This Texas Chainsaw Massacre trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and starts with Tobe Hooper's 1974 original: the five friends in the van, the hitchhiker, the gas station, the meat hook, the dinner scene shot over a full sweltering day, and the girl in the pickup truck laughing as Leatherface swings his saw at the sunrise. It covers the making of the film too: the sub-$140,000 budget, the unwashed costume, the real animal remains, the narrator paid in marijuana, the mob-linked distributor and the countries that banned it. Then it moves through the franchise: Dennis Hopper and the black-comedy sequel, Viggo Mortensen and Matthew McConaughey's early appearances, Michael Bay's 2003 remake, the actors under the mask, Leatherface's various real names, and the 2022 Netflix film. Difficulty runs from easy to hard, and it is shown on every question. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its citation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed the original 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?
Tobe Hooper
He also produced it and co-wrote the score. He co-wrote the script with Kim Henkel.
Q 02Roughly how much did the 1974 original cost to make?
Less than $140,000
It went on to gross more than $30 million domestically, though most of the profits vanished into distributor Bryanston, a company with mob ties.
Q 03Which real-life Wisconsin killer partly inspired Leatherface and the film's grisly details?
Ed Gein
Despite the 'based on true events' marketing, the plot is almost entirely fictional. Gein also inspired Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs.
Q 04Which actor played Leatherface in the 1974 original?
Gunnar Hansen
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.
Q 05Who plays Sally Hardesty, the film's final girl?
Marilyn Burns
One critic called hers 'one of the most sustained and believable acting achievements in movie history'. She was genuinely cut during the dinner scene.
Q 06Which future Night Court star performed the film's opening narration?
John Larroquette
He was paid in marijuana. He returned to narrate the 2003 remake for rather more.
Q 07On what date does the film's opening text say the events took place?
August 18, 1973
That morning a grave robber steals corpses from a cemetery, which is what brings Sally and Franklin to check on their grandfather's grave.
Q 08How many friends set out on the road trip at the start of the original film?
Five
Sally, Jerry, Pam, Kirk and Sally's brother Franklin, who uses a wheelchair.
Q 09With what weapon does the hitchhiker attack Franklin in the van?
A straight razor
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.
Q 10How is Kirk, the first victim, killed when he wanders into the farmhouse?
With a hammer
Leatherface then slams the metal door shut. The chainsaw comes out moments later, for dismembering him while Pam watches from the meat hook.
Q 11Which character is impaled on a meat hook in the film's most notorious scene?
Pam
She had gone looking for Kirk and stumbled into a room furnished with human and animal bones.
Q 12How does Sally escape from the farmhouse the first time?
By jumping through a second-floor window
She runs to the gas station, where the proprietor comforts her, then beats her with a broom handle and takes her back.
Q 13During the dinner scene, why do the brothers cut Sally's finger?
So Grandpa can suck her blood
Q 21What happened to the farmhouse used in the original film?
It became a restaurant in Kingsland, Texas
The early-1900s house originally stood on Quick Hill Road near Round Rock.
Q 22Which prestigious institution holds the film in its permanent collection?
The Museum of Modern Art
It was also selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1975 and added to the National Film Registry in 2024.
Q 23How many different masks did Leatherface wear in the 1974 film?
Three
The Killing Mask, the Old Lady Mask and the Pretty Woman Mask, each signalling a different mood, since he never speaks.
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.
Q 14How does the hitchhiker die at the end of the original film?
He is run over by a truck
The truck driver then hits Leatherface with a wrench, and Sally escapes in the bed of a passing pickup, laughing hysterically.
Q 15What is the film's closing image?
Leatherface swinging his saw at the dawn sky
Fans call it the 'Chainsaw Dance'. Sally is in the back of the truck, covered in blood and laughing.
Q 16How hot did it get on set during the summer 1973 shoot near Round Rock, Texas?
Up to 110 °F
Real decomposing animal remains were used as set dressing, so the smell inside the farmhouse was reportedly unbearable.
Q 17Which of these was one of the film's working titles?
Head Cheese
Others considered were Saturn in Retrograde, Stalking Leatherface and simply Leatherface. Officially the title is spelled 'Chain Saw', two words.
Q 18What rating did the director reportedly hope the uncut 1974 film would receive?
PG
He believed the lack of on-screen gore might get it through. After cuts, it was resubmitted and received an R.
Q 19Where did the idea of a chainsaw as murder weapon first come to the director?
In the hardware section of a busy store
He was stuck in a Christmas crowd and imagined the fastest way through it.
Q 20While the British ban on the film was in force, what else was barred from UK cinema titles?
The word 'chainsaw'
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.
Q 24What is the family surname first given to Leatherface's clan in the 1986 sequel?
Sawyer
Jim Siedow's cook character became Drayton Sawyer. The 2003 remake timeline renamed the family Hewitt.
Q 25What is Leatherface's given name in the 2003 remake continuity?
Thomas Hewitt
In Texas Chainsaw 3D and 2017's Leatherface he is Jedidiah 'Jed' Sawyer instead.
Q 26Which star plays chainsaw-wielding lawman 'Lefty' Enright in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2?
Dennis Hopper
Tobe Hooper turned the 1986 sequel into a black comedy, and its poster parodied The Breakfast Club.
Q 27Which character does Bill Moseley play in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2?
Chop Top
He is the metal-plated brother of the dead hitchhiker. Caroline Williams plays the DJ Stretch who is hunted through the family's lair.
Q 28How was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 released in US cinemas after the MPAA refused it an R rating?
Unrated
Cannon Films put it out anyway. Roger Ebert gave it one star and called it a 'geek show'.
Q 29Which future Lord of the Rings star appeared in 1990's Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III?
Viggo Mortensen
He plays Tex, one of the Sawyer clan. R.A. Mihailoff wore the mask that time.
Q 30Which two future Oscar winners starred in the 1995 fourth film, The Next Generation?
Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger
Both were unknowns from Texas at the time. The film was briefly retitled The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.