Chain Reactions

Japanese horror maestro Takashi Miike remembers that he went to see Chaplin’s City Lights when he was 15, but ending up watching The Texas Chain Saw Massacre instead. Today he wonders if he would even be a filmmaker if not for that twist of fate. Novelist Stephen King puts Tobe Hooper’s 1974 slashtastic classic in context with his own work and recalls his own association with the director. Australian film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas describes her long fascination with the movie and how she relates its terrors to a fire in the Outback. In Alexandre O. Philippe’s 78/52 (Festival 2017) engrossing documentary, these three and others speak to the cultural significance of Hooper’s sophomore feature and observe how this low-budget, 16mm gorefest went on to not only captivate a legion of fans but also influence and inspire succeeding generations of filmmakers. —Pam Grady

Attendee Information

This film is part of a 6-film retrospective focus on classic horror films including The Babadook (2014), Carnival of Souls (1962), The Fog (1980), They Live (1988), and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).