Tom Dunlap
Addicted to ArboristSite
What chainsaws were used in the original? I seem to remember seeing a poster once and the saw looked like a Poulan 306. What brand do they use in the remake?
Here's the full story:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/chainsaw.asp
And the myth:
Actually, the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been promoted as being "based on a true
incident" for quite a few years now, as the original videocassette cover includes the
following synopsis:
The film is an account of a tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally
Hardesty. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare when they were
exposed to an insane and macabre family of chain saw killers. One by one they disappear
to be brutally butchered, each murder more horrendous than the last with one victim being
hung live on a meat hook, another trapped in his wheelchair as he is hacked to death and
the surviving member of the group making a frantic bid for escape in the horrific climax.
This video cassette is based on a true incident and is definitely not for the squeamish or
the nervous.
So, true story or not? Certainly there was no real family of cannibalistic chainsaw
murderers slaughtering people in Texas, nor any actual series of chainsaw-related killings.
Writer/director Tobe Hooper said the inspiration for the film came from his spotting a
display of chainsaws while standing in the hardware section of a crowded store:
I was in the Montgomery Ward's out in Capital Plaza. I had been working on this other story
for some months — about isolation, the woods, the darkness, and the unknown. It
was around holiday season, and I found myself in the Ward's hardware department, and I
was still kind of percolating on this idea of isolation and such. And those big crowds have
always gotten to me. There were just so many people to go through. And I was just
standing there in front of an upright display of chainsaws. And the focus just racked from
my eyeball to the people to the saws — and the idea popped. I said, "Ooh, I know
how I could get out of this place fast — if I just start one of these things up and
make that sound." Of course I didn't. That was just a fantasy.
Tom
Here's the full story:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/chainsaw.asp
And the myth:
Actually, the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been promoted as being "based on a true
incident" for quite a few years now, as the original videocassette cover includes the
following synopsis:
The film is an account of a tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally
Hardesty. For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare when they were
exposed to an insane and macabre family of chain saw killers. One by one they disappear
to be brutally butchered, each murder more horrendous than the last with one victim being
hung live on a meat hook, another trapped in his wheelchair as he is hacked to death and
the surviving member of the group making a frantic bid for escape in the horrific climax.
This video cassette is based on a true incident and is definitely not for the squeamish or
the nervous.
So, true story or not? Certainly there was no real family of cannibalistic chainsaw
murderers slaughtering people in Texas, nor any actual series of chainsaw-related killings.
Writer/director Tobe Hooper said the inspiration for the film came from his spotting a
display of chainsaws while standing in the hardware section of a crowded store:
I was in the Montgomery Ward's out in Capital Plaza. I had been working on this other story
for some months — about isolation, the woods, the darkness, and the unknown. It
was around holiday season, and I found myself in the Ward's hardware department, and I
was still kind of percolating on this idea of isolation and such. And those big crowds have
always gotten to me. There were just so many people to go through. And I was just
standing there in front of an upright display of chainsaws. And the focus just racked from
my eyeball to the people to the saws — and the idea popped. I said, "Ooh, I know
how I could get out of this place fast — if I just start one of these things up and
make that sound." Of course I didn't. That was just a fantasy.
Tom
