This day in history: American horror movie director, screenwriter, and producer Tobe Hooper died on this day in 2017. Hooper's breakout film was 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was Hooper's attempt to make a modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was produced on a budget of $60,000 and would go on to make over 30 million dollars.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been described as "the ultimate pro-vegetarian film" due to its animal rights themes. In a video essay, film critic Rob Ager describes the irony in humans' being slaughtered for meat, putting humans in the position of being slaughtered like farm animals. Director Tobe Hooper has confirmed that "it's a film about meat" and even gave up meat while making the film, saying, "In a way I thought the heart of the film was about meat; it’s about the chain of life and killing sentient beings." Writer-director Guillermo del Toro became a vegetarian for a time after seeing the film.
The film was marketed as being based on true events, though in reality it was a work of fiction. However, the character of Leatherface and minor story details were inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein who committed his crimes back in the 1950's. Ed Gein's crimes would also go on to inspire Hitchcock's Psycho, and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
The film went on to become a classic of the genre, and was described in 2010 by The Guardian as "one of the most influential films ever made." Hooper subsequently directed the horror film Eaten Alive (1977), followed by the 1979 miniseries Salem's Lot, an adaptation of the novel by Stephen King. Following this, Hooper signed on to direct The Funhouse, a major studio slasher film distributed by Universal Pictures. The following year, he directed the supernatural thriller Poltergeist, which was written and produced by Steven Spielberg.
In the 1980s, Hooper directed two science fiction horror films: Lifeforce (1985) and Invaders from Mars (1986), followed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), a big-budget sequel to his original film. The 1990s saw Hooper directing various horror and sci-fi projects, including Spontaneous Combustion (1990), which he also co-wrote; the television anthology film Body Bags (1993); and The Mangler (1995), another adaptation of a Stephen King story.
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Hooper directed several projects throughout the 2000s, including the monster film Crocodile (2000), an episode of the sci-fi miniseries Taken (2002), and two episodes of Masters of Horror (2005–2006). He would also co-produce another Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003 starring Jessica Biel (one of my favorite movies). He would also go on to produce The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) and Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013).
The British Film Institute cited Hooper as one of the most influential horror filmmakers of all time. Ranker has Tobe Hooper listed as one of the top 10 best horror directors in film history, alongside John Carpenter, George Romero, Wes Craven, Alfred Hitchcock, Sam Raimi, James Wan, David Cronenberg, Guillermo del Toro and James Whale.
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