Tobe Hooper, Texas Chain Saw Massacre director, dies at 74
Horror
film director Tobe Hooper, who set the movie world abuzz with The Texas Chain
Saw Massacre in 1974, has died in California, US media say.
He
died in Sherman Oaks at the age of 74, the Los Angeles county coroner was
quoted as saying by Variety and Movie Web, without giving further details.
His
tale of a family of cannibals with oversized kitchen utensils, laced with dark
humour, became cult viewing.
Hooper
also directed Poltergeist, and the Salem's Lot TV miniseries.
Born in
Austin, Texas, on 25 January 1943, Hooper worked as a college professor and
documentary cameraman before breaking into the film world with Chain Saw.
Shot in
six weeks for less than $300,000 (£128,000), it tells of five young Americans
waylaid by the said cannibals in rural Texas.
Hooper
had got the idea when flustered by crowds in a department store. Finding
himself in hardware, he imagined cutting his way out with a chainsaw.
He
used real skeletons as props, adding to the macabre feel of a film that spawned
a string of inferior slasher movies, with young women usually the victims.
His
supernatural thriller, Poltergeist, written by Stephen Spielberg and released
in 1982, was also hugely successful and became another classic within the
horror genre.
His
TV adaptation of Stephen King's vampire story Salem's Lot was also widely
acclaimed.
Critics
admired Hooper for leaving most of the horror to the imagination. Speaking in
2014 to Interview
Magazine, Hooper explained why the Leatherface character in Chain
Saw wore a mask.
"When
you can't see his face, your imagination goes wild," he said. "When
you can't see, you fill in the blanks with something that's far more
interesting than what can actually be shown."
Once
banned in several countries, the film spawned six sequels, and is said to have
influenced other film-makers, notably Ridley Scott when he was making Alien.
Hooper's
later work for the cinema and television was said to lack the impact of his
early films.
Horror
film fans have had much to mourn this summer already. George A
Romero, who created the Living Dead movie franchise, died last month at
the age of 77.
READ MORE...
Tobe
Hooper: the director who took a chainsaw to wholesome family life
With his macabre horror masterpiece The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre, Hooper found dark inspiration in the shadowy, secretive side of the
American household
Tobe Hooper, ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ and ‘Poltergeist’ Director, Dies
at 74
