One of horror’s most iconic weapons didn’t begin with a script — it began with a crowded store and a director desperate to get out. Tobe Hooper traced the origin of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s defining prop to a holiday shopping trip, and the story of how a moment of frustration became a genre landmark is as memorable as the film itself.
Hooper dated the shopping trip to December 1972 in a 2004 recollection. He said he’d been trying to work his way out through thousands of shoppers when he reached the hardware department and spotted the saws for sale. “If I start the saw, those people would just part. They would get out of my way,” he recalled thinking in 2014. “That birthed the idea of the chainsaw,” he said.
Hooper said the idea helped connect several things he’d already been considering: isolated college students, drivers queuing for gas during a shortage, and lies coming from the television. His accounts differed on exactly when the story took shape. In 2014, he described the characters coming together on the drive home; in 2004, he said the story arrived at home in about 30 seconds.
Co-writer Kim Henkel recalled Hooper calling after the shopping trip, then working out the story with him. Gunnar Hansen would play Leatherface, with Marilyn Burns as Sally. The crew had just one chainsaw to work with. After Hansen fell during filming, they removed its clutch so the chain would still vibrate.
The film had its Austin premiere on October 1, 1974, and went on to earn over $30 million at the domestic box office.
