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

In the history of the horror genre, few films can claim to be as influential as Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece Lat the Texas massacre.

His contribution to slasher history is enormous and inspires filmmakers to reinvent genre clichés in powerful ways.

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

Was the Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired by real events?

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

Banned in many countries for its explicit 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 film that made him vegetarian.”

Despite some story details 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 light on Hooper’s original inspiration.

Hardware Store Inspired ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’

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

The writer went on to tell that the director “Seeing a pile of chainsaws on a vertical display, he fantasized about making his way through the swarm of shoppers.. He suppressed his dream of a Christmas bloodbath, but once he ran away and settled back in his 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 connected 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, fired from the clock tower on the University of Texas campus, killing 14 and wounding 31 others, one of whom died years later of complications from his wounds.

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

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

However, 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 that he made a mask out of a corpse during his med student days”.