Remembering the legacy of Tobe Hooper

The recently deceased filmmaker Tobe Hooper began his filmmaking career with The Heisters, a 1964 comedy short that was the first film ever produced in Austin to be distributed all over USA. It took a decade for Hooper to get nationwide fame with 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. One of the most influential horror films of all time, the film was a low-budget masterpiece and it ranked as one of the most profitable independent films of the decade. Even though The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was an immediate sensation, critics received it with less compassion. A Los Angeles Times critic termed it as “a despicable film,” “ugly and obscene,” and “a degrading, senseless misuse of film and time.” However, the film helped give birth to the slasher genre, revolutionising the entire horror scene. Eventually, critics caught up with the public as the film was screened at Cannes as a part of the Directors’ Fortnight program in 1975, and returned to Cannes in 2014 for a special screening on its 40th anniversary. Tobe Hooper, who died at the age of 74 on Saturday, has made several films which horror fans will remember fondly such as Poltergeist, The Funhouse and Salem’s Lot, but he will forever be remembered for the genre-defining The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Hooper’s Stephen King adaptation, Salem’s Lot, was also a success in 1979, while the slasher film, The Funhouse, achieved cult status. In an earlier interview, Hooper revealed that his mother went into labour at the cinema, and that, his parents were hotel managers who owned a movie theatre in San Angelo. After studying filmmaking at the University of Texas, Hooper worked as a documentary cameraman and later, as a college professor.