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Old 09-17-2008, 09:47 AM
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TOBE HOOPER



"October 1974. A little film was released at the beginning of the month, that seemed to be getting terrible reviews, wherever it opened. It had cheapjack written all over it, lurid title, complete unknown cast, made on a shoestring by some guy in Texas, who had never made a film before. The critics called it sadistic garbage, that had been done before, and predicted it would fade into cinema obscurity.

It was playing, mainly in the grindhouses, so I knew it would be around for a while, and I figured I’d catch it some afternoon when I’m bored out of my skull. Maybe double-billed with something better. After all, the smart money was on DePalma’s The Phantom of the Paradise, starring Bill Finlay, a great character actor who had done such an admirable job in Sisters. Leaving the theatre after that one, I was not quite as wowed, but there was enough in the film to reasonably assure me that DePalma was the real deal. Later that year, The Exorcist was released, and talk of small budget horror got kicked to the curb.

Spring of the following year, a buddy and I took our dates to the new fad, “Midnight Movies”. The feature that night was - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I had heard it was still going around theatres, getting great word-of-mouth and actually making money. I figured, even if it’s crap, I’ll still have my date to keep me entertained. The credits rolled, with a rather grating noise in the background. The opening shot of a disgustingly, bloated corpse pretty much guaranteed, in the back of my mind, that the girl I was with would be dragging me out, about 30 minutes into it. Then came the hitchhiker. I’m thinking, yea, wont be long now. Then a prolonged stop at a gas station(by then, even I was looking for an exit). This thing was boring me quick. A pair of hippies in the quartet decide to wander off to look for help. They spot an old farm house. Yea yea, get on with it(figured it was just a set-up for some dumb stunt like a chicken comes running out). The guy walks slowly down the foyer, and you here something like pig squeals. At the end of the hall, there is a large steel-plated door. As the guy reaches it, the door slams open, with a very large man behind it... in a mask……… with a sledge hammer………

A squishy, bone crushing thud…

……and thus began the legend of the unnamed family of cannibal murderers later to be known as the Sawyers. The rest of the film was excruciatingly, blissful torture. People were yelling like crazy in the audience. And to make matters worse, the theatre had hired a guy to run down the aisle with a running chainsaw (no blade, of course), which pretty much cleared the first 7 or 8 rows on either side. This was pre-lawyerhappy America. You know, back when things were fun. My date and I weren’t even thinking about sex, after the film ended, as we had both just been raped. Of course, I had to see this flick as much as possible, before it’s run ended. We hadn’t dreamed there would be such a thing as home video.

If Tobe Hooper had made nothing but this film, he would still be as highly regarded in horror IMO. Fortunately(or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), he was given larger budgets and created some more great films – Eaten Alive, Salem's Lot, The Funhouse, Lifeforce, Poltergeist and, of course, the sequel to his masterpiece, which is starting to get respect, finally.

Although he has never quite matched the intensity of the first Chainsaw, he’s still around, making films, so anything can happen. And for laying the final brick to complete the bridge, started by Hammer films and Alfred Hitchcock, between the old classics and modern horror, all fans will be indebted to him. I don’t pretend to know his life story in detail(that’s what the internet is for, right), but check out as many of his films as you can find, and, if you ever get a chance to watch TCM in a theatre, run, don’t walk, to get a ticket. It is a completely different experience." - Festered



TOD BROWNING



"Tod Browning (b. 1880) started off working in sideshows and carnivals as a barker in the early 1900's; an experience that would influence many of his films. After getting into Vaudville as an actor, he met the legendary director, D.W. Griffith, and acted in several of his films. Griffith's innovative editing techniques with cross-cutting action and dichotomy between images would later influence Browning's films.

It wasn't until 1917 that Browning directed his first film. One year later he met Lon Chaney, Sr., with whom they would go on to make ten films together, including the lost film London After Midnight (1927), Browning's first "vampire" film. Chaney also starred in Browning's The Unknown with a young Joan Crawford, a film to be a precursor to Freaks (1932).

It wasn't until after Chaney's death in 1930, that Browning would direct his first talkie, Universal's Dracula (1931), staring Bela Lugosi. This film was the first of the Universal horror pictures and really was a turning point for horror in film. Dark and chilling, this film turned Lugosi into a Horror icon and secured Browning's transition into talkies (a feat many directors and even actors struggled with).

Riding high off of Dracula, Browning made the boxing drama, The Iron Man (1931), followed by Freaks in 1932. Highly controversial, and underrated in it's time, Freaks was a film about a carnival sideshow love triangle that featured real life "freaks" from sideshows during that time period. Dark and unsettling, the film was just as much a study in sideshow personas in the height of the sideshow era as it was the twisted love story.

Unfortunately, Freaks was ill-received and derailed his directing career. He made a few minor horror films after Freaks and ultimately retired in 1942. Browning died in 1962, but his contribution to the horror film genre will not be forgotten, as he truly is a horror icon." - Papillon Noir



TOM SAVINI





UDO KIER





VAL LEWTON

__________________
"If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Last edited by _____V_____; 09-22-2008 at 09:32 PM.
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