50 Fun Facts About Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Who directed the original 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?

He also produced it and co-wrote the score. He co-wrote the script with Kim Henkel.

Roughly how much did the 1974 original cost to make?

It went on to gross more than $30 million domestically, though most of the profits vanished into distributor Bryanston, a company with mob ties.

Which real-life Wisconsin killer partly inspired Leatherface and the film's grisly details?

Despite the 'based on true events' marketing, the plot is almost entirely fictional. Gein also inspired Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs.

Which actor played Leatherface in the 1974 original?

He wore the mask 12 to 16 hours a day for a month, and the crew refused to wash his costume in case the laundry lost it.

Who plays Sally Hardesty, the film's final girl?

One critic called hers 'one of the most sustained and believable acting achievements in movie history'. She was genuinely cut during the dinner scene.

Which future Night Court star performed the film's opening narration?

He was paid in marijuana. He returned to narrate the 2003 remake for rather more.

On what date does the film's opening text say the events took place?

That morning a grave robber steals corpses from a cemetery, which is what brings Sally and Franklin to check on their grandfather's grave.

How many friends set out on the road trip at the start of the original film?

Sally, Jerry, Pam, Kirk and Sally's brother Franklin, who uses a wheelchair.

With what weapon does the hitchhiker attack Franklin in the van?

He has just burned a photograph he took of Franklin after the group refused to pay for it. His family, he says, worked at the old slaughterhouse.

How is Kirk, the first victim, killed when he wanders into the farmhouse?

Leatherface then slams the metal door shut. The chainsaw comes out moments later, for dismembering him while Pam watches from the meat hook.

Which character is impaled on a meat hook in the film's most notorious scene?

She had gone looking for Kirk and stumbled into a room furnished with human and animal bones.

How does Sally escape from the farmhouse the first time?

She runs to the gas station, where the proprietor comforts her, then beats her with a broom handle and takes her back.

During the dinner scene, why do the brothers cut Sally's finger?

They then hand the ancient Grandpa a hammer to finish her, but he is too weak to hold it. The scene took more than a day to shoot in brutal heat.

How does the hitchhiker die at the end of the original film?

The truck driver then hits Leatherface with a wrench, and Sally escapes in the bed of a passing pickup, laughing hysterically.

What is the film's closing image?

Fans call it the 'Chainsaw Dance'. Sally is in the back of the truck, covered in blood and laughing.

How hot did it get on set during the summer 1973 shoot near Round Rock, Texas?

Real decomposing animal remains were used as set dressing, so the smell inside the farmhouse was reportedly unbearable.

Which of these was one of the film's working titles?

Others considered were Saturn in Retrograde, Stalking Leatherface and simply Leatherface. Officially the title is spelled 'Chain Saw', two words.

What rating did the director reportedly hope the uncut 1974 film would receive?

He believed the lack of on-screen gore might get it through. After cuts, it was resubmitted and received an R.

Where did the idea of a chainsaw as murder weapon first come to the director?

He was stuck in a Christmas crowd and imagined the fastest way through it.

While the British ban on the film was in force, what else was barred from UK cinema titles?

The film had run for a year in London before the British Board of Film Censors' secretary Stephen Murphy advised banning it. Australia's classification board also refused it.

What happened to the farmhouse used in the original film?

The early-1900s house originally stood on Quick Hill Road near Round Rock.

Which prestigious institution holds the film in its permanent collection?

It was also selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1975 and added to the National Film Registry in 2024.

How many different masks did Leatherface wear in the 1974 film?

The Killing Mask, the Old Lady Mask and the Pretty Woman Mask, each signalling a different mood, since he never speaks.

What is the family surname first given to Leatherface's clan in the 1986 sequel?

Jim Siedow's cook character became Drayton Sawyer. The 2003 remake timeline renamed the family Hewitt.

What is Leatherface's given name in the 2003 remake continuity?

In Texas Chainsaw 3D and 2017's Leatherface he is Jedidiah 'Jed' Sawyer instead.

Which star plays chainsaw-wielding lawman 'Lefty' Enright in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2?

Tobe Hooper turned the 1986 sequel into a black comedy, and its poster parodied The Breakfast Club.

Which character does Bill Moseley play in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2?

He is the metal-plated brother of the dead hitchhiker. Caroline Williams plays the DJ Stretch who is hunted through the family's lair.

How was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 released in US cinemas after the MPAA refused it an R rating?

Cannon Films put it out anyway. Roger Ebert gave it one star and called it a 'geek show'.

Which future Lord of the Rings star appeared in 1990's Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III?

He plays Tex, one of the Sawyer clan. R.A. Mihailoff wore the mask that time.

Which two future Oscar winners starred in the 1995 fourth film, The Next Generation?

Both were unknowns from Texas at the time. The film was briefly retitled The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Which producer's company, Platinum Dunes, made the 2003 remake its very first film?

Marcus Nispel directed, and the $9.5 million film took $107 million, still the franchise's biggest hit.

Who plays Erin, the heroine of the 2003 remake?

Andrew Bryniarski was Leatherface, and R. Lee Ermey's sadistic Sheriff Hoyt was so popular he came back for the 2006 prequel.

Which Full Metal Jacket drill-instructor actor plays Sheriff Hoyt in the 2003 remake and its prequel?

Hoyt is really Charlie Hewitt Jr., who murdered the real sheriff and took his uniform.

How much did the 2003 remake gross worldwide on a budget of just $9.5M?

Adjusted for inflation it is still the top-earning entry in the series, which has taken more than $252 million in total.

How many theatrical Texas Chainsaw Massacre films are there, from the 1974 original through 2022?

They span 1974, 1986, 1990, 1995, 2003, 2006, 2013, 2017 and 2022, with more than one contradictory timeline among them.

On which streaming service did the 2022 film Texas Chainsaw Massacre debut?

Mark Burnham took over as an aged Leatherface, and Sally Hardesty returned, played by Olwen Fouéré after Marilyn Burns's death.

For which console was the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game released in 1983?

Players controlled Leatherface, which caused a small scandal. An asymmetric multiplayer game followed forty years later in 2023.

Which company distributed the 1974 film, and later became notorious for its mob ties and unpaid profits?

Cast and crew saw almost none of the money. Cannon handled the 1986 sequel instead.

In what year was the original film added to the US National Film Registry?

Fifty years after release, the Library of Congress deemed it culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Which of these slasher conventions is the original film credited with originating?

It is also credited with the hulking masked killer and the 'final girl', both of which Halloween and Friday the 13th picked up.

Who co-wrote the 1974 screenplay with the director and served as president of their company?

The pair's company sold cast and crew profit points without telling them it owned only half the film, so their shares were worth half what they assumed.

What was the name of the production company the writers formed to make the 1974 film?

One investor put in $23,532 for a 19 percent stake. Despite the film's huge success, the cast's deferred fees and points paid out a pittance.

The 1974 film was selected for which section of the 1975 Cannes Film Festival?

It also played the BFI London Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize at the Avoriaz fantastic film festival in 1976.

In the 1986 sequel, Caroline Williams's heroine Vanita 'Stretch' Brock does what job?

The sequel was played as black comedy, a tone New Line later tried to leave behind when it took over the franchise for the third film.

Which studio, flush from its Nightmare on Elm Street hits, bought the series for 1990's third film?

CEO Bob Shaye wanted to return to the gritty roots and make Leatherface the star. The film was initially rated X and cut to earn an R.

Which studio produced and released The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in 1986?

The sequel starred Dennis Hopper, Bill Moseley and Jim Siedow, the only actor to return from the original cast.

Who stars as Heather, the Sawyer heir who inherits a Texas mansion, in 2013's Texas Chainsaw 3D?

The film ignores every sequel and picks up directly from the 1974 original, with the town of Newt burning down the Sawyer farmhouse in revenge.

The 2022 film, set 50 years after the original, was shot in which country in August 2020?

The 2017 prequel Leatherface was also filmed there, with locations picked for their resemblance to Texas terrain.

In the 2022 film, young entrepreneurs try to gentrify which abandoned Texas town?

Melody, Dante, Lila and Ruth arrive to auction off old properties. Sally Hardesty returns as a battle-hardened Texas Ranger hunting Leatherface.

In the 2006 prequel The Beginning, brothers Eric and Dean are driving off to enlist in which war?

The story is set in 1969, four years before the remake's events. Sheriff Hoyt tortures Dean after discovering he planned to dodge the draft.