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161-513: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 1974 American independent horror film produced, co-composed, and directed by Tobe Hooper , who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel . The film stars Marilyn Burns , Paul A. Partain , Edwin Neal , Jim Siedow , and Gunnar Hansen . The plot follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead. The film

322-470: A special needs school and watched how the students moved and spoke. John Larroquette performed the narration in the opening credits, for which he was paid in marijuana. The primary filming location was an early 1900s farmhouse located on Quick Hill Road near Round Rock, Texas , where the La Frontera development is now located. The crew filmed seven days a week, up to 16 hours a day. The environment

483-413: A 2005 Total Film poll, it was selected as the greatest horror film of all time. It was named among Time ' s top 25 horror films in 2007. In 2008 the film ranked number 199 on Empire magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". Empire also ranked it 46th in its list of the 50 greatest independent films. In a 2010 Total Film poll, it was again selected as the greatest horror film;

644-424: A big budget adaptation of Frank Herbert 's science fiction novel Dune for Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis 's De Laurentiis Entertainment Group , on the condition that the company release a second Lynch project, over which the director would have complete creative control. Although De Laurentiis hoped it would be the next Star Wars , Lynch's Dune (1984) was a critical and commercial flop, grossing

805-410: A billion-dollar deal, acquired New Line Cinema, Fine Line Features , and Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994. The acquisitions proved to be a good move for Turner Broadcasting as New Line released The Mask and Dumb & Dumber , Castle Rock released The Shawshank Redemption , and Miramax released Pulp Fiction , all in 1994. The acquisitions of the smaller studios by conglomerate Hollywood

966-475: A built-in national rating, in order to avoid presenting movies to inappropriately young audiences. Following the advent of television and the Paramount Case , the major studios attempted to lure audiences with spectacle. Widescreen processes and technical improvements, such as Cinemascope , stereo sound, 3-D and others, were developed in an attempt to retain the dwindling audience by giving them

1127-459: A centralized archive. Founded in 1962 by Jonas Mekas , Stan Brakhage , Shirley Clarke , Gregory Markopoulos , and others, the Cooperative provided an important outlet for many of cinema's creative luminaries in the 1960s, including Jack Smith and Andy Warhol . When he returned to America, Ken Anger would debut many of his most important works there. Mekas and Brakhage would go on to found

1288-666: A classic that not only introduced a new villain to the horror pantheon but also influenced an entire generation of filmmakers. According to Rebecca Ascher-Walsh of Entertainment Weekly , it laid the foundations for the Halloween , Evil Dead , and Blair Witch horror franchises. Wes Craven crafted his 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes as an homage to Massacre , while Ridley Scott cited Hooper's film as an inspiration for his 1979 film Alien . French director Alexandre Aja credited it as an early influence on his career. Horror filmmaker and heavy metal musician Rob Zombie sees it as

1449-467: A corpse draped over a tombstone in the opening sequence. Mike Emery of The Austin Chronicle praised the film's "subtle touches"—such as radio broadcasts heard in the background describing grisly murders around Texas—and said that what made it so dreadful was that it never strayed too far from potential reality. It has often been described as one of the scariest films of all time. Rex Reed called it

1610-481: A costly distribution system or concede defeat. The veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. Not only had he been producing pictures for a decade, but he brought along commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge , his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge , and his brother-in-law, Buster Keaton . Contracts were signed with a number of independent producers, especially Samuel Goldwyn , Howard Hughes and later Alexander Korda . Schenck also formed

1771-490: A crowd of like-minded avant-garde filmmakers who were interested in creating films as works of art rather than entertainment. Based upon a common belief that the "official cinema" was "running out of breath" and had become "morally corrupt, aesthetically obsolete, thematically superficial, [and] temperamentally boring", this new crop of independents formed The Film-Makers' Cooperative , an artist-run, non-profit organization which they would use to distribute their films through

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1932-482: A decade. Unlike the former, John Waters released most of his films during his early life through his own production company, Dreamland Productions . In the early 1980s, New Line Cinema agreed to work with him on Polyester (1981). During the 1980s, Waters would become a pillar of the New York–based independent film movement known as the " Cinema of Transgression ", a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe

2093-572: A desert wasteland of dissolution where once vibrant myth is desiccated. The ideas and iconography of Cooper , Bret Harte and Francis Parkman are now transmogrified into yards of dying cattle, abandoned gasoline stations, defiled graveyards, crumbling mansions, and a ramshackle farmhouse of psychotic killers. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre [is] ... recognizable as a statement about the dead end of American experience. — Christopher Sharrett Critic Christopher Sharrett argues that since Alfred Hitchcock 's Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963),

2254-505: A fellow studio convert, George Lucas , a fan of Eraserhead and now the darling of the studios, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct his next Star Wars sequel, Return of the Jedi (1983). However, Lynch had seen what had happened to Lucas and his comrades in arms after their failed attempt to do away with the studio system. He refused the opportunity, stating that he would rather work on his own projects. Lynch instead chose to direct

2415-546: A few dozen or possibly a few hundred screens in select urban markets. Films like these usually cost less than $ 10 million, but frequently less than $ 5 million, with small marketing budgets that escalate if and when a particular film performs. The independent film industry exists globally. Many of the most prestigious film festivals are hosted in various cities around the world. The Berlin International Film Festival attracts over 130 countries, making it

2576-463: A film about meat" and even gave up meat while making the film, saying, "In a way I thought the heart of the film was about meat; it's about the chain of life and killing sentient beings." Writer-director Guillermo del Toro became a vegetarian for a time after seeing the film. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has appeared on various home video formats. In the US, it was first released on videotape and CED in

2737-427: A hammer. They try to include Grandpa in the activity, but Grandpa is too weak. Sally breaks free and runs onto a road in front of the house, pursued by the brothers. An oncoming truck accidentally runs over the hitchhiker, killing him. The truck driver attacks Leatherface with a large wrench, causing him to fall and injure his leg with the chainsaw. Sally, covered in blood, flags down a passing pickup truck and climbs into

2898-405: A larger-than-life experience. The 1950s and early 1960s saw a Hollywood dominated by musicals, historical epics, and other films which benefited from these advances. This proved commercially viable during most of the 1950s. However, by the late 1960s, audience share was dwindling at an alarming rate. Several costly flops, including Cleopatra (1963) and Hello, Dolly! (1969) put severe strain on

3059-564: A lineage of violent films that depict women as weak and incapable of protecting themselves. In one study, a group of men were shown five films depicting differing levels of violence against women. On first viewing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre they experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety; however, upon subsequent viewing they found the violence against women less offensive and more enjoyable. Another study, investigating gender-specific perceptions of slasher films, involved 30 male and 30 female university students. One male participant described

3220-451: A logical conclusion, addressing many of the issues of Hitchcock's film while refusing comforting closure". Robin Wood characterizes Leatherface and his family as victims of industrial capitalism, their jobs as slaughterhouse workers having been rendered obsolete by technological advances. He states that the picture "brings to focus a spirit of negativity ... that seems to lie not far below

3381-478: A loose-knit group of like-minded New York artists using shock value and humor in their Super 8 mm films and video art . Other key players in this movement included Kembra Pfahler , Casandra Stark , Beth B , Tommy Turner, Richard Kern and Lydia Lunch . Rallying around such institutions as the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Anthology Film Archives, this new generation of independents devoted themselves to

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3542-644: A major influence on his work, including his films House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005). The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was selected for the 1975 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight and London Film Festival . In 1976, it won the Special Jury Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in France. Entertainment Weekly ranked the film sixth on its 2003 list of "The Top 50 Cult Films". In

3703-423: A man." Well, that struck me as interesting, that he had this conventional morality at that point. He wanted it known that, now that he was caught, he would do the right thing. So this kind of moral schizophrenia is something I tried to build into the characters. — Kim Henkel Hooper has cited changes in the cultural and political landscape as central influences on the film. His intentional misinformation, that

3864-526: A mere $ 27.4 million domestically against a $ 45 million budget. De Laurentiis, furious that the film had been a commercial disaster, was then forced to produce any film Lynch desired. He offered Lynch only $ 6 million in order to minimize the risk if the film had failed to recoup its costs; however, the film, Blue Velvet (1986), was a resounding success, earning him another Academy Award for Best Director nod. Lynch subsequently returned to independent filmmaking, and did not work with another major studio for over

4025-714: A number of filmmakers responded by building their own cameras and moving their operations to Hollywood, California , where the distance from Edison's home base of New Jersey made it more difficult for the MPPC to enforce its patents. The Edison Trust was soon ended by two decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States : one in 1912, which canceled the patent on raw film, and a second in 1915, which cancelled all MPPC patents. Though these decisions succeeded at legalizing independent film, they would do little to remedy

4186-450: A number of young film makers began to experiment with transgression not as a box-office draw, but as an artistic act . Directors such as John Waters and David Lynch would make a name for themselves by the early 1970s for the bizarre and often disturbing imagery which characterized their films. When Lynch's first feature film, Eraserhead (1977), brought Lynch to the attention of producer Mel Brooks , he soon found himself in charge of

4347-418: A positive review, with an average score of 8.20/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema." The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is widely considered one of the greatest—and most controversial—horror films of all time and a major influence on

4508-565: A profit if they're brought in at the right price. So they provide a good starting place for ambitious would-be filmmakers who can't get more conventional projects off the ground. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre belongs in a select company (with Night of the Living Dead and Last House on the Left ) of films that are really a lot better than the genre requires. Not, however, that you'd necessarily enjoy seeing it. — Roger Ebert, writing for

4669-406: A razor. Burns's costume was so drenched with stage blood that it was "virtually solid" by the last day of shooting. The scene in which Leatherface dismembers Kirk with a chainsaw worried actor William Vail (Kirk). After telling Vail to stay still lest he really be killed, Hansen brought the running chainsaw to within 3 inches (8 cm) of Vail's face. A real hammer was used for the climactic scene at

4830-623: A result of the falling cost of technology to make, edit and digitally distribute films, filmmaking is more widely accessible than ever before. Full-length films are often showcased at film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, South by Southwest Festival, Raindance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Palm Springs Film Festival. Award winners from these exhibitions are more likely to get picked up for distribution by major film distributors. Film festivals and screenings like these are just one of

4991-508: A separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name. Still, even with a broadening of the company, UA struggled. The coming of sound ended the careers of Pickford and Fairbanks. Chaplin, rich enough to do what he pleased, worked only occasionally. Schenck resigned in 1933 to organize a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck , Twentieth Century Pictures , which soon provided four pictures

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5152-467: A story involving the elements of isolation, the woods, and darkness. He credited the graphic coverage of violence by San Antonio news outlets as one inspiration for the film and based elements of the plot on murderer Ed Gein , who committed his crimes in 1950s Wisconsin ; Gein inspired other horror films such as Psycho (1960) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). During development, several names for

5313-581: A studio's ability to package and release their work. This table lists the companies active in late 1935 illustrates the categories commonly used to characterize the Hollywood system. The studio system quickly became so powerful that some filmmakers once again sought independence. On May 24, 1916, the Lincoln Motion Picture Company was formed, the first movie studio owned and controlled by independent filmmakers. In 1919, four of

5474-515: A vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles . While there, the company decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood , a little village that was friendly and positive about the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, In Old California , a Biograph melodrama about California in the 1800s, while it belonged to Mexico. Griffith stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York. During

5635-430: A week, for a month." The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was mainly shot using an Eclair NPR 16mm camera with fine-grain, low-speed Ektachrome Commercial film that required considerably more light than modern digital cameras and even most filmstocks of the day. This allowed more mobility and cost savings over shooting on the standard theatrical 35mm format of the time, without significant sacrifices to image quality. Most of

5796-410: A year after filming concluded. It screened nationally in the United States as a Saturday afternoon matinée and its false marketing as a "true story" helped it attract a broad audience. For eight years after 1976, it was annually reissued to first-run theaters, promoted by full-page ads. The film eventually grossed more than $ 30 million in the United States and Canada ($ 14.4 million in rentals), making it

5957-403: A year to UA's schedule. He was replaced as president by sales manager Al Lichtman who himself resigned after only a few months. Pickford produced a few films, and at various times Goldwyn, Korda, Walt Disney , Walter Wanger , and David O. Selznick were made "producing partners" (i.e., sharing in the profits), but ownership still rested with the founders. As the years passed and the dynamics of

6118-478: Is also more of a push from EU National governments to fund all aspects of the arts, including film. The European Commission for Culture has an Audiovisual sector, for example, whose role is most notably to help distribute and promote films and festivals across Europe. Additionally, the Commission organizes policymaking, research, and reporting on "media literacy" and "digital distribution." As with other media,

6279-399: Is killed by the masked man. With darkness falling, Sally and Franklin set out to find their friends. En route, the masked man ambushes them, killing Franklin with the chainsaw. The man chases Sally into the house, where she finds a very old, seemingly dead man and a woman's rotting corpse. She escapes from the man by jumping through a second-floor window, and she flees to the gas station. With

6440-454: Is perverted and transgressive." In Kim Newman 's view, Hooper's presentation of the Sawyer family during the dinner scene parodies a typical American sitcom family: the gas station owner is the bread-winning father figure; the killer Leatherface is depicted as a bourgeois housewife; the hitchhiker acts as the rebellious teenager. Isabel Cristina Pinedo, author of Recreational Terror: Women and

6601-410: Is said to have observed, "The inmates are taking over the asylum." The four partners, with advice from McAdoo (son-in-law and former Treasury Secretary of then-President Woodrow Wilson ), formed their distribution company, with Hiram Abrams as its first managing director. The original terms called for Pickford, Fairbanks, Griffith, and Chaplin to independently produce five pictures each year, but by

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6762-512: The Austin American-Statesman . For her last call-back he requested that she wear short shorts, which proved to be the most comfortable of all the cast members' costumes. Icelandic-American actor Gunnar Hansen was selected for the role of Leatherface. He regarded Leatherface as having an intellectual disability and having never learned to speak properly. To research his character in preparation for his role, Hansen visited

6923-546: The de facto ban on small productions; the independent filmmakers who had fled to Southern California during the enforcement of the trust had already laid the groundwork for the studio system of classical Hollywood cinema . In early 1910, director D.W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting troupe, consisting of performers Blanche Sweet , Lillian Gish , Mary Pickford , Lionel Barrymore , and others. They began filming on

7084-428: The 12th-highest-grossing film initially released in 1974, despite its minuscule budget. Among independent films, it was overtaken in 1978 by John Carpenter 's Halloween , which grossed $ 47 million. The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. [...] — The opening crawl falsely suggests that

7245-648: The American Civil Liberties Union . Following on the heels of Easy Rider shortly afterward was the revived United Artists' Midnight Cowboy (also 1969), which, like Easy Rider , took numerous cues from Kenneth Anger and his influences in the French New Wave. It became the first and only X rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Midnight Cowboy also held the distinction of featuring cameo roles by many of

7406-555: The Anthology Film Archives in 1970, which would likewise prove essential to the development and preservation of independent films, even to this day. Not all low-budget films existed as non-commercial art ventures. The success of films like Little Fugitive , which had been made with low (or sometimes non-existent ) budgets encouraged a huge boom in popularity for non-studio films. Low-budget film making promised exponentially greater returns (in terms of percentages) if

7567-582: The Chicago Sun-Times Critics later frequently praised both the film's aesthetic quality and its power. Observing that it managed to be "horrifying without being a bloodbath (you'll see more gore in a Steven Seagal film)", Bruce Westbrook of the Houston Chronicle called it "a backwoods masterpiece of fear and loathing". TV Guide thought it was "intelligent" in its "bloodless depiction of violence", while Anton Bitel felt

7728-617: The Mirisch brothers, Billy Wilder , Joseph E. Levine and others. By the late 1950s, RKO had ceased film production, and the remaining four of the big five had recognized that they did not know how to reach the youth audience. In an attempt to capture this audience, the Studios hired a host of young filmmakers (many of whom were mentored by Roger Corman ) and allowed them to make their films with relatively little studio control. Warner Brothers offered first-time producer Warren Beatty 40% of

7889-461: The U.S. domestic box office revenue was from independent studios. The 1990s saw the rise and success of independent films not only through the film festival circuit but at the box office as well while established actors, such as Bruce Willis , John Travolta , and Tim Robbins , found success themselves both in independent films and Hollywood studio films. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990 from New Line Cinema grossed over $ 100 million in

8050-599: The World War I effort. Already veterans of Hollywood, the four film stars began to talk of forming their own company to better control their own work as well as their futures. They were spurred on by the actions of established Hollywood producers and distributors, who were making moves to tighten their control over their stars' salaries and creative license. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before things had formalized. When he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland , head of Metro Pictures ,

8211-402: The best and most influential horror films . It is credited with originating several elements common in the slasher genre, including the use of power tools as murder weapons and the characterization of the killer as a large, hulking, masked figure. It led to a franchise that continued the story of Leatherface and his family through sequels, prequels, a remake, comic books, and video games. In

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8372-404: The blockbuster Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. In fact, the only two movies of the movement which can be described as uncompromisingly independent are Easy Rider at the beginning, and Peter Bogdanovich 's They All Laughed , at the end. Peter Bogdanovich bought back the rights from the studio to his 1980 film and paid for its distribution out of his own pocket, convinced that

8533-406: The " final girl " trope—the heroine and inevitable lone survivor who somehow escapes the horror that befalls the other characters: Sally Hardesty is wounded and tortured, yet manages to survive with the help of a male truck driver. Critics argue that even in exploitation films in which the ratio of male and female deaths is roughly equal, the images that linger will be of the violence committed against

8694-627: The "film you are about to see is true", was a response to being "lied to by the government about things that were going on all over the world". It reflected the skepticism against the Richard Nixon administration in the wake of the Watergate , the 1973 oil crisis , the 1973 economic recession , and "the massacres and atrocities in the Vietnam War ". The "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" that Hooper noticed while watching

8855-659: The "prosumer" camera segment and film schools for those who are less autodidactic. Film programs in universities such as NYU in New York and USC in Los Angeles have benefited from this transitional growth. The economic side of filmmaking is also less of an obstacle than before, because the backing of a major studio is no longer needed to access necessary movie funding. Crowdfunding services like Kickstarter , Pozible , and Tubestart have helped people raise thousands of dollars; enough to fund their own, low-budget productions. As

9016-485: The $ 5 million film The Elephant Man (1980) for Paramount. Though Eraserhead was strictly an out-of-pocket, low-budget, independent film, Lynch made the transition with unprecedented grace. The film was a huge commercial success, and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay nods for Lynch. It also established his place as a commercially viable, if somewhat dark and unconventional, Hollywood director. Seeing Lynch as

9177-423: The 1950s progressed, the new low-budget paradigm of filmmaking gained increased recognition internationally, with films such as Satyajit Ray 's critically acclaimed Apu Trilogy (1955–1959). Unlike the films made within the studio system, these new low-budget films could afford to take risks and explore new artistic territory outside the classical Hollywood narrative. Maya Deren was soon joined in New York by

9338-407: The 1982 horror film The Thing , arranged for a private screening for some of Bryanston's West Coast executives, and received 1.5% of Vortex's profits and a deferred fee of $ 500 (about $ 2,400 inflation-adjusted). On August 28, 1974, Louis Peraino of Bryanston agreed to distribute the film worldwide, from which Bozman and Skaaren would receive $ 225,000 (about $ 1,100,000 inflation-adjusted) and 35% of

9499-538: The American horror film has been defined by the questions it poses "about the fundamental validity of the American civilizing process", concerns amplified during the 1970s by the "delegitimation of authority in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate ". "If Psycho began an exploration of a new sense of absurdity in contemporary life, of the collapse of causality and the diseased underbelly of American Gothic", he writes, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre "carries this exploration to

9660-479: The B-grade shlock film soon fell to the level of the Z movie , a niche category of films with production values so low that they became a spectacle in their own right. The cult audiences these pictures attracted soon made them ideal candidates for midnight movie screenings revolving around audience participation and cosplay . In 1968, a young filmmaker named George A. Romero shocked audiences with Night of

9821-615: The Edison era of the early 1900s, many Jewish immigrants had found jobs in the U.S. film industry. Under the Edison Trust, they were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons . Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn , Carl Laemmle , Adolph Zukor , Louis B. Mayer , and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to

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9982-627: The Hollywood movie studios to sell their theater chains and to eliminate certain anti-competitive practices. This effectively brought an end to the studio system of Hollywood's Golden Age . By 1958, many of the reasons for creating the SIMPP had been corrected and SIMPP closed its offices. The efforts of the SIMPP and the advent of inexpensive portable cameras during World War II effectively made it possible for any person in America with an interest in making films to write, produce, and direct one without

10143-595: The Living Dead (1968). Variety found the picture to be well-made, despite what it called the "heavy doses of gore". John McCarty of Cinefantastique stated that the house featured in the film made the Bates motel "look positively pleasant by comparison". Revisiting the film in his 1976 article "Fashions in Pornography" for Harper's Magazine , Stephen Koch found its sadistic violence to be extreme and unimaginative. Horror and exploitation films almost always turn

10304-474: The Living Dead , a new kind of intense and unforgiving independent horror film. This film was released just after the abandonment of the production code, but before the adoption of the MPAA rating system . As such, it was the first and last film of its kind to enjoy a completely unrestricted screening, in which young children were able to witness Romero's new brand of highly realistic gore. This film would help to set

10465-526: The Pickford/Fairbanks Studio, but did not own a studio lot as such. Because of this, many of their films would be shot on location. Primarily acting as bankers, they offered money to independent producers. Thus UA did not have the overhead, the maintenance or the expensive production staff which ran up costs at other studios. UA went public in 1956, and as the other mainstream studios fell into decline, UA prospered, adding relationships with

10626-571: The Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing , states, "The horror genre must keep terror and comedy in tension if it is to successfully tread the thin line that separates it from terrorism and parody ... this delicate balance is struck in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in which the decaying corpse of Grandpa not only incorporates horrific and humorous effects, but actually uses one to exacerbate the other." The underlying themes of

10787-613: The Sky, partially led by future President of the Texas State Bar Joe K. Longley provided $ 23,532 (about $ 113,000 inflation-adjusted) in exchange for 19% of Vortex. This left Henkel, Hooper and the rest of the cast and crew with a 40.5% stake. Warren Skaaren , then head of the Texas Film Commission , helped secure the distribution deal with Bryanston Distributing Company . David Foster , who would later produce

10948-449: The United States . The Hollywood oligopoly replaced the Edison monopoly. Within this new system, a pecking order was soon established which left little room for any newcomers. By the mid-1930s, at the top were the five major studios, 20th Century Fox , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Paramount Pictures , RKO Pictures , and Warner Bros. Then came three smaller companies, Columbia Pictures , United Artists , and Universal Studios . Finally there

11109-404: The United States making it the most successful indie film in box-office history to that point. Miramax Films had a string of hits with Sex, Lies, and Videotape , My Left Foot , and Clerks , putting Miramax and New Line Cinema in the sights of big companies looking to cash in on the success of independent studios. In 1993, Disney bought Miramax for $ 60 million. Turner Broadcasting , in

11270-530: The aid of any major film studio . These circumstances soon resulted in a number of critically acclaimed and highly influential works, including Maya Deren 's Meshes of the Afternoon in 1943, Kenneth Anger's Fireworks in 1947, and Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin and Ray Abrashkin's Little Fugitive in 1953. Filmmakers such as Ken Jacobs , with little or no formal training, began to experiment with new ways of making and shooting films. Little Fugitive became

11431-414: The audience primarily on a sensory rather than an intellectual level. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been described as "the ultimate pro- vegetarian film" due to its animal rights themes. In a video essay, film critic Rob Ager describes the irony in humans' being slaughtered for meat, putting humans in the position of being slaughtered like farm animals. Director Tobe Hooper has confirmed that "it's

11592-411: The availability of new technologies has fueled the democratization of filmmaking and the growth of independent film. In the late forties and fifties, new inexpensive portable cameras made it easier for independent filmmakers to produce content without studio backing. The emergence of camcorders in the eighties broadened the pool of filmmakers experimenting with the newly available technology. More recently,

11753-599: The award, and it is part of the permanent collection of New York City's Museum of Modern Art . In 2012, the film was named by critics in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine as one of the 250 greatest films. The Academy Film Archive houses the Texas Chain Saw Massacre Collection, which contains over fifty items, including many original elements for the film. Hooper's apocalyptic landscape is ...

11914-461: The bed, narrowly escaping Leatherface. As the pickup drives away, Sally laughs hysterically while an enraged Leatherface swings his chainsaw in the road as the sun rises. 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 and as a documentary cameraman. He had already developed

12075-482: The best horror movie of all time in a 2017 list by Thrillist . It was also voted the scariest movie of all time in a 2018 list by Consequence of Sound and voted the best horror movie of all time in a 2018 list by Esquire . In 2024, Variety selected it as the greatest horror movie of all time. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was inducted into the Horror Hall of Fame in 1990, with director Hooper accepting

12236-464: The biggest supplier of raw film, Eastman Kodak . A number of filmmakers declined or were refused membership to the trust and came to be described as "independent". At the time of the formation of the MPPC, Thomas Edison owned most of the major patents relating to motion pictures, including that for raw film . The MPPC vigorously enforced its patents, constantly bringing suits and receiving injunctions against independent filmmakers. Because of this,

12397-433: The business changed, these "producing partners" drifted away. Goldwyn and Disney left for RKO , Wanger for Universal Pictures , Selznick and Korda for retirement . By the late 1940s, United Artists had virtually ceased to exist as either a producer or distributor. In 1941, Mary Pickford , Charles Chaplin , Walt Disney , Orson Welles , Samuel Goldwyn , David O. Selznick , Alexander Korda , and Walter Wanger —many of

12558-468: The cemetery to check on the grave of Sally and Franklin's grandfather, which appears undisturbed. As the group drives past a slaughterhouse , Franklin recounts the Hardesty family's history with animal slaughter . They soon pick up a hitchhiker , who talks about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse. He borrows Franklin's pocket knife and cuts himself, then takes a single Polaroid picture of

12719-485: The climate of independent horror for decades to come, as films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980) continued to push the envelope. With the production code abandoned and violent and disturbing films like Romero's gaining popularity, Hollywood opted to placate the uneasy filmgoing public with the MPAA ratings system, which would place restrictions on ticket sales to young people. Unlike

12880-569: The craft. Aspiring filmmakers can range from those simply with access to a smartphone or digital camera, to those who write "spec" scripts (to pitch to studios), actively network, and use crowdsourcing and other financing to get their films professionally produced. Oftentimes, aspiring filmmakers have other day-jobs to support themselves financially while they pitch their scripts and ideas to independent film production companies, talent agents, and wealthy investors. This recent technology-fueled renaissance has helped fuel other supporting industries such as

13041-478: The crowd. Hooper and Kim Henkel cowrote the screenplay and formed Vortex, Inc. with Henkel as president and Hooper as vice president. They asked Bill Parsley, a friend of Hooper, to provide funding. Parsley formed a company named MAB, Inc. through which he invested $ 60,000 in the production. In return, MAB owned 50% of the film and its profits. Production manager Ron Bozman told most of the cast and crew that he would have to defer part of their salaries until after it

13202-551: The defiance of the now-establishment New Hollywood, proposing that "all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again." In 1978, Sterling Van Wagenen and Charles Gary Allison , with Chairperson Robert Redford , (veteran of New Hollywood and star of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ) founded the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah and showcase what

13363-461: The early 1980s by Wizard Video and Vestron Video . The British Board of Film Classification had long since refused a certification for the uncut theatrical version and in 1984 they also refused to certify it for home video, amid a moral panic surrounding " video nasties ". After the retirement of BBFC Director James Ferman in 1999, the board passed the film uncut for theatrical and video distribution with an 18 certificate , almost 25 years after

13524-440: The early hours of August 18, 1973, a grave robber steals several corpses from a cemetery near Newt, Muerto County, Texas. The robber ties a rotting corpse and other body parts onto a monument, creating a grisly display that is discovered by a local resident as the sun rises. Driving in a van, five teenagers take a road trip through the area: Sally Hardesty , Jerry, Pam, Kirk, and Sally's paraplegic brother Franklin. They stop at

13685-445: The end, with some takes also featuring a mock-up. However, the actor playing Grandpa was aiming for the floor rather than his victim's head. Still, the shoot was quite dangerous, with Hooper noting at the wrap party that all cast members had obtained some level of injury. He stated that "everyone hated me by the end of the production" and that "it just took years for them to kind of cool off." The gas station featured in several scenes of

13846-463: The fact that it was banned in the United Kingdom was a tribute to its artistry. He pointed out how the quiet sense of foreboding at the beginning of the film grows, until the viewer experiences "a punishing assault on the senses". In Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema , Scott Von Doviak commended its effective use of daylight shots, unusual among horror films, such as the sight of

14007-489: The features released in the United States and usually cost between $ 5 and $ 10 million to produce. Hollywood was producing these three different classes of feature films by means of three different types of producers. The superior products were the large, budget blockbusters and high-cost star vehicles marketed by the six major studio producer-distributors. Budgets on the major studios' pictures averaged $ 100 million, with approximately one-third of it spent on marketing because of

14168-429: The female characters. The specific case of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre provides support for this argument: three men are killed in quick fashion, but one woman is brutally slaughtered—hung on a meathook—and the surviving woman endures physical and mental torture. In 1977, critic Mary Mackey described the meathook scene as probably the most brutal onscreen female death in any commercially distributed film. She placed it in

14329-406: The film could have a successful run in the theaters. During this time, independent producer/director Roger Corman began a sweeping body of work that would become legendary for its frugality and grueling shooting schedule. Until his so-called "retirement" as a director in 1971 (he continued to produce films even after this date), he would produce up to seven movies a year, matching and often exceeding

14490-453: The film have been the subject of extensive critical discussion ; critics and scholars have interpreted it as a paradigmatic exploitation film in which female protagonists are subjected to brutal, sadistic violence. Stephen Prince comments that the horror is "born of the torment of the young woman subjected to imprisonment and abuse amid decaying arms ... and mobiles made of human bones and teeth." As with many slasher films, it incorporates

14651-432: The film in response to complaints about its violence. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was released in the United States on October 11, 1974. While the film initially received mixed reception from critics, it was highly profitable, grossing over $ 30 million at the domestic box office, equivalent with roughly over $ 150.8 million as of 2019, selling over 16.5 million tickets in 1974. It has since become widely regarded as one of

14812-492: The film is based on true events, a conceit that contributed to its success. Hooper reportedly hoped that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) would give the complete, uncut release print a "PG" rating due to its minimal amount of visible gore. Instead, it was originally rated "X". After several minutes were cut, it was resubmitted to the MPAA and received an "R" rating. A distributor restored

14973-628: The film is located in Bastrop, Texas . It now operates as a horror-themed attraction, Texas barbecue restaurant, and motel. To maintain its resemblance to the film, the owners preserved various antiques, including the vintage sign that reads "We Slaughter Barbecue". The production exceeded its original $ 60,000 (about $ 288,000 adjusted for inflation) budget during editing . Sources differ on the film's final cost, offering figures between $ 93,000 (about $ 447,000 inflation-adjusted) and $ 300,000 (about $ 1,400,000 inflation-adjusted). A film production group, Pie in

15134-486: The film propelled some of them into the motion picture industry. The lead role of Sally was given to Marilyn Burns , who had appeared previously on stage and served on the film commission board at UT Austin while studying there. Teri McMinn was a student who worked with local theater companies, including the Dallas Theater Center . Henkel called McMinn to come in for a reading after he spotted her picture in

15295-604: The film was shot. Due to the film's violent content, Hooper struggled to find a distributor, but it was eventually acquired by the Bryanston Distributing Company . Hooper limited the quantity of onscreen gore in hopes of securing a PG rating , but the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rated it R . The film faced similar difficulties internationally, being banned in several countries, and numerous theaters stopped showing

15456-583: The film were considered, including Saturn in Retrograde , Head Cheese , Stalking Leatherface , and Leatherface . I definitely studied Gein ... but I also noticed a murder case in Houston at the time, a serial murderer you probably remember named Elmer Wayne Henley . He was a young man who recruited victims for an older homosexual man . I saw some news report where Elmer Wayne ... said, "I did these crimes, and I'm gonna stand up and take it like

15617-408: The filming took place in the farmhouse, which was filled with furniture constructed from animal bones and a latex material used as upholstery to give the appearance of human skin. The house was not cooled, and there was little ventilation. The crew covered its walls with drops of animal blood obtained from a local slaughterhouse. Art director Robert A. Burns drove around the countryside and collected

15778-428: The filmmaking business would slowly squeeze out the more idiosyncratic of these young filmmakers, while ensconcing the more malleable and commercially successful of them. Film critic Manohla Dargis described this era as the "halcyon age" of the decade's filmmaking that "was less revolution than business as usual, with rebel hype". She also pointed out in her New York Times article that enthusiasts insisted this era

15939-608: The first independent film to be nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the American Academy Awards . It also received Silver Lion at Venice . Both Engel and Anger's films won acclaim overseas from the burgeoning French New Wave , with Fireworks inspiring praise and an invitation to study under him in Europe from Jean Cocteau , and François Truffaut citing Little Fugitive as an essential inspiration to his seminal work, The 400 Blows . As

16100-401: The five-per-year schedule that the executives at United Artists had once thought impossible. Like those of the avant-garde, the films of Roger Corman took advantage of the fact that unlike the studio system, independent films had never been bound by its self-imposed production code . Corman's example (and that of others like him) would help start a boom in independent B-movies in the 1960s,

16261-508: The following year, two New Hollywood directors had become sufficiently established for Coppola to be offered oversight of Paramount's The Godfather (1972) and Lucas had obtained studio funding for American Graffiti (1973) from Universal. In the mid-1970s, the major Hollywood studios continued to tap these new filmmakers for both ideas and personnel, producing films such as Paper Moon (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), all of which met with critical and commercial success. These successes by

16422-576: The force of authentic art, profoundly disturbing, intensely personal, yet at the same time far more than personal". Leonard Wolf praised the film as "an exquisite work of art" and compared it to a Greek tragedy , noting the lack of onscreen violence. Leatherface has gained a reputation as a significant character in the horror genre. Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com said, "In our collective consciousness, Leatherface and his chainsaw have become as iconic as Freddy and his razors or Jason and his hockey mask." Don Sumner called The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

16583-652: The game. Though the eventual breakup of the studio system and its restrictive chain-theater distribution network would leave independent movie houses eager for the kind of populist, seat-filling product of the Poverty Row studios, that same paradigm shift would also lead to the decline and ultimate disappearance of "Poverty Row" as a Hollywood phenomenon. While the kinds of films produced by Poverty Row studios only grew in popularity, they would eventually become increasingly available both from major production companies and from independent producers who no longer needed to rely on

16744-509: The genre. In 1999, Richard Zoglin of Time commented that it had "set a new standard for slasher films". The Times listed it as one of the 50 most controversial films of all time. Tony Magistrale believes the film paved the way for horror to be used as a vehicle for social commentary. Describing it as "cheap, grubby and out of control", Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times declared that it "both defines and entirely supersedes

16905-475: The gross on his film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) instead of a minimal fee. The movie had grossed over $ 70 million worldwide by 1973. These initial successes paved the way for the studio to relinquish almost complete control to the film school generation and began what the media dubbed " New Hollywood ." Dennis Hopper , the American actor, made his writing and directing debut with Easy Rider (1969). Along with his producer/co-star/co-writer Peter Fonda , Hopper

17066-406: The group, for which he demands money. When they refuse to pay, he burns the photo and attacks Franklin with a straight razor . The group forces him out of the van, where he smears blood on the side as they drive off. Low on gas, the group stops at a station whose proprietor says that no fuel is available. The group explores a nearby abandoned house, owned by the Hardesty family. Kirk and Pam leave

17227-403: The house, she stumbles into a room strewn with decaying remains and furniture made from human and animal bones. She attempts to flee but is caught by the man and impaled on a meat hook . The man then starts up a chainsaw, dismembering Kirk as Pam watches. In the evening, Jerry searches for Pam and Kirk. When he enters the other house, he finds Pam's nearly-dead, spasming body in a chest freezer and

17388-481: The house, the masked man reappears, dressed in women's clothing . The proprietor identifies the masked man and the hitchhiker as brothers, and the hitchhiker refers to the masked man as " Leatherface ". The two brothers bring the old man—"Grandpa"—down the stairs and cut Sally's finger so that Grandpa can suck her blood, Sally then faints from the ordeal. The next morning, Sally regains consciousness. The men taunt her and bicker with each other, resolving to kill her with

17549-565: The international box office. It grossed $ 2.5 million in Blu-Ray home sales. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre received a mixed reaction upon its initial release. Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times called it "despicable" and described Henkel and Hooper as more concerned with creating a realistic atmosphere than with its "plastic script". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said it was "as violent and gruesome and blood-soaked as

17710-494: The judging panel included veteran horror directors such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and George A. Romero . In 2010, as well, The Guardian ranked it number 14 on its list of the top 25 horror films. It was also voted the greatest horror film of all time in Slant Magazine 's 2013 list of the greatest horror films of all time. It was also voted the scariest movie of all time in a 2017 list by Complex and voted

17871-487: The large release campaigns. Another class of Hollywood feature film included art films, specialty films, and other niche-market fare controlled by the conglomerates' indie subsidiaries. Budgets on these indie films averaged $ 40 million per release in the early 2000s, with $ 10 million to $ 15 million spent on marketing (MPA, 2006:12). The final class of film consisted of genre and specialty films whose release campaigns were administered by independent producer-distributors with only

18032-778: The largest film festival in the world. Other large events include the Toronto International Film Festival , Hong Kong International Film Festival , and the Panafrican Film and TV Festival of Ouagadougou . The European Union , specifically through the European Cinema and VOD Initiative (ECVI), has established programs that attempt to adapt the film industry to an increasing digital demand for film on video on demand services, outside of theatrical screenings. With this program, VOD offerings are paired with traditional movie screenings. There

18193-427: The leading figures in American silent cinema ( Mary Pickford , Charles Chaplin , Douglas Fairbanks , and D. W. Griffith ) formed United Artists. Each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo . The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, and cowboy star William S. Hart a year earlier as they were traveling around the U.S. selling Liberty bonds to help

18354-400: The local news, whose graphic coverage was epitomized by "showing brains spilled all over the road", led to his belief that "man was the real monster here, just wearing a different face, so I put a literal mask on the monster in my film". The idea of using a chainsaw as the murder weapon came to Hooper while he was in the hardware section of a busy store, contemplating how to speed his way through

18515-408: The man in pursuit, Sally arrives at the gas station when he seems to disappear. The station's proprietor comforts Sally with the offer of help, after which he beats and subdues her, loading her into his pickup truck. The proprietor drives to the other house, and the hitchhiker appears. The proprietor scolds him for his actions at the cemetery, identifying the hitchhiker as the grave robber. As they enter

18676-406: The marketing of independent films is characterized by limited release , often at independent movie theaters , but they can also have major marketing campaigns and a wide release . Independent films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals before distribution (theatrical or retail release). An independent film production can rival a mainstream film production if it has

18837-473: The members of New Hollywood led each of them, in turn, to make more and more extravagant demands, both on the studio and eventually on the audience. While most members of the New Hollywood generation were, or started out as, independent filmmakers, a number of their projects were produced and released by major studios. The New Hollywood generation soon became firmly entrenched in a revived incarnation of

18998-594: The message of the film, they feel indebted to a filmmaker for a career break; their career is otherwise stalled, or they feel unable to manage a more significant commitment to a studio film; the film offers an opportunity to showcase a talent that has not gained traction in the studio system; or simply because they want to work with a particular director they admire. Examples of the latter include John Travolta and Bruce Willis taking less than their usual pay to work with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction . Generally,

19159-401: The most terrifying film he had ever seen. Empire described it as "the most purely horrifying horror movie ever made" and called it "never less than totally committed to scaring you witless". Reminiscing about his first viewing of the film, horror director Wes Craven recalled wondering "what kind of Mansonite crazoid" could have created such a thing. It is a work of "cataclysmic terror", in

19320-504: The necessary funding and distribution. In 1908, the Motion Picture Patents Company or "Edison Trust" was formed as a trust . The Trust was a cartel that held a monopoly on film production and distribution comprising all the major film companies of the time ( Edison , Biograph , Vitagraph , Essanay , Selig , Lubin , Kalem , American Star , American Pathé ), the leading distributor ( George Kleine ) and

19481-567: The offending material, and at least one theater presented the full version under an "R". In San Francisco, cinema-goers walked out of theaters in disgust and in February 1976, two theaters in Ottawa, Canada, were advised by local police to withdraw the film lest they face morality charges. After its initial British release, including a one-year theatrical run in London, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

19642-536: The old studios from financial ruin by providing them with a new formula for success. Indeed, it was during this period that the very definition of an independent film became blurred. Though Midnight Cowboy was financed by United Artists, the company was certainly a studio. Likewise, Zoetrope was another "independent studio" which worked within the system to make a space for independent directors who needed funding. George Lucas would leave Zoetrope in 1971 to create his own independent studio, Lucasfilm , which would produce

19803-600: The original release. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was released on LaserDisc in the United States in November 1993. It was initially released on DVD in October 1998 in the United States, May 2000 in the United Kingdom and 2001 in Australia. Independent film It is not unusual for well-known actors who are cast in independent features to take substantial pay cuts for a variety of reasons: if they truly believe in

19964-419: The others behind, planning to visit a nearby swimming hole mentioned by Franklin. On their way there, they discover another house, surrounded by run-down cars, and run by gas-powered generators. Hoping to barter for gas, Kirk enters the house through the unlocked door, while Pam waits outside. As he searches the house, a large man wearing a mask made of skin appears and murders Kirk with a hammer. When Pam enters

20125-628: The picture was better than what the studio believed — he eventually went bankrupt because of this. In retrospect, it can be seen that Steven Spielberg 's Jaws (1975) and George Lucas 's Star Wars (1977) marked the beginning of the end for the New Hollywood. With their unprecedented box-office successes, these movies jump-started Hollywood's blockbuster mentality, giving studios a new paradigm as to how to make money in this changing commercial landscape. The focus on high-concept premises, with greater concentration on tie-in merchandise (such as toys), spin-offs into other media (such as soundtracks), and

20286-431: The potential of independent film could be. At the time, the main focus of the event was to present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions; however it also included a small program of new independent films. The jury of the 1978 festival was headed by Gary Allison , and included Verna Fields , Linwood Gale Dunn , Katherine Ross , Charles E. Sellier Jr. , Mark Rydell , and Anthea Sylbert . In 1981,

20447-485: The principal aim of which was to bring in the youth market which the major studios had lost touch with. By promising sex , wanton violence , drug use , and nudity , these films hoped to draw audiences to independent theaters by offering to show them what the major studios could not. Horror and science fiction films experienced a period of tremendous growth during this time. As these tiny producers, theaters, and distributors continued to attempt to undercut one another,

20608-528: The producers sued Bryanston for failing to pay them their full percentage of the box office profits. A court judgment instructed Bryanston to pay the filmmakers $ 500,000 (about $ 2,400,000 inflation-adjusted), but by then the company had declared bankruptcy. In 1983, New Line Cinema acquired the distribution rights from Bryanston and gave the producers a larger share of the profits. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre premiered in Austin, Texas, on October 1, 1974, almost

20769-638: The production code, this rating system posed a threat to independent films in that it would affect the number of tickets they could sell and cut into the grindhouse theaters' share of the youth market. This change would further widen the divide between commercial and non-commercial films. However, having a film audience-classified is strictly voluntary for independents and there is no legal impediment to releasing movies on an unrated basis. However, unrated movies face obstacles in marketing because media outlets, such as TV channels, newspapers and websites, often place their own restrictions on movies that do not come with

20930-434: The production side of the business. After hearing about Biograph's success in Hollywood, in 1913 many such would-be movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Edison. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio . By establishing a new system of production, distribution, and exhibition which was independent of The Edison Trust in New York, these studios opened up new horizons for cinema in

21091-598: The production, distribution, and exhibition of films. In 1942, the SIMPP filed an antitrust suit against Paramount's United Detroit Theatres. The complaint accused Paramount of conspiracy to control first-run and subsequent-run theaters in Detroit. It was the first antitrust suit brought by producers against exhibitors alleging monopoly and restraint of trade. In 1948, the United States Supreme Court Paramount Decision ordered

21252-415: The profits. Years later Bozman stated, "We made a deal with the devil, [sigh], and I guess that, in a way, we got what we deserved." They signed the contract with Bryanston and, after the investors recouped their money (with interest),—and after Skaaren, the lawyers, and the accountants were paid—only $ 8,100 (about $ 38,900 inflation-adjusted) was left to be divided among the 20 cast and crew members. Eventually

21413-402: The remains of cattle and other animals in various stages of decomposition, with which he littered the floors of the house. The special effects were simple and limited by the budget. The on-screen blood was real in some cases, such as the scene in which Leatherface feeds "Grandpa". The crew had difficulty getting the stage blood to come out of its tube, so instead Burns's index finger was cut with

21574-466: The same people who were members of United Artists—founded the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers . Later members included William Cagney , Sol Lesser , and Hal Roach . The Society aimed to preserve the rights of independent producers in an industry overwhelmingly controlled by the studio system. SIMPP fought to end monopolistic practices by the five major Hollywood studios which controlled

21735-559: The same time that the maverick film students of the American New Wave were developing the skills they would use to take over Hollywood, many of their peers had begun to develop their style of filmmaking in a different direction. Influenced by foreign and art house directors such as Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini , exploitation shockers (i.e. Joseph P. Mawra , Michael Findlay , and Henri Pachard ) and avant-garde cinema, ( Kenneth Anger , Maya Deren and Bruce Conner )

21896-561: The same year that United Artists, bought out by MGM after the financial failure of Michael Cimino 's Heaven's Gate (1980), ceased to exist as a venue for independent filmmakers, Sterling Van Wagenen left the film festival to help found the Sundance Institute with Robert Redford. In 1985, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival, which

22057-417: The screaming, especially Sally's, as the "most freaky thing" in the film. According to Jesse Stommel of Bright Lights Film Journal , the lack of explicit violence in the film forces viewers to question their own fascination with violence that they play a central role in imagining. Nonetheless—citing its feverish camera moves, repeated bursts of light, and auditory pandemonium—Stommel asserts that it involves

22218-483: The scripts were based on studio pitches and subsequently paid for by the studios, the production financing was from the studio, and the marketing and distribution of the films were designed and controlled by the studio's advertising agency. Though Coppola made considerable efforts to resist the influence of the studios, opting to finance his risky 1979 film Apocalypse Now himself rather than compromise with skeptical studio executives, he, and filmmakers like him, had saved

22379-409: The studio system, which financed the development, production and distribution of their films. Very few of these filmmakers ever independently financed or independently released a film of their own, or ever worked on an independently financed production during the height of the generation's influence. Seemingly independent films such as Taxi Driver , The Last Picture Show and others were studio films:

22540-411: The studios. Meanwhile, in 1951, lawyers-turned-producers Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin had made a deal with the remaining stockholders of United Artists which would allow them to make an attempt to revive the company and, if the attempt was successful, buy it after five years. The attempt was a success, and in 1955 United Artists became the first "studio" without an actual studio. UA leased space at

22701-410: The surface of the modern collective consciousness". Naomi Merritt explores the film's representation of "cannibalistic capitalism" in relation to Georges Bataille 's theory of taboo and transgression. She elaborates on Wood's analysis, stating that the Sawyer family's values "reflect, or correspond to, established and interdependent American institutions ... but their embodiment of these social units

22862-408: The switch from film to digital cameras, inexpensive non-linear editing and the move to distribution via the internet have led to more people being able to make and exhibit movies of their own, including young people and individuals from marginalized communities. These people may have little to no formal technical or academic training, but instead are autodidactic filmmakers, using online sources to learn

23023-407: The time the company got underway in 1920–1921, feature films were becoming more expensive and more polished, and running times had settled at around ninety minutes (or eight reels). It was believed that no one, no matter how popular, could produce and star in five quality feature films a year. By 1924, Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis: either bring in others to help support

23184-433: The title promises", yet praised its acting and technical execution. Donald B. Berrigan of The Cincinnati Enquirer praised the lead performance of Burns: "Marilyn Burns, as Sally, deserves a special Academy Award for one of the most sustained and believable acting achievements in movie history." Patrick Taggart of the Austin American-Statesman hailed it as the most important horror film since George A. Romero's Night of

23345-636: The top Warhol superstars , who had already become symbols of the militantly anti-Hollywood climate of NYC's independent film community. Within a month, another young Corman trainee, Francis Ford Coppola , made his debut in Spain at the Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival with The Rain People (1969), a film he had produced through his own company, American Zoetrope . Though The Rain People

23506-444: The use of sequels (which had been made more respectable by Coppola's The Godfather Part II ), all showed the studios how to make money in the new environment. On realizing how much money could potentially be made in films, major corporations started buying up the remaining Hollywood studios, saving them from the oblivion which befell RKO in the 50s. Eventually, even RKO was revived, the corporate mentality these companies brought to

23667-466: The very notion of the exploitation picture". In his book Dark Romance: Sexuality in the Horror Film , David Hogan called it "the most affecting gore thriller of all and, in a broader view, among the most effective horror films ever made ... the driving force of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is something far more horrible than aberrant sexuality: total insanity." According to Bill Nichols, it "achieves

23828-449: The words of horror novelist Stephen King , who declared, "I would happily testify to its redeeming social merit in any court in the country." Critic Robin Wood found it one of the few horror films to possess "the authentic quality of nightmare". Quentin Tarantino called it "one of the few perfect movies ever made." Based on 85 reviews published since 2000, the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 84% of critics gave it

23989-401: Was " Poverty Row ", a catch-all term used to encompass any other smaller studio that managed to fight their way up into the increasingly exclusive movie business. While the small studios that made up Poverty Row could be characterized as existing "independently" of any major studio, they utilized the same kind of vertically and horizontally integrated systems of business as the larger players in

24150-636: Was "when American movies grew up (or at least starred underdressed actresses); when directors did what they wanted (or at least were transformed into brands); when creativity ruled (or at least ran gloriously amok, albeit often on the studio's dime)." During the 1970s, shifts in thematic depictions of sexuality and violence occurred in American cinema, prominently featuring heightened depictions of realistic sex and violence. Directors who wished to reach mainstream audiences of Old Hollywood quickly learned to stylize these themes to make their films appealing and attractive rather than repulsive or obscene. However, at

24311-522: Was a plan in part to take over the independent film industry and at the same time start "independent" studios of their own. The following are all "indie" studios owned by conglomerate Hollywood: By the early 2000s, Hollywood was producing three different classes of films: 1) big-budget blockbusters , 2) art films , specialty films and niche-market films produced by the conglomerate-owned "indies" and 3) genre and specialty films coming from true indie studios and producers. The third category comprised over half

24472-663: Was broadcast a year later on Channel 4 . When the 83-minute version of the film was submitted to the Australian Classification Board by distributor Seven Keys in June 1975, the Board denied the film a classification, and similarly refused classification of a 77-minute print in December that year. In 1981, the 83-minute version submitted by Greater Union Film Distributors was again refused registration. It

24633-481: Was experiencing financial difficulties. Gary Beer and Sterling Van Wagenen spearheaded production of the inaugural Sundance Film Festival which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby. In 1991, the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival, after Redford's famous role as The Sundance Kid . Through this festival the Independent Cinema movement

24794-408: Was hot and the cast and crew found conditions tough; temperatures peaked at 110° F (43 °C) on July 26. Hansen later recalled, "It was 95, 100 degrees every day during filming. They wouldn't wash my costume because they were worried that the laundry might lose it, or that it would change color. They didn't have enough money for a second costume. So I wore that [mask] 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days

24955-600: Was initially banned on the advice of British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) Secretary Stephen Murphy, and subsequently by his successor, James Ferman . While the British ban was in force the word "chainsaw" itself was barred from movie titles, forcing imitators to rename their films. In 1998, despite the BBFC ban, Camden London Borough Council granted the film a license. The following year the BBFC passed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre uncut for release with an 18 certificate , and it

25116-645: Was largely overlooked by American audiences, Zoetrope would become a powerful force in New Hollywood. Through Zoetrope, Coppola formed a distribution agreement with studio giant Warner Bros., which he would exploit to achieve wide releases for his films without making himself subject to their control. These three films provided the major Hollywood studios with both an example to follow and a new crop of talent to draw from. Zoetrope co-founder George Lucas made his feature film debut with THX 1138 (1971), also released by Zoetrope through their deal with Warner Bros., announcing himself as another major talent of New Hollywood. By

25277-475: Was later submitted by Filmways Australasian Distributors and approved for an "R" rating in 1984. It was banned for periods in many other countries , including Brazil, Chile, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and West Germany. In Sweden, it would also symbolize a video nasty , a discussed topic at the time. The film was released in 2021 in Australia and 2024 in Russia, grossing $ 36,879 at

25438-562: Was launched. Such notable figures as Kevin Smith , Robert Rodriguez , Quentin Tarantino , David O. Russell , Paul Thomas Anderson , Steven Soderbergh , James Wan , Hal Hartley , Joel and Ethan Coen and Jim Jarmusch garnered resounding critical acclaim and unprecedented box office sales. The significance of the Sundance Film Festival is documented in the work of Professor Emanuel Levy Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film, (NYU Press, 1999; 2001). In 2005, about 15% of

25599-450: Was marketed as being based on true events to attract a wider audience and to act as a subtle commentary on the era's political climate. Although the character of Leatherface and minor story details were inspired by the crimes of murderer Ed Gein , its plot is largely fictional. Hooper produced the film for less than $ 140,000 ($ 700,000 adjusted for inflation) and used a cast of relatively unknown actors drawn mainly from central Texas, where

25760-408: Was responsible for one of the first completely independent films of New Hollywood. Easy Rider debuted at Cannes and garnered the "First Film Award" ( French : Prix de la premiere oeuvre ) after which it received two Oscar nominations, one for best original screenplay and one for Corman-alum Jack Nicholson 's breakthrough performance in the supporting role of George Hanson, an alcoholic lawyer for

25921-548: Was sold to a distributor. Vortex made the idea more attractive by awarding them a share of its potential profits, ranging from 0.25 to 6%, similar to mortgage points . The cast and crew were not informed that Vortex owned only 50%, which meant their points were worth half of the assumed value. Many of the cast members at the time were relatively unknown actors—Texans who had played roles in commercials, television, and stage shows, as well as performers whom Hooper knew personally, such as Allen Danziger and Jim Siedow . Involvement in

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