Tobe Hooper – An Icon of Terror

written by

Anthony Pittore

MEDIA 110
Aesthetics of Cinema
09 July 2020
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Of all the horror icons throughout history, including John Carpenter,

Wes Craven, George A. Romero, James Whale, and others, the late Tobe Hooper

is often forgotten, even with his sizable contribution to both his own period of

horror in the 1970s & 1980s and that of modern cinema. Many of his best

films, like Lifeforce (about space vampires) and the adaptation of the Stephen

King novel Salem’s Lot (about Earth vampires), fail to make the conversation of

classic horror cinema. However, two of his films not only make many lists of

the greatest horror films, but they are often considered defining entries in their

respective subgenres.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, released in October of 1974, is

considered to be Hooper’s “true” first film. His actual first release was a micro-

budget hippie/alien horror entitled Eggshells that even Hooper himself had

ignored as a “real” project. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, however, though

itself also made with a low budget, would go down in history as one of the films

that most exemplified the tone of 1970s grindhouse cinema. Due to the

budgetary constraints of under $140,000 (only about $700,000 today based on

inflation), Hooper wrote, directed, produced, and scored the film himself.

However, while the film is iconic with its grungy visuals and gore, the film

excels beyond others due to its use of sound and music, which help to improve

some of the areas weakened by the very low budget, and maintain the absolute

fear from beginning to end.

Capitalizing on the fear of rising crime and murder in rural America, the

opening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre features a voiceover reading of

scrolling text, similar to that of true-crime films. Tobe Hooper clearly wanted to

add a level of believability and realism right off the bat, especially because he

did base the character of Leatherface and the events of the film loosely on real

serial Ed Gein (who also inspired the characters of Norman Bates in Psycho

and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs).

Following the opening narration, the use of sound effects (both diegetic

and non-diegetic) blend to create the unsettling shriek of photos being taken of

severely decomposed human remains. Over a dark screen, we also hear the

scraping and snapping sounds before we are able to see what the root of the

sound is. In one particularly gruesome long shot, an exposition-providing radio

commentary sounds over the nauseating dripping of fluids from a rotting

impaled corpse. After this, the first musical accompaniment comes as the

credits roll: a grinding industrial score that sounds as if heavy machinery was

put to the tune of music. As mentioned above, this score was written by Hooper

along with first-timer Wayne Bell, who would go on to work in the sound

departments for Richard Linklater on such films as the Before series, Boyhood,

and more.

When the horror-filled industrial-style score takes a pause, some of the

other music in the film is the complete opposite. For example, when Sally

(Marilyn Burns) and her friends pick up the Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) from the

side of the road, the music playing from the car’s radio is an upbeat hippie
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tune, the direct antithesis of the content of the group’s conversation about

slaughterhouses and headcheese, and even further from the scene when the

Hitchhiker snags a knife from Sally’s wheelchair-bound brother Franklin (Paul

A. Partain) and proceeds to slice his own hand open, much to the dismay of the

rest of the van’s passengers. Hooper used many tricks with the audio editing in

an effort to add as much discomfort as possible. One of the most stirring

elements comes not from Leatherface or any member of the cannibal clan.

Instead, it comes when our group of travelers is investigating their father’s

abandoned old farmhouse and Kirk (William Vail) spots a nest of spiders,

whose skittering noise is amplified beyond the natural world. It is enough to

make anyone into an arachnophobe with ease. This is just one of the many

ways Hooper used the sound of the ordinary to cause extraordinary fear.

As the Kirk and Pam (Teri McMinn) split off from the group (as expected

in most horror films), the sounds of the film also split from the style of the

opening scenes. This is the point when Hooper and his sound team truly began

to utilize their post-production talents to fill the gap of their strict budget.

While the environment around them is the quiet and desolate Texas desert, the

closer they get to the Hewitt ranch (where Leatherface resides), the louder the

world around them becomes, starting with the rattling hum of the Hewitt’s gas

generator to faux snorting pig noises that lure Kirk into the Hewitt home and

all the way until the still-recognizable thunk as Leatherface emerges from his

slaughter room and cracks Kirk with the sledge hammer.

The scene that follows and the audio within would go on to influence

thousands of future Halloween haunted attractions: Leatherface’s chain saw,

which roars to life before he proceeds to dismember the unconscious Kirk.

Once Leatherface begins to impersonate his victims, like using his version of

Pam’s laughter to trick Jerry (Allen Danziger) into the attempt on his life at the

end of a sledgehammer, a new creepy element adds onto the disturbing

viciousness of the rest of the movie. The death of Franklin also expertly utilized

vicious sound effects in lieu of really “showing” anything as Leatherface bursts

out of seemingly nowhere and slices & dices Franklin with the chainsaw. The

whir of the saw and screech as it makes contact with bone is almost impossibly

grotesque.

All that being said, it’s not until the rest of Sally’s friends are killed off

one-by-one that the role of sound becomes more critical to the story than

perhaps even the visuals. As Sally stumbles into the Hewitt house, she

discovers the decrepit Grandfather and the corpses within, and the sound cuts

quickly between her screams over the industrial soundtrack and the chainsaw

as it cuts down the front door. Later, when Sally is finally kidnapped by the

Hewitt family for their “family supper,” the sounds made by the family as well

as the failed strikes of the hammer by the Hewitt’s patriarch (John Dugan) add

even more depth and dread to the already sinister scenes. During the most

desperate and spooky scenes of Sally’s hopelessness, the score takes on a more

sinister and haunting feel, similar to something from a very different type of

movie.
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***

Eight years after the shocking box-office success of The Texas Chain Saw

Massacre, Tobe Hooper approached filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg with a

story idea about a suburban family being haunted by a malevolent ghost.

Unable to direct the film himself due to contractual obligations, Spielberg

developed the story into the script and enlisted Hooper to direct what would

become Poltergeist. The film focused on what seems to be the “prototypical

suburban family” in America and everything about the film reinforces that

point (complete with their Ronald Reagan biography). From Close Encounters of

the Third Kind to E.T., Spielberg knew how to bring a new type of story to

Wonder Bread, U.S.A., so much so that the opening credits of Poltergeist even

rolled under the playing of the National Anthem, which transforms into the

diegetic music piping in from the living room television. This cements a very

specific tone that viewers can likely associate with and very likely is a

commentary on the story of an “All-American family” building their new home

on the graves of others that came before them.

As the plot of the movie kicks off with Carol Anne (the late Heather

O’Rourke) waking in the middle of the night, the critical importance of the

sound becomes apparent and, even more crucial, the sounds we in the

audience can’t hear: the spirits in the television with which Carol Anne

communicates. “What do you look like?” she asks, for example, and perks her

ears to listen to what only she can hear, somewhere within the whirring and

crackling static of the off-broadcast channel. This darkly foreboding scene, with
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its malevolent spirit noises, is immediately contrasted by the following series of

establishing shots of the family’s Wonder Bread-style town, the soundtrack

turning into a lilting and almost child-friendly song complete with toy-like

pianos, music boxes, and high-pitched violins.

During scenes of more action, the music takes on a more traditional

style, very reminiscent of other Steven Spielberg-produced films, with a big

orchestral sound. However, it is the creepier elements of the score by Jerry

Goldsmith that continues throughout the film and has become iconic to this

day, permeating many different horror films that came after, including A

Nightmare on Elm Street and Insidious.

The first night after Carol Anne makes “first contact” with the spirit

realm through the T.V. set, the family’s house is beset with a severe storm. The

sound employed during these scenes, including the booming thunder and

cracking lightning, is a precursor for what’s to come in future scenes,

especially those that use the thunderstorm as a tool of terror. As Carol Anne’s

brother Robbie (Oliver Robins) cowers in bed from the storm and the insanely

terrifying clown doll stares him down with its lifeless painted-on eyes, a spike

of lightning is emphasized by a whirlybird (the twisting noisemaker toy) on the

soundtrack, creating a very effective little jump scare.

In typical horror-movie-judgment-of-morality, Carol Anne and Robbie’s

parents, Diane (JoBeth Williams) and Steve (Craig T. Nelson), fool around in

the bedroom and smoke weed as their kids are scared senseless by human-

looking trees and the blowing storm, only to have their adult fun intruded upon
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by the kids crawling into bed with them. It is at this point that the true horror

starts with Carol Anne’s infamous “They’re here!” line. This time, as she talks

to the spirits of the television, faint whispering can be heard immediately before

the poltergeist itself makes an appearance and rumbles the house like an

earthquake.

Later in the film, after the family becomes familiar with the paranormal

activity occurring within the house, all marks of horror increase substantially.

Once again, a storm brews as night falls with even more violent thunder and

lightning until the window smashes open, startlingly loud, and the gnarled and

deformed tree outside snatches Robbie. As the parents struggle to save their

son, the children’s closet door flies open and we can hear the whispering from

“the other side” more clearly from the supernaturally bright light inside. The

poltergeist itself sounds like a sweet, feminine voice and it beckons calmly to

Carol Anne to “come play with” them.

Once the ghostly entities get hold of Carol Anne and bring her to the

other side, her only form of communication back to her family is through the

distorted audio of the television set, her voice broken and crackling like the

static on the screen itself. Around the midpoint of the film is when the horror of

the film takes off to a whole other level. Upon bringing the first psychic in to

investigate, they perform an investigation which leads to Carol Anne making

contact only with the sound of her voice and, later, the sound of her footsteps

as she fled from the malevolent spirit. Using only audio in this scene, as well as

the reaction of the mother, we are able to know exactly what is happening with
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Carol Anne and the ghostly beast, whose quaking footsteps pound through the

house unseen. When the titular poltergeist finally does show its (very large and

frightening) face, it comes with a bellowing roar that would make one of

Spielberg’s Tyrannosaurus Rexes jealous.

***

When comparing & contrasting the two films of The Texas Chain Saw

Massacre and Poltergeist, it is evident that sound was used in very different

ways, but it was still used effectively in both films. As stated previously, The

Texas Chain Saw Massacre utilized more subtle music cues and sickening

sound effects to accentuate the visuals that were impossible to accomplish due

to the film’s low budget. Meanwhile, the use of audio in Poltergeist was almost

a character itself within the film due to the use of the evil being’s voice and the

supernatural storm outside. Between the two films, however, all the elements

come together to create two of the most iconic horror films in the history of

American cinema.
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Works Cited

“Poltergeist.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 4 June 1982, www.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/.

“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” IMDb, IMDb.com,

www.imdb.com/title/tt0072271/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_wr#writers/.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Financial Information.” The Numbers,

www.the-numbers.com/movie/Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-

The#tab=summary.