Writer Stephen King has been an authority on the horror genre as much as he has been a creator. Without his support major titles like The Evil Dead would have never been as popular as they are today. There is one film, however, that never needed his help to succeed – and Stephen King cites this horror movie as the one that scares him the most.
Obviously that’s a big statement to make – but many fans will agree. After all, many more celebrities and fans alike have been terrified by this particular motion picture. It’s been imitated by so many titles over the decades, but the overwhelming dread has never been successfully duplicated.
In fact, it’s the success of this 1974 horror movie that inspired a new documentary. The film features Stephen King alongside Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and Karyn Kusama as they discuss the movie, its impact, and what it means to them. A new clip features what King has to say and it’s high praise.
As quoted below via the Dark Sky Films channel on YouTube:
“I should say that I never saw ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ when it came out. I saw it in 1982 in Colorado. I was a young father and I was writing to stay ahead of the bill collectors. I was in the theater almost by myself. That’s when a movie really has a tendency to work on you, to get its cold little fingers under your skin.”
King further described how the unique style of the film aided in its ability to terrify viewers including himself in the documentary titled Chain Reactions:
“It had that kind of washed-out ’70s look, for want of the better term. You could tell that this print had been around for a while, and it’s better for it, because it just looks f*cking real. It works because there’s no artifice about it, there’s no buildup, there’s no character nuance. I mean, there are scenes in the graveyard … they’re not extras, they’re not Hollywood people at all. They look like they came from the nearest little Texas town. It’s fantastic.”
Indeed, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of horror’s greatest gems. Tobe Hooper‘s seminal horror film has terrified viewers for decades and created several iconic characters. Of course, most icons dwindle in comparison to Leatherface, the brute face-wearing killer masterfully portrayed by Gunnar Hansen for his appearance in the original classic.
It’s great to see that even after fifty years the film has made enough of an impact to inspire documentaries regarding its success. Now, with even Stephen King continuing to praise The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, horror fans will hopefully revisit the film or see it for their first time to see the mad and macabre as Hooper intended.