The Texas chainsaw massacre- First feature from a young director named Tobe Hooper. The shooting began on July 15, 1973 in an isolated farhouse on Quick Hill Road just outside the small town of Round Rock, Texas. A few mounts later this movie is to become a renowned cult classic, and Hooper hereafter is to be recognised as the man who did The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Like Alfred Hichcock’s Psycho (1960) and Jeff Gillen & Alan Ormsby’s Deranged (1974), The texas chainsaw massacre was inspired by the criminal life of Wisconsin murder Ed Gein, a grave robber and cannibal who used the skin from his victims to make himself an dress and the bones for decoration of his own home. With friend Kim Henkel, Hooper worked on the screenplay for six weeks. By the time, he was thirty years old, he had already acquired a reputation in Texas with short documentaries and the feature Eggshells - An arty film about the end of peace movement - for which he won an award at the Atlanta film festival.

Most of Hooper’s friends and associates on The Texas chainsaw massacre venture were students and recent graduates of the University of Texas in Austin. Thanks to his reputation, Hooper was able to raise enough funds, with most of the members of the group also agreeing to make a financial investment to assist in production. With the modest budget, helped by Jay Parsley who accepted to co-produce the movie for $60,000, Hooper and Henkel formed Vortex. Each actor and technician taking part in the production was persuaded to work for Vortex free, awaiting the sale of the movie for any payment or profit.

The Texas chainsaw massacre was shot in 16mm during thirty-two harassing days. And for the total budget of $140,000 (The sequel had a budget of $4.7 millions.). Next thing for the creators was to sell the movie to a film company which wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Hooper and Henkel approached several of companies with their movie and only Columbia was interested but their offer was ridiculous. Finally a little distribution company called Bryanston bought the movie for $225,000 with an offer of 35% of the profits Hooper and Henkel was delighted. But not for long: Bryanston disappeared in 1976, leaving the producers astronomically out of pocket. The movie was allready sold to about eighty countries and the profits was up in $20 millions. It wasn’t until Wizard acquired the video rights for $200,000 several years later the creators finally get some money back.