ADVERTISEMENT

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Ed Gein

CastleRubric

Senior
Nov 11, 2011
5,257
9,076
113
50ampfuse.blog
So I Was watching the original "TCM" w/my daughters the other night and I clarified that while the story IS based on "true events" ...... very few of them are in the movie

I mean .... there was no Chainsaw.......the murders didn't happen in Texas......and.....if I recall correctly .....only 2 people were killed by Ed Gein.......so it wasn't "massacre'' either......

OTHERWISE --- yeah,......based on true events (which were certainly gruesome enough)

ed-gein-1.jpg


Things that Tobe Hooper included that WERE based on actual events:

  • Grave robbing - not just once or twice either.....
  • Desecration of corpses / building "Things" with their remains
  • Mr Gein DID Like wearing the skin apparently .... so "leather face" has a foothold on reality (only time you'll EVER hear THAT in your life)
  • The idea of a retarded accomplice was true --- Gein recruited someone to help with his "experiments" .... and that person was severely impaired.............(((I think it was part of the job description))))

The concept for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre arose in the early 1970s while Tobe Hooper was working as an assistant film director at the University of Texas at Austin .... He had already developed a story involving the elements of isolation, the woods, and darkness......and based elements of the plot on serial killer Ed Gein in 1950s Wisconsin....

Das Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Texas_Chain_Saw_Massacre

....I think that's about it.......everything else - including the intro that names the brother/sister combo and Hooper's original opening sequence that stated "WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS A TRUE STORY...." ----- were all fabricated

(inspired by a lying government ala: Watergate, Vietnam and the '73 Oil Crisis according to Hooper!)

chainsaw-main_0.jpg
 
I think you could probably do a great "making of" movie on TCM. The Mob produced the film, "Bryanston Pictures" was the Peraino family who also made a fortune off of "Deep Throat". None of the smaller film backers ever saw a cent of money as a result. Hooper got nothing financially out of the movie because who are you going to complain to. The chainsaw idea came to him while shopping Sears at Christmastime and wading thru the humanity he saw the chainsaw display. Lots of interesting tidbits are there.
 
"Document of the Dead" -- while dated -- is a pretty cool Netflix offering - gets into detail on stuff like:

a) George Romero's making of the original "Dawn of the Dead"
-- having to film at night/quickly clean up in the morning in an otherwise open / functioning mall -- really funny when you think about it
-- having an actual motorcycle gang play the role of .... a motorcycle gang.......

b) His style of filming and editing as noted in previous and subsequent films
-- Hitchcock influences / what got him started into filmmaking etc

c) A high level over view (perfect for ppl like me that know NOTHING about film production) of what the director and producer and other team members DO.......and the distinctions between pre/post production and what activities are usually happening in each

document_of_the_dead.jpg
25_d__0_DocumentOfTheDead.jpg

they reiterate the negotiations process as well -- that film was going to be rated "X" back in the day because of the violence and gore......Romero and his producer bypassed the Motion Picture Assoc of America entirely in order to release it "unrated" in theaters

they felt that losing a sponsor or two here or there -- or having a mall theater (know the film / see the irony) refuse to show the flick -- would be offset by the reputation of the film among those who DID see it, maintaining Romero's original vision of mindless consumption/violence ..... and ultimately make them MORE $

vlcsnap-2013-07-28-02h51m00s98.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: -BBH-
"Based on True Events" only because of the post-mortem mutilation and re-purposing of the human skin and canniballism. Gein made lamp shades, and a woman suit out of skin he stole from dozens of cadavers he dug up from the local cemetery (not to mention other grotesque uses, like a necklace of eyelids complete with eyelashes, etc.).

Otherwise there are ZERO similarities.

The novels/films 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Psycho' are also based on the Gein case.

For the record, he is credited with two murders, but he was and technically still is a suspect in the suspicious death of his brother as well as other suspicious deaths in the area around that time.
 
The novels/films 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Psycho' are also based on the Gein case.

No. That's not right at all. Hannibal Lecter was based on Alfredo Balli Trevino. Has nothing to do with Ed Gein.

I could be wrong and I'm not googling it. But Gein didn't eat his victims. He cut their faces off.
 
But Buffalo Bill wanted to wear his victims skin.

images


Yeah. Good point, 93. Didn't think about that guy. So technically Rabid is correct on that. But I don't think the movie itself was based on gein. I could be wrong and I usually am.
 
  • Like
Reactions: UKGrad93
Interesting tidbits. I always figured the "based on true events" was use of artistic license, kinda like the Coen's did with Fargo. I remember when I was 10 they re-released TCM during the summer to capitalize on the slasher craze. When I heard "based on true events" back then it scared the hell out of me.
 
I wonder if they had go change the opening statement when it was re-released in the 80's?

It once said "What you are about to see is a true story..." in the opening monologue from Dan Laroquette

"Based on true events" is a lot more accurate .... though misleading


It's like if I said......"Willy posted in this thread then ran naked through my house 15 min's ago while painted North Carolina blue -- it appeared his pecker had a string tied to it......on the end was a block of wood.....I think the boy was trying to grow his penal size"

see now??..........THATS based on true events because Willy ***DID*** post in this thread........
 
Last edited:
I mean...........this guy had 3 movies based on him......and those 3 movies were:

1) Psycho
2) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
3) Silence of the Doron Lambs

and apparently at least one character on "American Horror Story".....

I mean THAT was ALL on his resume.......
 
Does anybody know anyone who actually saw it in a first run at a theater? I was 3 or 4 when it came out so I don't have a memory of it but from 8 on up, I was always fascinated with the horror genre. I don't remember Louisville ever having a "grindhouse"-type cinema, it had "art-house" with the Vogue. It seems like it ran a lot at the Drive-ins in the area where it was a fairly regular midnight showing (along with things "Legend of Boggy Creek, Night of the Living Dead) until about 1981 and then video started to kill that off.
 
I mean...........this guy had 3 movies based on him......and those 3 movies were:

1) Psycho
2) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
3) Silence of the Doron Lambs

and apparently at least one character on "American Horror Story".....

I mean THAT was ALL on his resume.......
Ain't too bad for a poor boy from Wisconsin.
 
Last edited:
Does anybody know anyone who actually saw it in a first run at a theater? I was 3 or 4 when it came out so I don't have a memory of it but from 8 on up, I was always fascinated with the horror genre. I don't remember Louisville ever having a "grindhouse"-type cinema, it had "art-house" with the Vogue. It seems like it ran a lot at the Drive-ins in the area where it was a fairly regular midnight showing (along with things "Legend of Boggy Creek, Night of the Living Dead) until about 1981 and then video started to kill that off.

Drive-ins were the "grindhouse" theaters. The one I went to usually had a "hit" that was currently ranked high in the box office, but the "co-hits" were trash, haha. Some examples:

Star Wars with co-hit The Crater Lake Monster
Octopussy with co-hit Vigilante
Raiders of the Lost Ark with co-hit The Boogens
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT