine Heather Miller (Bereavement’s Alexandra Daddario) on the run from the latest Leatherface (Dan Yeager) in Texas Chainsaw 3D, which arrives January 4 from Lionsgate and also stars Lost’s Tania Raymonde, Scott Eastwood, Hatchet’s Richard Riehle and Bill Moseley, Chainsaw 2’s Chop-Top now stepping into Jim Siedow’s shoes as Drayton Sawyer. With throngs of voracious fans quick to dismiss certain sequels and remakes in this franchise, it becomes apparent that Luessenhop knows and respects that he is treading on (un)holy ground. “I’m a huge fan of what [Hooper] did, particularly with the original,” Luessenhop tells Fango, “and it’s a bit daunting to step into their footsteps. The last thing I wanted was a 1990s horror movie. What I’ve tried to do is make a traditional horror film for the first 60 minutes, which is what I think will keep you engaged. I...

Pictured below is heroine Heather Miller (Bereavement’s Alexandra Daddario) on the run from the latest Leatherface (Dan Yeager) in Texas Chainsaw 3D, which arrives January 4 from Lionsgate and also stars Lost’s Tania Raymonde, Scott Eastwood, Hatchet’s Richard Riehle and Bill Moseley, Chainsaw 2’s Chop-Top now stepping into Jim Siedow’s shoes as Drayton Sawyer. With throngs of voracious fans quick to dismiss certain sequels and remakes in this franchise, it becomes apparent that Luessenhop knows and respects that he is treading on (un)holy ground. “I’m a huge fan of what [Hooper] did, particularly with the original,” Luessenhop tells Fango, “and it’s a bit daunting to step into their footsteps. The last thing I wanted was a 1990s horror movie. What I’ve tried to do is make a traditional horror film for the first 60 minutes, which is what I think will keep you engaged. I...

It is a hot August day in Shreveport, Louisiana - not Texas - on the set of Texas Chainsaw 3D. The “set” is a huge barren field on an unused portion of an Army base, and for good reason: in the field is an exact replica of the Sawyer house from Tobe Hooper’s seminal horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was something special, to walk that dusty road up to the house that chilled me as a child.

Texas Chainsaw 3D (at the time, they were calling it Leatherface 3D) opens where Hooper’s film ended - hence the replica farmhouse. But it jumps forward to modern day, to follow a young woman named Heather (Alexandra Daddario) who goes to collect an inheritance from a relative she didn’t know she had, and discovers she has a deep family history with the notorious Sawyer clan. We spoke with the...

On Friday, 9/21, we hit the 2012 Eyegore Awards held at Universal Studios Hollywood, CA, and brought back some ocular candy from the carpet and interviews with several of the night’s principals.

Paying respect to some of horror’s most venerated players and notable newcomers, the event was hosted by Syfy’s ‘FaceOff’ host McKenzie Westmore and attended by celebrity presenter and rock legend Alice Cooper, who together bestowed Eyegore Awards to recipients Chad Michael Murray (House of Wax and the upcoming The Haunting in Georgia), Angelica Vale (and her mother Angélica María, who was unable to attend) for their series Mujeres Asesinas 2, Silas Weir Mitchell and Bitsie Tulloch of the television series "Grimm" and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro for, well, being Guillermo del Toro.

Also at the ceremony and on the carpet were Halloween Horror Nights Creative Director John Murdy, The Devil’s Carnival director Darren Lynn Bousman and wife,...

*full disclosure: a Blu-Ray copy of this film was provided by 20th Century Fox. Director: Tobe Hooper. Writers: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper and L.M. Kit Carson. Cast: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley, Bill Johnson, and Ken Evert. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is a horror classic. This film created the standard from which future villains would mimic. The mask, the weapon, the terror, filmmakers would pay homage to this classic for decades and they still do today. Tobe Hooper's follow up to this film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, left an indelible mark on this film fan in 1986. However, Hooper's follow-up now seems tame compared to contemporary standards. Focusing on dark comedy, this sequel adds very little to the series. Only the ending involving dueling chainsaws creates tension, an element that is found more in the original. The story of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 again...