A violent horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), is about friends who intend to visit their old homestead but get under the radar of a family of cannibals. The film was said to be based on real-life events while marketing. However, most of its part is fictional, and only a few details were inspired by Ed Gein, an American body snatcher and murderer.
The film gave birth to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, which includes a novel, two video games, and nine books and comics. People from many countries complained about its violence. Thus, several theaters stopped showing the film, and some countries banned it.
New actors were taken for filming. Hansen had to portray Leatherface, who could not speak properly due to his intellectual disability. Thus, he visited a special needs school to observe the students.
The film suffered from budgetary issues, and the producers had to decrease their salaries to pay the investors. However, they agreed to share part of the film’s profits with the actors.
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre Filming Locations
The Gas Station
The ‘Last Chance Gas Station’ shown in the film was a building with a general store. The crew members also added a Coca-Cola and ‘We Slaughter Barbeque’ sign at the entrance.
It was a cumbersome restoration, and the owners did not take those signs down. The building is seventy miles southeast of US-183 and contains a bench made in memory of the Texas Chainsaw cast and crew.
The building has served as a horror museum and a gas station since 2016. It confuses the people. Brave people can stay in one of the four horrifying cabins. To add some spice, some tourists request the general manager to frighten their kids late at night with a chainsaw. So, if you hear a chainsaw there, run because the general manager cannot operate one due to the insurance rules.
Quick Hill Road near Round Rock, Texas
The farmhouse on Quick Hill Road near Round Rock, Texas, was the primary filming location for the film. La Frontera development began there. Later, they moved the house from Kingsland, Texas, and converted it into a restaurant.
However, the budget was between $80,000 and $140,000, which created monetary issues for the production team. They worked throughout the week for sixteen hours with high-end equipment.
The actors and the crew members worked at 430 C in July. Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface, had to wear his mask throughout working hours for a month because the crew members could not afford another one. Similarly, they did not send it for laundry as they did not want it lost or ruined.
Thanks to the Eclair NPR 16mm camera, that turned cost-effective. Talking about the interior of the farmhouse, the furniture was made of latex material and human bones to remind us of human skin.
Hansen visited a nearby slaughterhouse and the countryside to collect animal blood and other remains. He risked other actors’ lives by using dangerous equipment while filming and got hated by the cast and crew members for a long time.
The Graveyard
The graveyard shown at the beginning is the Bagdad Cemetery Association in Leander, Texas. The crew members created an artwork to portray a corpse holding another corpse’s head on a gravestone.
The crew members did not dare to use a real gravestone. Thus, they created one for their artwork. The caretaker allowed the production team to work at the cemetery, though his wife did not. Other monuments shown in the film are real. For instance, Sally Hardesty and her friends visited her grandfather’s grave. It was a real grave.
The Dirt Road
Texas Chainsaw Massacre gave one of the most memorable ending sequences. Hansen had worked the whole night and stood frustrated in the middle of the Dirt Road early in the morning. He held a real, heavy, swinging, and functioning chainsaw. Meanwhile, Sally got into a pickup truck and escaped the situation.
The writer, director, musician, and producer of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, risked his life by getting too close to the functioning chainsaw while filming Hansen in the final sequence. It is how Hooper remembers Hansen for his creepiness. The Dirt Road shown in the film is Old Country Road 172, Quick Hill.
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