Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Shocking Truth

My only knock on this would be that I wish it were longer so that more details could be released about how this franchise has been SEVERELY DAMAGED BY THE HIGHER UPS. From the First movie to the Return of TCM Next Generation everyone involved and the movies itself were handcuffed, cut, destroyed, pilfered upon, and straight screwed over in ways that only Hollywood can do. But I guess it's true what they say, the people with the money have the power. It's just sad.

This was a documentary that I listened to while I was working, treating it like a podcast. The synopsis for this does a great job telling what it is about in that it is primarily focusing on the filming and the release of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. From there, it then gives insight into the films that followed ending at The New Beginning which seemed at the time to still be called The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

What makes this great is getting the likes of Gunnar Hansen, Marilyn Burns and Jim Siedow who are iconic characters in the classic. Getting to hear a bit of their ordeal was interesting. Then coupling that with the director Tobe Hooper, Dorothy J. Pearl who did makeup, Robert A. Burns, Kim Henkel and Ted Nicolaou, to just name those that were featured, which are great. What they went through to get this made is crazy. It makes it even more heartbreaking to hear about what happened afterwards and how many of these people didn't see the money they were owed from its success. There is a double-edge sword as well that without the funds from the nefarious company, this might have died in production.

I would also say that this is on the cheaper end of how it looks. Don't let that detract from seeing it though. Part of that is probably not having a large budget and being made in 2000. It is great that they talked to these people before they started to pass away, including Hansen, Burns and Hooper. It makes documentaries much more important now. Would recommend to fans of this film, even if you know the stories being told. Should be checked out at least once in my opinion.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth (2000)

**** (out of 4)

This documentary from David Gregory is about as good as you could possibly hope for. In 75-minutes just about every detail on the making of the 1974 classic are covered through interviews with Tobe Hopper, Kim Henkel, Robert Kuhn, Marilyn Burns, Jim Siedow, Paul Partain and Gunnar Hansen among others.

We start off with Hopper discussing how he came up with the idea and we also get to hear about the various bad decisions that were made to get the movie in the can and many of these decisions would eventually lead the director, writer and cast to see none of the money the film would eventually make. It's clear that this wasn't a good film to be working on because of the tight schedule, incredibly hot Texas temperatures and the fact that many scenes inside the house had real animal carcases being used and this here didn't smell too well after being in the sun all day.

We learn about the troubles Siedow had beating Burns with a real broom and how the infamous dinner scene took over twenty-four hours of straight shooting. It's clear from everyone involved that this was an incredibly difficult time to be shooting and things didn't get any better after the movie was released because many people were robbed by the Mafia who turned out to be the ones releasing it to theaters? The film covers some of the controversy that hit the film overseas including Britain where it was banned.

The first hour takes a look at the original film while the other fifteen-minutes looks at the three sequels. It could be said that the sequels themselves deserve their own documentaries considering all the trouble that stalked them but Hopper does go over the butcher job Cannon done on part two and there's discussion of New Line wrecking the third film only to then have Columbia stop the fourth one from being released. It's rather amazing to hear how much trouble these four films had.

THE SHOCKING TRUTH does contain quite a bit of shock but fans of the series will certainly want to check this out as it contains a lot of great material and thankfully the majority of the cast members are on hand to share their stories.

Truth is rarely stranger than the shocking reality of a determined crew of poorly paid, persistently sun-baked independent filmmakers shooting low budget game changer 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Dare you take a peek behind Leatherface's iconic mask???? It took A LOT of guts for genre genius Tobe Hooper to create his acclaimed horror masterpiece 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (1973)...not to mention the blanched human skulls, stuffed armadillos, eerily reassembled cow skeletons, festering animal intestines, severed chicken heads, multitudinous mildewed bones, dessicated cartilage, mouldering dog carcases, ruptured roadkill, Head cheese, plus a million seething maggots, and, er, the Mafia! Aye!!!! They just DON'T make 'em like that any more!!!!

The final notable Texas Chainsaw Massacre documentary is by far the best. Mostly about the original movie it also dips its feet into the rest of the franchise and the legacy it has created.

With in depth interviews with all the stars, some gruelling backstage stories and further confirmation of what a complete tool Matthew McConaughey is.

I would have to say this is essential viewing for fans of the franchise, I not even being one still thought it was an entertaining piece but am glad to see the end of my TCM binge.

The Good:

Very thorough

The Bad:

Narration is awful

I simply don't see the appeal

Things I Learnt From This Documentary:

Taxidermy....armadillo...really!?

Hanging a person on a meathook rarely passes as PG

27hr working days are a thing

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) sounds like worst movie set ever

The cast and crew of Texas Chainsaw Massacre got f'd in the a financially

The mafia are bad people to go into business with, who knew!?