14 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Facts That You Probably Never Knew

In 1974, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was one of the most controversial movies ever released. Filmed on a shoe-string budget in Texas, director Tobe Hooper created a movie based loosely on the killer and grave robber, Ed Gein.

The movie would terrify theatre audiences all across the USA, in the belief that what they were seeing was based on a true story. More than four decades on, their have been no less than six sequels trying to recapture the terror and magic of that first movie.

If you were unfortunate enough to watch this movie as a child, it will have undoubtedly given you nightmares.

As a child, believing that a chainsaw wielding madman could be in any house was probably more terrifying than Vigo the Carpathian from GhostBusters 2, and he terrified the life out of everyone!

14 Awesome The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Facts You Probably Never Knew

Director Tobe Hooper claimed to have got the idea for the movie while standing in the hardware section of a crowded store. While thinking of a way to get out through the crowd, he spotted the chainsaws and the idea for the movie was born.

When The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was first being released, the film was so horrifying that people actually walked out on sneak previews.

The film was marketed as ‘based on a true story’, which of course it wasn’t. However, this terrified audiences who believed that what they were seeing was a reenactment of something that really happen.

Ed Gein, whom “Leatherface” was loosely based on, wasn’t a true serial killer, as he actually only killed two people. He was however, a ghoul who stole body parts, only female, from many different graves.

He kept some of the parts in his refrigerator, and skinned one corpse and wore the skin as a dress. Other body parts were used for curtains, chairs and other various household items.

Despite the obvious implications of the film’s title, there is no chainsaw massacre. In fact only one victim is killed by a chainsaw during the entire movie. Two more are bludgeoned, one is impaled on a meat hook and one is run over by a semi-truck.

During the dinner scene towards the end of the film, when Leatherface cuts Sally’s finger, actress Marilyn Burns actually moved her finger so the blade would cut her.

This was because they couldn’t get the fake blood to come out of the blood tube behind the blade. The crew were running out of options after numerous takes, so Marilyn actually cut her finger.

The chainsaw is actually only seen cutting the flesh of one character on-screen, and that is the leg of Leatherface at the very end of the movie.

The close-up of Leatherface cutting his leg on the chainsaw was the very last shot to be filmed. The actor Gunnar Hansen was wearing a metal plate over his leg, this was covered with a piece of meat and a blood bag.

His scream was the actor’s genuine scream of pain, as the chain repeatedly hit the plate. The friction from this caused the plate to get very hot and it burned his leg.

Though its teeth were removed for some shots, the saw Leatherface wielded in the film was indeed a working chainsaw. They used a Poulan 245A with the name covered up with tape to avoid any copyright infringement issues.

When the teeth were not removed it sometimes put the cast in danger. Gunnar Hanson, who played Leatherface, had never used a chainsaw in his life before filming.

At the time of filming, Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface, was 27 years old. His brother, played by Jim Siedow, was 54 years old, and John Dugan who played the grandfather was 34 years old.

Tobe Hooper intended to make the movie for a “PG” rating, by keeping violence moderate, language mild, and having most of the horror implied off-screen rather than shown in great detail onscreen. However, this plan had actually backfired, and made the film even more terrifying.

Despite cutting the movie and repeated submissions, the Ratings Board insisted on an “X” rating. It wasn’t until the film received the “R” rating when Hooper gave up and finally released it.

The movie was rejected by the British film censors in 1975. It did get a limited cinema release in the London area, thanks to the GLC (Greater London Council).

The movie was banned again in 1977, when the censors attempts to cut it were unsuccessful (for the purposes of a wider release). It was then banned again in 1984, due to the growing controversy involving “video nasties”.

In 1999, after the censors finally changed their policy, they took the plunge and passed it uncut for cinema and video. By then it had been 25 years since it was first banned in Britain.

This film has had a long and troubled “relationship” with German law. The original theatrical version in West Germany was denied a rating and therefore cut. In 1982 it was put on the index for youth-endangering media. Then in 1985 it was banned by the Munich district court and all existing copies were confiscated.

From April 2008 the new German licensee, Turbine Medien, had tried to get the banning revoked and the film removed from the index.

In September 2011 the district court of Frankfurt am Main finally lifted the banning. It was the first time in Germany that such an attempt was successful, making judiciary history. Finally, in December 2011 the film was removed from the BPjM index. It was subsequently rated “Not under 18” by the FSK.

The movie was also banned in Finland, Chile, Iceland, Ireland, Brazil, Australia, Norway, Singapore and Sweden, to name a few….

Since the film’s release, the location of the Leatherface family home has changed. In 1988 the property was chopped into six parts, moved 60 miles away, then reassembled and turned into a restaurant, as you can see here.