1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000
Downloaded from
YTS.LT
2
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000
Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.LT
3
00:00:34,338 --> 00:00:36,384
[film projector]
4
00:00:40,431 --> 00:00:43,913
[indistinct voices]
5
00:01:02,236 --> 00:01:04,238
[woman giggling]
6
00:01:05,282 --> 00:01:06,501
[moans]
7
00:01:08,155 --> 00:01:09,286
Is that all I get?
8
00:01:09,417 --> 00:01:11,767
- No.
- Jeez.
9
00:01:12,724 --> 00:01:14,944
[film projector]
10
00:01:21,037 --> 00:01:23,344
Gee, look at that old place.
11
00:01:23,431 --> 00:01:25,781
[woman] Looks like something
out of a dream.
12
00:01:45,322 --> 00:01:47,281
[ominous music playing]
13
00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:35,459
[woman on TV] Please.[yells]
14
00:02:35,590 --> 00:02:37,722
[Oswalt on TV] I'm so sick
of these romantic comedies
15
00:02:37,853 --> 00:02:39,333
with these non-committal
titles, you know?
16
00:02:39,463 --> 00:02:43,075
Like, "Feeling sorta,
kinda, whoo!"
17
00:02:43,206 --> 00:02:44,816
Something's gotta give!
18
00:02:44,903 --> 00:02:46,601
It's like, that's like
the movie's way of going,
19
00:02:46,688 --> 00:02:50,300
"Don't blame me,
I got nothing to do with this!"
20
00:02:50,431 --> 00:02:53,434
[audience laughing]
21
00:02:53,564 --> 00:02:56,176
Give a movie a title!
22
00:02:56,306 --> 00:02:57,960
Give it... And get
ready to bleep me.
23
00:02:58,090 --> 00:03:00,180
...a motherfucking title!
24
00:03:00,310 --> 00:03:03,183
- [man] Yeah!
- You know what the greatest
movie title ever is?
25
00:03:03,313 --> 00:03:05,185
A movie title should
let you see
26
00:03:05,272 --> 00:03:07,535
a free movie in your head
when you hear the title.
27
00:03:07,622 --> 00:03:10,190
'Cause you go, "Oh, my God,
we gotta go see that!"
28
00:03:10,277 --> 00:03:11,452
Greatest movie title ever?
29
00:03:11,582 --> 00:03:14,281
Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
30
00:03:24,421 --> 00:03:28,599
My first movie memory
is a memory of terror,
31
00:03:28,686 --> 00:03:33,691
because I was at a Halloween
activity day for kids.
32
00:03:33,822 --> 00:03:36,955
I was 5, down in Tustin Meadows,
33
00:03:37,042 --> 00:03:40,524
and it's the early '70s,
and the adults, they meant well,
34
00:03:40,655 --> 00:03:43,048
but they were thinking,
"Oh, let's make pumpkin cookies,
35
00:03:43,135 --> 00:03:45,442
and let's do cut-out black cats,
36
00:03:45,573 --> 00:03:47,966
and we'll show the kids
an old silent movie,
37
00:03:48,097 --> 00:03:50,404
Nosferatu, that'll be
safe for the kids.
38
00:03:50,491 --> 00:03:52,667
It's an old, silent, G-rated."
39
00:03:52,797 --> 00:03:56,497
And they projected
a little eight-millimeter
thing on a wall,
40
00:03:56,627 --> 00:03:59,369
and it was... It was...
41
00:03:59,500 --> 00:04:04,940
It's still one of the scariest
things I've ever experienced.
42
00:04:05,027 --> 00:04:10,206
It's just this square
of light on a wall
in a library activity room,
43
00:04:10,293 --> 00:04:14,515
and we were just pulled out
of early '70s Tustin Meadows,
44
00:04:14,645 --> 00:04:18,127
and into this nightmare-logic
German vampire world.
45
00:04:19,128 --> 00:04:21,609
Really disturbing imagery
46
00:04:24,002 --> 00:04:28,268
that has its own creepy sense
of time and gravity and logic,
47
00:04:28,398 --> 00:04:31,140
and it really, really
messes you up.
48
00:04:32,707 --> 00:04:35,449
Nothing in Nosferatu
moves very quickly.
49
00:04:38,147 --> 00:04:39,975
The vampire rarely moves.
50
00:04:43,457 --> 00:04:47,461
So, it's like a series
of photographs
that are very, very disturbing.
51
00:04:51,552 --> 00:04:54,816
My first "encounters"
with Texas Chain Saw Massacre
52
00:04:54,946 --> 00:04:57,297
were images. I wasn't able to--
53
00:04:57,384 --> 00:05:00,256
I didn't have access
to the movie...
This was now the early '80s.
54
00:05:00,343 --> 00:05:03,868
...but you had access
to Fangoria magazine.
55
00:05:03,999 --> 00:05:07,872
I was used to pictures of films
being very well-lit,
very well-composed.
56
00:05:08,003 --> 00:05:11,006
And these looked like
crime scene photographs
57
00:05:11,093 --> 00:05:13,225
that had been stolen,
and then Xeroxed,
58
00:05:13,356 --> 00:05:15,489
and it was second
and third generation.
59
00:05:15,619 --> 00:05:19,144
And there was something
so primitive
and forbidden and creepy about--
60
00:05:19,275 --> 00:05:23,540
Just the photos of the film
were very, very disturbing.
61
00:05:23,671 --> 00:05:26,369
The title sounds like
you're chewing on flesh.
62
00:05:26,456 --> 00:05:28,066
Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
63
00:05:28,197 --> 00:05:30,417
It sounds like a guy
just ripping into meat.
64
00:05:32,157 --> 00:05:33,115
And now...
65
00:05:34,943 --> 00:05:36,292
let's watch.
66
00:05:40,992 --> 00:05:42,864
- [knocking on door]
- [man] Hello?
67
00:05:43,343 --> 00:05:46,520
[Oswalt] My first viewing
of Texas Chain Saw Massacre
68
00:05:46,650 --> 00:05:51,089
happened on my friend's
small, color TV
69
00:05:51,220 --> 00:05:55,529
in his living room,
with his ancient early '80s VCR,
70
00:05:55,659 --> 00:05:59,097
top-loading, no rewind,
no pause.
71
00:05:59,184 --> 00:06:02,100
You put it in, you hit play,
boom, there you go.
72
00:06:02,187 --> 00:06:03,711
- Hello!
- [Oswalt] I bet his family
73
00:06:03,841 --> 00:06:06,061
spent eight grand on that VCR.
74
00:06:12,154 --> 00:06:14,069
I remember my friend had this.
75
00:06:14,156 --> 00:06:17,464
We watched it at his house.
This is...
76
00:06:17,594 --> 00:06:21,859
I love how they compiled
a bunch of different images.
77
00:06:21,946 --> 00:06:25,080
This is Leatherface running away
from the house at the very end.
78
00:06:25,167 --> 00:06:26,951
That's Pam being hung earlier.
79
00:06:27,082 --> 00:06:28,692
I always loved the detail
80
00:06:28,779 --> 00:06:31,608
of the chainsaw
hitting the "T" and the "H."
81
00:06:31,695 --> 00:06:33,958
It's like he's killing
his own movie.
82
00:06:34,045 --> 00:06:35,786
That's how evil this guy is.
83
00:06:35,873 --> 00:06:37,527
[buzzing]
84
00:06:37,658 --> 00:06:39,224
It has the feel that
85
00:06:39,311 --> 00:06:41,444
the killers in the movie
have stolen a camera,
86
00:06:41,531 --> 00:06:43,272
and are filming all of this.
87
00:06:43,359 --> 00:06:45,405
[screaming]
88
00:06:51,541 --> 00:06:53,848
[Oswalt] The visuals
and the film itself
89
00:06:53,978 --> 00:06:57,852
are ferocious and primitive,
and not quite human.
90
00:06:57,939 --> 00:06:59,593
[woman screaming]
91
00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:03,379
And the stupidity
of the point of view,
92
00:07:03,466 --> 00:07:05,903
of just the animal
stupidity of it.
93
00:07:06,034 --> 00:07:08,166
There's no clever dialogue.
94
00:07:08,253 --> 00:07:09,777
You can make them stop.
95
00:07:09,907 --> 00:07:11,605
No, he can't.
96
00:07:12,257 --> 00:07:13,998
Shut your mouth.
97
00:07:14,129 --> 00:07:15,435
[woman sobbing]
98
00:07:15,522 --> 00:07:18,220
Can't be helped, young lady.
99
00:07:18,307 --> 00:07:20,004
- Oh, please.
- [man 1] Shut up.
100
00:07:20,091 --> 00:07:23,704
- You can't let them kill me.
- Don't pay him no mind.
101
00:07:23,834 --> 00:07:25,923
[Oswalt] There's no negotiating
with this family.
102
00:07:26,010 --> 00:07:29,579
They're not doing it out of
hatred. It's what they are.
103
00:07:29,666 --> 00:07:31,494
You like this face?
104
00:07:31,581 --> 00:07:34,149
[woman screaming]
105
00:07:38,675 --> 00:07:41,373
[Oswalt] Much like in Jaws,
they're like,
106
00:07:41,461 --> 00:07:43,375
"Why are you swimming
in the ocean?
107
00:07:43,463 --> 00:07:46,640
That's where sharks live.
It's kind of your fault."
108
00:07:51,340 --> 00:07:54,386
Man Bites Dog is this
amazing Belgian film
109
00:07:54,474 --> 00:07:57,128
about a film crew,
a young film crew
110
00:07:57,259 --> 00:07:59,391
that are besotted with cinema,
111
00:07:59,479 --> 00:08:01,306
who are following around
a psychopath
112
00:08:01,393 --> 00:08:02,786
while he goes about his day,
113
00:08:02,873 --> 00:08:06,486
and philosophizes
on what life and death are,
114
00:08:06,616 --> 00:08:09,489
and it takes you a while to
realize he's a moron, basically.
115
00:08:09,576 --> 00:08:11,186
But he happens to kill people.
116
00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:14,015
[grunting]
117
00:08:17,061 --> 00:08:19,411
[Oswalt] Man Bites Dog
shares a lot of DNA
118
00:08:19,542 --> 00:08:20,848
with The Texas Chain
Saw Massacre,
119
00:08:20,935 --> 00:08:23,764
but there are moments
in Man Bites Dog
120
00:08:23,894 --> 00:08:26,244
when you see how it's affecting
the film crew,
121
00:08:26,375 --> 00:08:27,811
all the killing
that they're doing,
122
00:08:27,898 --> 00:08:29,247
and eventually,
123
00:08:29,334 --> 00:08:33,687
that there is some kind of
moral judgment going on.
124
00:08:40,563 --> 00:08:42,870
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
is so much more brutal
125
00:08:42,957 --> 00:08:44,785
because the camera is
simply observing.
126
00:08:44,915 --> 00:08:46,177
It has no opinion.
127
00:08:46,264 --> 00:08:48,440
It's not being affected
by what it's seeing,
128
00:08:48,571 --> 00:08:52,619
so you get the full brunt
of what is happening.
129
00:08:52,749 --> 00:08:54,534
[screaming]
130
00:08:54,664 --> 00:08:55,883
[Oswalt] And weirdly enough,
131
00:08:56,013 --> 00:08:57,754
the camera,
it's almost mocking us
132
00:08:57,885 --> 00:09:00,540
in the weird moments of beauty
that it finds.
133
00:09:00,627 --> 00:09:03,455
Almost like, "I'm gonna show you
this moment of beauty,
134
00:09:03,543 --> 00:09:05,893
because you know something
horrible's coming up."
135
00:09:08,678 --> 00:09:10,637
[ominous music playing on TV]
136
00:09:11,594 --> 00:09:12,726
Kirk.
137
00:09:17,731 --> 00:09:20,342
[Oswalt] When Pam gets up
off the swinging chair,
138
00:09:20,429 --> 00:09:21,909
and there's that beautiful shot
139
00:09:22,039 --> 00:09:26,043
of her walking against
the blue sky.
140
00:09:26,174 --> 00:09:28,959
The camera's almost going, "Oh,
you want a nice Hollywood movie?
141
00:09:29,046 --> 00:09:30,657
Well, here's your nice
glamor shot,"
142
00:09:30,744 --> 00:09:33,311
as she's literally
walking into a slaughterhouse.
143
00:09:33,398 --> 00:09:35,139
She doesn't know that,
but we do.
144
00:09:35,226 --> 00:09:38,012
So, the beauty of the shot
itself is mocking us,
145
00:09:38,099 --> 00:09:39,448
and it's amazing.
146
00:09:39,579 --> 00:09:42,364
It just really jangles
your emotions.
147
00:09:43,365 --> 00:09:47,369
He likes what is lurking
beneath what looks like
a picture postcard.
148
00:09:47,978 --> 00:09:52,287
The beautiful Days of Heaven
type shots of the landscape.
149
00:09:52,417 --> 00:09:53,767
Or, you know,
"Oh, this is nice!"
150
00:09:53,854 --> 00:09:56,160
And then it just goes
horribly wrong.
151
00:09:56,291 --> 00:09:58,772
[ominous music playing]
152
00:09:59,773 --> 00:10:03,254
There's one shot in Nosferatu
that totally mirrors
the shot in Texas,
153
00:10:03,341 --> 00:10:05,300
where she gets up off the swing
and walks into the house.
154
00:10:05,430 --> 00:10:08,912
It's a very calm, peaceful,
idyllic shot
155
00:10:08,999 --> 00:10:10,392
of a ship coming into a harbor,
156
00:10:10,479 --> 00:10:14,614
but we know that ship
is crawling with death,
157
00:10:14,744 --> 00:10:17,355
and is bringing the plague
to this city.
158
00:10:17,442 --> 00:10:19,836
He's using it in service
of telling you
159
00:10:19,923 --> 00:10:22,447
that death and destruction
is coming.
160
00:10:22,578 --> 00:10:24,928
And I love it. It's amazing.
161
00:10:25,015 --> 00:10:27,235
I've never forgotten that shot.
162
00:10:27,365 --> 00:10:29,324
[unsettling music playing]
163
00:10:31,587 --> 00:10:33,415
This is my theory
about Texas Chain Saw,
164
00:10:33,545 --> 00:10:37,158
because, again,
I've seen the movie 30 times.
165
00:10:37,288 --> 00:10:40,074
The opening credits
have close-up shots
166
00:10:40,161 --> 00:10:43,033
of storms on the surface
of the sun.
167
00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:45,862
Red storms, just blazing
on the surface of the sun,
168
00:10:45,993 --> 00:10:47,821
and then, in the rest
of the movie,
169
00:10:47,908 --> 00:10:50,998
people are always looking
up at the sun.
170
00:10:51,433 --> 00:10:55,002
It's like the sun itself
has become diseased,
171
00:10:55,132 --> 00:10:59,615
and is bathing the world
in this madness,
172
00:10:59,702 --> 00:11:00,964
and it's starting to take hold,
173
00:11:01,051 --> 00:11:03,401
and we're just following
a small group of people.
174
00:11:03,488 --> 00:11:05,665
I think the madness
in that movie
175
00:11:05,795 --> 00:11:07,536
is spreading all
over the planet.
176
00:11:07,623 --> 00:11:11,279
We are just watching
one tiny incident of it.
177
00:11:11,366 --> 00:11:13,673
Leatherface seems terrified
and horrified
178
00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:15,152
by the fact the people
are in the house,
179
00:11:15,283 --> 00:11:18,373
and doesn't quite
know what to do.
180
00:11:18,503 --> 00:11:20,244
In a weird way,
up until this point,
181
00:11:20,375 --> 00:11:22,856
I feel like Leatherface
was just digging up bones,
182
00:11:22,986 --> 00:11:25,815
but maybe he wasn't really
killing anybody.
183
00:11:25,946 --> 00:11:27,774
He was just digging stuff up,
184
00:11:27,904 --> 00:11:30,080
and making arts and crafts
out of it, and furniture.
185
00:11:30,167 --> 00:11:33,083
But now, people are being
fed into the slaughterhouse.
186
00:11:33,170 --> 00:11:36,826
And, you know, first he clobbers
the guy with a hammer,
187
00:11:36,957 --> 00:11:39,699
the way you would
just stun a cow,
188
00:11:39,786 --> 00:11:40,917
then he grabs the other woman,
189
00:11:41,048 --> 00:11:44,486
and with no diabolism
or passion,
190
00:11:44,616 --> 00:11:47,184
just hangs her on a hook,
turns, goes back to his work,
191
00:11:47,315 --> 00:11:48,795
'cause that's what you do.
192
00:11:48,882 --> 00:11:50,492
And then, after he's killed
the third guy,
193
00:11:50,579 --> 00:11:52,799
he goes into the front room,
and he's looking out the window,
194
00:11:52,886 --> 00:11:54,757
like, "What is happening?
What is happening?
195
00:11:54,844 --> 00:11:57,107
Why are people
coming to this house?"
196
00:11:57,194 --> 00:12:00,110
Like, he's not prepared
for this.
197
00:12:00,241 --> 00:12:01,416
Then, later on,
when his family comes home,
198
00:12:01,503 --> 00:12:03,461
they're yelling at him
and bullying him.
199
00:12:03,592 --> 00:12:06,247
It's like the world
is starting to go crazy.
200
00:12:06,377 --> 00:12:07,857
Are you sure--
201
00:12:07,944 --> 00:12:09,903
[speaking gibberish]
202
00:12:13,733 --> 00:12:14,690
You...
203
00:12:16,083 --> 00:12:17,867
You damn fool!
204
00:12:17,954 --> 00:12:19,347
You ruined the door!
205
00:12:21,958 --> 00:12:26,354
That last shot of Leatherface
waving his chainsaw at the sky,
206
00:12:26,484 --> 00:12:30,140
it's this bright red ugly sun
like we saw in that first image,
207
00:12:30,271 --> 00:12:31,707
the sun storms,
208
00:12:31,794 --> 00:12:34,536
the madness is fully
taking hold of the earth,
209
00:12:34,666 --> 00:12:38,192
and Leatherface is trying to
kill the sun with his chainsaw.
210
00:12:38,279 --> 00:12:41,325
She's in the back of the truck
laughing, she's gone insane,
211
00:12:41,456 --> 00:12:44,720
like the world is now
going insane.
It's an apocalyptic event.
212
00:12:44,807 --> 00:12:46,809
That's what I think
is going on in that movie.
213
00:12:46,940 --> 00:12:48,985
And that's another link
to Nosferatu,
214
00:12:49,116 --> 00:12:52,467
which is, it is an apocalypse
coming to this city.
215
00:12:52,597 --> 00:12:55,078
Whereas in Nosferatu, the sun,
216
00:12:55,209 --> 00:12:56,776
the rising sun saves the city
217
00:12:56,863 --> 00:12:58,908
from the plague
and from the madness,
218
00:12:59,039 --> 00:13:01,911
but in Texas Chain Saw,
there's no escaping it.
219
00:13:02,042 --> 00:13:05,480
The whole world is bathed
in this evil radiation.
220
00:13:05,610 --> 00:13:07,047
Oh, honey, you're gonna
ruin your eyes.
221
00:13:07,177 --> 00:13:08,570
This is not good for you.
222
00:13:12,008 --> 00:13:14,837
[Oswalt] Everyone watches
a movie differently.
223
00:13:14,924 --> 00:13:17,361
Here's an example
of how everyone
watches a movie differently.
224
00:13:17,448 --> 00:13:19,407
When I was in college,
225
00:13:19,494 --> 00:13:21,975
I went with my then girlfriend
and her mom--
226
00:13:22,105 --> 00:13:23,890
I don't know why
her mom was with us.
227
00:13:23,977 --> 00:13:26,675
But we went to see
Silence of the Lambs.
228
00:13:26,762 --> 00:13:29,243
And we left the movie,
and I was like,
229
00:13:29,330 --> 00:13:32,724
"Man, that was intense,
like, that was amazing."
230
00:13:32,855 --> 00:13:34,509
And then, her mom said,
231
00:13:34,944 --> 00:13:39,557
"I know. That man
had a ring in his nipple."
232
00:13:40,210 --> 00:13:43,170
And that was the thing
that she took from that.
233
00:13:43,300 --> 00:13:47,043
And I was like, "I think he was
making clothes out of people?"
234
00:13:47,130 --> 00:13:50,699
But, like, that's what
she landed on.
235
00:13:50,786 --> 00:13:53,180
So, with Texas Chain Saw,
you can look at it
for what it is.
236
00:13:53,267 --> 00:13:55,269
It's a horror movie,
a group of people come
237
00:13:55,399 --> 00:13:57,837
and they encounter monsters,
and who's gonna get away?
238
00:13:57,967 --> 00:14:00,056
But you can also look at it as
239
00:14:00,143 --> 00:14:01,797
the most fucked up
Western ever made,
240
00:14:01,928 --> 00:14:04,365
where this is the long, long,
241
00:14:04,495 --> 00:14:07,498
long hangover
of Western expansion,
242
00:14:07,585 --> 00:14:10,980
of going out,
subduing the Native Americans,
243
00:14:11,111 --> 00:14:12,764
killing off all the buffalo.
244
00:14:12,895 --> 00:14:15,071
We've done all that,
there's nothing left.
245
00:14:15,202 --> 00:14:17,857
Hey, man, did you go
in that slaughter room,
or whatever they call it?
246
00:14:17,944 --> 00:14:20,381
The place where they
shoot cattle in the head
with that big air gun?
247
00:14:20,511 --> 00:14:23,732
Oh, that-- That gun's no good.
248
00:14:23,863 --> 00:14:25,255
I was in there once,
with my uncle.
249
00:14:25,342 --> 00:14:28,171
The old way. With a sledge.
250
00:14:28,302 --> 00:14:31,871
[chuckles] See, that was better,
they died better that way.
251
00:14:31,958 --> 00:14:33,916
How come?
I thought the gun was better.
252
00:14:34,003 --> 00:14:35,875
Oh, no, no.
253
00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,748
With the new way,
people were put out of jobs.
254
00:14:39,835 --> 00:14:40,749
You do that?
255
00:14:41,968 --> 00:14:42,751
Look!
256
00:14:45,406 --> 00:14:47,756
So, the people that
did all the gross,
257
00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:50,019
dirty work
that we don't like to look at...
258
00:14:50,150 --> 00:14:51,803
Although we do enjoy our steaks.
259
00:14:51,934 --> 00:14:54,154
But I don't wanna think about
a guy with a hammer,
260
00:14:54,241 --> 00:14:55,242
you know, killing a cow.
261
00:14:55,372 --> 00:14:56,896
But now they're,
262
00:14:57,026 --> 00:14:58,680
"Well, we're gonna just
start eating you.
263
00:14:58,810 --> 00:15:02,379
We still gotta feed ourselves,
so you're the cattle now."
264
00:15:02,945 --> 00:15:04,816
And now, here's a van
full of hippies,
265
00:15:04,904 --> 00:15:07,036
like, literally
a Scooby-Doo group,
266
00:15:07,167 --> 00:15:08,908
and they're being slaughtered
267
00:15:08,995 --> 00:15:13,260
by these displaced
blue-collar workers.
268
00:15:13,347 --> 00:15:14,870
The family in Texas
Chain Saw Massacre
269
00:15:14,957 --> 00:15:17,829
are doing the most extreme,
disturbing version
270
00:15:17,917 --> 00:15:20,267
of how life operates.
271
00:15:20,397 --> 00:15:22,791
It's not you dying
and feeding trees.
272
00:15:22,878 --> 00:15:25,098
It's somebody hanging you
on a meat hook
273
00:15:25,228 --> 00:15:27,100
so they can cut steaks
off of you,
274
00:15:27,187 --> 00:15:29,754
and serve you to their family
so the family can survive.
275
00:15:29,841 --> 00:15:32,061
'Cause, "I wanna take care
of my dad, and my brother,
276
00:15:32,148 --> 00:15:33,193
and my grandpa.
277
00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:35,238
And, if they need it,
278
00:15:35,325 --> 00:15:38,720
I'll go make myself look like
their mom. I'll be the mom."
279
00:15:38,850 --> 00:15:42,985
Like, there is this absolutely
serving the function of family
280
00:15:43,116 --> 00:15:45,727
in the most damaged
way possible.
281
00:15:46,119 --> 00:15:48,860
Doesn't matter how many flowers
you garland over your backyard,
282
00:15:48,948 --> 00:15:51,080
no matter how many
beautiful books
283
00:15:51,167 --> 00:15:52,560
you decorate your shelves with,
284
00:15:52,690 --> 00:15:54,127
you will eventually die.
285
00:15:54,214 --> 00:15:56,738
Your body--
And death is a horror show.
286
00:15:56,868 --> 00:15:58,914
There's no way to get around it.
287
00:15:59,045 --> 00:16:00,872
There's a Stan Brakhage film
288
00:16:01,003 --> 00:16:03,310
called The Act of Seeing
with One's Own Eyes,
289
00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:05,877
where it's a footage
of an autopsy.
290
00:16:06,008 --> 00:16:07,836
And you watch it--
291
00:16:07,923 --> 00:16:09,751
I remember Alan Moore
described it, where,
292
00:16:09,881 --> 00:16:11,971
at first, you're horrified,
"Oh, my God, this is--"
293
00:16:12,101 --> 00:16:13,537
You know, they're cutting
a body open.
294
00:16:13,668 --> 00:16:16,976
But then, as it goes on,
there is a kind of beauty
295
00:16:17,063 --> 00:16:20,196
in like, this is a really
complex machine,
296
00:16:20,283 --> 00:16:23,983
and it works.
And that's me, I work.
297
00:16:24,113 --> 00:16:27,595
That there is beauty
in all this gore.
298
00:16:28,422 --> 00:16:33,557
So, if you can face the horror
of it dead on, without blinking,
299
00:16:33,688 --> 00:16:37,083
then there's poetry
in you not blinking at it.
300
00:16:37,387 --> 00:16:42,958
The camera in Texas Chain Saw,
by not blinking, by not judging,
301
00:16:43,089 --> 00:16:47,354
is being a very demented,
poisonous sort of poet.
302
00:16:50,618 --> 00:16:53,534
Every frame has something
unnerving in it.
303
00:16:53,621 --> 00:16:55,362
Like, even a long shot
of the highway,
304
00:16:55,449 --> 00:16:58,191
then there's a dead armadillo.
305
00:16:58,321 --> 00:17:01,237
This weird swoop
of the chainsaw at the end
306
00:17:01,368 --> 00:17:03,979
when Leatherface is coming
after their pickup truck,
307
00:17:04,110 --> 00:17:08,201
or that pause that Sally does
after she closes the van door,
308
00:17:08,288 --> 00:17:11,552
- and then she sees that symbol.
- Let's go.
309
00:17:11,682 --> 00:17:14,163
Or, when they go
visit the graveyard,
310
00:17:14,294 --> 00:17:16,948
there's the people that are
kind of laughing and crazy,
311
00:17:17,079 --> 00:17:19,516
and the one drunk
sitting in the tire,
312
00:17:19,647 --> 00:17:24,434
I've always wondered, is he
an accomplice of the hitchhiker?
313
00:17:24,521 --> 00:17:27,872
Is he quietly also helping him
at night dig stuff up,
314
00:17:28,003 --> 00:17:30,136
and he's finally going nuts
315
00:17:30,223 --> 00:17:32,181
thinking about the morality
of what he's doing,
316
00:17:32,268 --> 00:17:35,054
and that's why he's out there
drunk, like, "I've seen things!"
317
00:17:35,184 --> 00:17:37,969
[man] Things happen here about,
318
00:17:38,057 --> 00:17:39,406
they don't tell about.
319
00:17:40,059 --> 00:17:41,756
[laughs]
320
00:17:41,886 --> 00:17:43,932
I see things.
321
00:17:44,498 --> 00:17:48,241
[Oswalt] Is the guy who goes and
comes and washes their window,
322
00:17:48,371 --> 00:17:52,201
is he another, like, cousin, or
weird, distant, inbred version,
323
00:17:52,288 --> 00:17:54,856
member of the family that they
don't know what to do with,
324
00:17:54,943 --> 00:17:56,249
and they're like,
"Go wash windows."
325
00:17:56,379 --> 00:17:58,555
There's a whole infrastructure
going on
326
00:17:58,642 --> 00:18:00,340
that they don't talk about,
but it's there.
327
00:18:00,427 --> 00:18:02,994
And, also, just when they go
and find the old house,
328
00:18:03,082 --> 00:18:04,300
there's all those clocks
329
00:18:04,387 --> 00:18:06,215
and watches with nails
through them,
330
00:18:06,346 --> 00:18:09,305
hanging in the tree...
Much like Castle Dracula.
331
00:18:09,436 --> 00:18:11,655
You're now in a zone
where time doesn't matter,
332
00:18:11,786 --> 00:18:15,006
gravity doesn't matter.
We rule things here.
333
00:18:15,094 --> 00:18:17,487
[tense music playing]
334
00:18:17,618 --> 00:18:19,794
[Oswalt] Texas Chain Saw
feels eternal.
335
00:18:20,142 --> 00:18:22,101
[woman screaming on TV]
336
00:18:28,237 --> 00:18:32,023
The experience itself
will always be disturbing
and frightening,
337
00:18:32,111 --> 00:18:34,287
outside of any context
that you're watching it in.
338
00:18:34,896 --> 00:18:37,551
The moment
of Texas Chain Saw Massacre
339
00:18:37,942 --> 00:18:41,381
is the moment when Pam
340
00:18:41,511 --> 00:18:43,818
almost escapes the house.
341
00:18:44,166 --> 00:18:45,776
I feel like that moment
342
00:18:45,863 --> 00:18:49,737
separated a specific generation
of horror movie fans:
343
00:18:49,867 --> 00:18:53,393
the ones who stayed became
the people that read Fangoria
344
00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,004
and got into
all the John Carpenter stuff,
345
00:18:56,135 --> 00:18:57,919
and the ones who were out
were just like,
346
00:18:58,006 --> 00:19:00,139
"Yeah, this isn't my...
It's just not my thing."
347
00:19:00,269 --> 00:19:01,836
And I know people my age now
348
00:19:01,966 --> 00:19:03,620
who have never gotten
beyond that point.
349
00:19:03,751 --> 00:19:04,926
Once the porch scene happens,
350
00:19:05,056 --> 00:19:06,145
they're like, "Yep, I'm out."
351
00:19:07,276 --> 00:19:10,845
It's also
a very, very twisted version
352
00:19:10,975 --> 00:19:13,935
of the scene
in Gone with the Wind,
353
00:19:14,022 --> 00:19:16,459
where Rhett Butler,
who basically rapes her,
354
00:19:16,546 --> 00:19:18,722
he just-- "You're not
turning me out tonight,"
355
00:19:18,809 --> 00:19:20,985
and he picks her up,
and takes her up the stairs
356
00:19:21,116 --> 00:19:23,510
while she's pounding on him.
357
00:19:24,598 --> 00:19:26,252
It's just a mutant version
358
00:19:26,382 --> 00:19:29,733
of what people thought
romance was in movies.
359
00:19:29,820 --> 00:19:31,213
[whimpers]
360
00:19:31,648 --> 00:19:34,782
There'll be no locks or bolts
between us, Mary-Kate,
361
00:19:34,869 --> 00:19:38,264
except those in your own
mercenary little heart.
362
00:19:38,351 --> 00:19:40,266
[dramatic music playing]
363
00:19:54,323 --> 00:19:56,064
- [sobs]
- You watch it now, you're like,
364
00:19:56,195 --> 00:19:57,718
"Ooh, yikes."
365
00:19:57,848 --> 00:19:59,850
So, at least
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
366
00:19:59,981 --> 00:20:02,070
was like, "Well, this is
what it actually is," you know?
367
00:20:02,201 --> 00:20:05,073
She is literally
a piece of meat, ka-chunk.
368
00:20:07,293 --> 00:20:10,209
I see Tobe Hooper as the best
kind of film stylist,
369
00:20:10,296 --> 00:20:12,559
in that he was an opportunist.
370
00:20:12,646 --> 00:20:15,431
You can plan and storyboard
all you want.
371
00:20:15,562 --> 00:20:17,825
It's when you get
to the location, and realize,
372
00:20:17,955 --> 00:20:22,221
"Oh, that shot I want
I can't get,
but I could get this."
373
00:20:22,308 --> 00:20:23,396
They had no money.
374
00:20:28,923 --> 00:20:32,579
And it has that adrenaline,
desperate quality to it,
375
00:20:32,709 --> 00:20:34,755
of, "We're grabbing shots
wherever we can."
376
00:20:40,239 --> 00:20:43,590
I watched it again,
on my big-screen TV,
377
00:20:43,677 --> 00:20:45,853
and I just now realized,
the lamp over the dinner table,
378
00:20:45,983 --> 00:20:47,855
that's a human face.
379
00:20:48,203 --> 00:20:51,424
And the "armchair." Get it?
380
00:20:51,859 --> 00:20:54,470
So, there's all these
little details.
381
00:20:55,297 --> 00:20:59,693
Bob Burns, the art director,
was frigging amazing.
382
00:21:04,828 --> 00:21:06,134
I mean, look, Tobe Hooper
383
00:21:06,221 --> 00:21:08,397
did kind of a scary thing
for an artist,
384
00:21:08,528 --> 00:21:12,706
which is he really
didn't blink from his dark side.
385
00:21:14,316 --> 00:21:16,275
Sometimes the zeitgeist
picks a messenger,
386
00:21:16,405 --> 00:21:18,581
and that messenger doesn't
realize that they're the one
387
00:21:18,712 --> 00:21:20,714
that's being picked, and they're
the one that's channeling
388
00:21:20,801 --> 00:21:23,673
and delivering
what the zeitgeist
wants people to look at.
389
00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,720
And I think the zeitgeist,
clearly, is prankish
and playful,
390
00:21:26,850 --> 00:21:28,852
and it's like, "Oh, I'm gonna
show people what they are
391
00:21:28,983 --> 00:21:32,682
through the grossest
drive-in movie possible,
392
00:21:32,813 --> 00:21:35,032
but that will actually
stand the test of time."
393
00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:37,165
[tense music playing]
394
00:21:42,605 --> 00:21:44,564
[birds chirping]
395
00:21:54,269 --> 00:21:56,010
[insects buzzing]
396
00:22:01,145 --> 00:22:03,191
[wind whooshing]
397
00:22:20,426 --> 00:22:21,601
Hello?
398
00:22:21,731 --> 00:22:23,690
[ominous music playing]
399
00:22:25,996 --> 00:22:27,868
Is anybody home?
400
00:22:31,785 --> 00:22:34,657
Excuse me, I'm looking
for some friends.
401
00:22:34,744 --> 00:22:35,702
Hello?
402
00:22:44,754 --> 00:22:45,538
[Miike in Japanese]
403
00:24:02,963 --> 00:24:04,443
[man in English]
I thought I heard something.
404
00:24:06,270 --> 00:24:07,228
[woman in English]
There's a light.
405
00:24:07,358 --> 00:24:08,795
- [man] Yeah?
- [woman] Yeah.
406
00:24:10,666 --> 00:24:14,017
Oh, looks like a house.
407
00:24:14,148 --> 00:24:14,975
[Miike in Japanese]
408
00:24:43,351 --> 00:24:44,526
[man in English]
What are you doing?
409
00:24:44,613 --> 00:24:46,006
[screaming]
410
00:24:48,051 --> 00:24:48,748
[Miike in Japanese]
411
00:25:08,202 --> 00:25:10,944
[in English] No, no!
412
00:25:11,074 --> 00:25:11,858
[Miike in Japanese]
413
00:25:16,427 --> 00:25:18,081
[reporter in English]
According to Sheriff Maldonado,
414
00:25:18,212 --> 00:25:19,648
there were instances
in which only the head
415
00:25:19,735 --> 00:25:21,128
and extremities were removed.
416
00:25:21,215 --> 00:25:22,042
[Miike in Japanese]
417
00:26:09,916 --> 00:26:11,918
[laughing maniacally]
418
00:26:12,745 --> 00:26:14,921
[buzzing]
419
00:27:04,057 --> 00:27:06,146
[screaming]
420
00:29:15,231 --> 00:29:18,539
[man groaning]
421
00:29:40,953 --> 00:29:41,780
[chuckles]
422
00:29:55,271 --> 00:29:57,230
[man whimpering]
423
00:31:15,395 --> 00:31:16,744
[screaming]
424
00:32:04,444 --> 00:32:06,141
[in English]
Do you believe in Jesus?
425
00:32:06,272 --> 00:32:07,273
Yes, I do.
426
00:32:08,578 --> 00:32:10,102
Well, you're gonna meet him.
427
00:32:14,149 --> 00:32:14,933
[Miike in Japanese]
428
00:32:39,653 --> 00:32:40,915
[speaking Japanese]
429
00:32:42,308 --> 00:32:43,309
[grunting]
430
00:32:58,193 --> 00:32:58,977
[Miike]
431
00:33:01,892 --> 00:33:03,155
[grunts]
432
00:33:34,925 --> 00:33:37,102
[in English] Where is my ring?
433
00:33:37,232 --> 00:33:38,016
[Miike in Japanese]
434
00:36:09,384 --> 00:36:11,386
[ominous music playing]
435
00:36:11,517 --> 00:36:13,519
[man grunting]
436
00:36:30,536 --> 00:36:33,103
[man continues grunting]
437
00:36:34,279 --> 00:36:36,890
[interviewer in English]
Did you ever go back to the
theater to watch City Lights?
438
00:36:39,849 --> 00:36:41,111
[in Japanese]
439
00:36:41,199 --> 00:36:42,374
[laughs]
440
00:37:03,133 --> 00:37:05,397
[soft dramatic music playing]
441
00:37:47,656 --> 00:37:49,092
[Heller-Nicholas]
I was born in the same year
442
00:37:49,223 --> 00:37:51,051
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
was born.
443
00:37:55,490 --> 00:37:59,407
I grew up on the border
of the outer suburbs
of Melbourne in Australia,
444
00:37:59,538 --> 00:38:01,496
and the bush, effectively,
445
00:38:01,627 --> 00:38:04,282
and we were about 40 minutes
from Hanging Rock.
446
00:38:04,891 --> 00:38:09,025
So, growing up, that film was
hugely, hugely important to me.
447
00:38:09,156 --> 00:38:12,507
Because it really tied film
and the magic of film
448
00:38:12,594 --> 00:38:15,031
to a place
that I knew really well.
449
00:38:15,118 --> 00:38:16,294
[girl] What we see...
450
00:38:18,296 --> 00:38:19,906
and what we seem...
451
00:38:21,821 --> 00:38:22,996
are but a dream.
452
00:38:26,521 --> 00:38:28,393
A dream within a dream.
453
00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:30,482
[tranquil music playing]
454
00:38:43,016 --> 00:38:45,235
[Heller-Nicholas]
And for my eighth birthday,
my parents took me--
455
00:38:45,366 --> 00:38:47,934
They brought me
a brand new little lace dress.
456
00:38:48,674 --> 00:38:52,112
And for some deranged reason,
they thought it would
be funny to hide.
457
00:38:52,242 --> 00:38:54,854
When I went to the bathroom,
I came back, they were gone.
458
00:38:54,941 --> 00:38:56,682
And that has stayed with me.
459
00:39:02,383 --> 00:39:05,038
[girl] Miranda,
don't go up there! Come back!
460
00:39:05,778 --> 00:39:06,692
[screaming]
461
00:39:10,260 --> 00:39:12,219
[girl continues screaming]
462
00:39:13,786 --> 00:39:14,917
That feeling has stayed with me.
463
00:39:15,004 --> 00:39:16,615
Partially resentment
to my parents,
464
00:39:16,745 --> 00:39:19,313
but mostly just that fear
465
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,098
and that connection of fear
to the cinematic.
466
00:39:22,534 --> 00:39:25,406
For a lot of Australians
of my generation,
467
00:39:25,493 --> 00:39:28,017
Texas was like Road
Runner cartoons.
468
00:39:28,104 --> 00:39:31,543
You know, it was this sort of
imaginary, faraway place.
469
00:39:33,283 --> 00:39:36,069
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
was denied classification
470
00:39:36,199 --> 00:39:38,288
in 1975 twice,
471
00:39:38,419 --> 00:39:40,508
and then again in 1981.
472
00:39:40,639 --> 00:39:41,901
It wasn't until 1984
473
00:39:42,031 --> 00:39:43,990
that the film was cleared
for release.
474
00:39:47,733 --> 00:39:49,952
Give me that flashlight!
475
00:39:50,518 --> 00:39:52,302
[Heller-Nicholas] My memory
of Texas Chain Saw Massacre
476
00:39:52,433 --> 00:39:54,740
in those very early days
when it was finally released
477
00:39:54,827 --> 00:39:56,916
was it was something
that was the terrain
478
00:39:57,003 --> 00:39:58,831
of friends' older brothers.
479
00:39:58,918 --> 00:40:02,312
Very gendered and very forbidden
for little girls.
480
00:40:02,443 --> 00:40:04,227
And so there was a sense
of danger and excitement
481
00:40:04,314 --> 00:40:05,751
to Texas Chain Saw Massacre,
482
00:40:05,838 --> 00:40:08,406
this film that's been banned
for ten years,
483
00:40:08,493 --> 00:40:10,016
finally released in Australia.
484
00:40:11,757 --> 00:40:13,454
I was far too young
to see the film,
485
00:40:13,541 --> 00:40:16,762
but I have a kind
of ambient memory
486
00:40:16,849 --> 00:40:18,851
of it being in the atmosphere.
487
00:40:18,981 --> 00:40:22,332
And I don't know
where I first saw the trailer.
488
00:40:22,898 --> 00:40:25,640
[announcer 1] K-Tel Video.
Your home of entertainment
489
00:40:25,727 --> 00:40:30,297
presents more great titles
from Filmways VTC.
490
00:40:34,127 --> 00:40:37,696
[announcer 2] This is the
horror movie to end them all.
491
00:40:38,697 --> 00:40:41,047
[Heller-Nicholas] It feels like
Leatherface cut the trailer
492
00:40:41,134 --> 00:40:42,831
to the Australian
Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
493
00:40:42,918 --> 00:40:45,660
Like, it's off its head,
it is mental.
494
00:40:45,791 --> 00:40:48,315
It has this incredible
kinetic energy.
495
00:40:48,446 --> 00:40:51,187
It doesn't make
a lick of sense at all.
496
00:40:51,274 --> 00:40:52,841
It's like an art film.
497
00:40:52,928 --> 00:40:57,324
It's like this avant-garde,
experimental frenzy.
498
00:40:57,411 --> 00:41:02,372
And, you know,
you have sort of flashes
of generic horror content,
499
00:41:02,808 --> 00:41:06,289
but, you know, kind of blurred,
this sort of Stan
Brakhage-esque,
500
00:41:06,376 --> 00:41:07,900
experimental blur.
501
00:41:07,987 --> 00:41:10,337
It's like Mothlight
with serial killers.
502
00:41:10,424 --> 00:41:12,861
It kind of has no relation
to the film,
503
00:41:12,992 --> 00:41:15,908
in that sort of images
from one moment
504
00:41:16,299 --> 00:41:17,736
are sort of placed
next to images
505
00:41:17,823 --> 00:41:21,043
from a completely separate
part of the film.
506
00:41:21,174 --> 00:41:23,481
And so the sensory
really takes dominance.
507
00:41:23,568 --> 00:41:25,004
Help!
508
00:41:25,091 --> 00:41:26,745
[Heller-Nicholas]
And that does come through
509
00:41:26,875 --> 00:41:28,311
in the film itself.
510
00:41:28,442 --> 00:41:30,183
[woman] Get back and push down.
511
00:41:31,053 --> 00:41:32,490
This is impossible.
512
00:41:35,754 --> 00:41:37,625
I knew something was there.
513
00:41:37,973 --> 00:41:40,541
[Heller-Nicholas]
The first time I saw the film
was when I was a bit older,
514
00:41:40,672 --> 00:41:42,891
so it would have been
the early '90s.
515
00:41:43,022 --> 00:41:45,590
And it was always presented
to me as a kind of test.
516
00:41:45,677 --> 00:41:46,939
Are you hardcore enough?
517
00:41:47,026 --> 00:41:48,506
Got something for you.
518
00:41:52,684 --> 00:41:55,121
[woman] Ugh! [grunts]
519
00:41:55,208 --> 00:41:56,949
[Heller-Nicholas]
I first saw Texas Chain Saw
520
00:41:57,079 --> 00:42:00,213
alongside things like
I Spit on Your Grave,
521
00:42:00,300 --> 00:42:02,911
Faces of Death, Executions.
522
00:42:03,433 --> 00:42:05,566
And because these films
were really gatekept
523
00:42:05,697 --> 00:42:07,350
by the young men
that I knew at the time,
524
00:42:07,437 --> 00:42:10,266
there was a real clash there.
525
00:42:10,397 --> 00:42:11,746
And I remember
watching these things
526
00:42:11,833 --> 00:42:13,966
and thinking,
"These are for me."
527
00:42:14,053 --> 00:42:17,665
Like, "These really speak to me.
These don't belong to you."
528
00:42:18,144 --> 00:42:21,408
So, the Australian VHS release
of Texas Chain Saw Massacre
529
00:42:21,539 --> 00:42:24,498
really right through
until the late '90s
530
00:42:24,585 --> 00:42:27,936
was copied from, like,
a really beat-up film.
531
00:42:28,067 --> 00:42:31,461
So, you have the wear and tear
of normal VHS usage
532
00:42:31,549 --> 00:42:35,204
combined with the fact
that it was a pretty, pretty
shitty print to start with.
533
00:42:35,291 --> 00:42:36,771
So, the version that I saw
534
00:42:36,902 --> 00:42:39,992
and that most people
of my generation saw on video
535
00:42:40,122 --> 00:42:42,951
doesn't look like the version
that we see today.
536
00:42:43,038 --> 00:42:45,650
It's visually
completely different.
537
00:42:48,087 --> 00:42:50,742
I don't remember that film
having any blue or green in it.
538
00:42:50,872 --> 00:42:53,832
I remember it being
yellow and scratchy
539
00:42:53,919 --> 00:42:55,311
and faded and beat up
540
00:42:55,442 --> 00:42:57,052
and that that was part
of the danger.
541
00:42:57,183 --> 00:43:00,273
The feeling that you were
watching something really covert
542
00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:02,101
that you weren't meant to see.
543
00:43:06,061 --> 00:43:09,195
Because the version
that I first saw was so yellow,
544
00:43:09,282 --> 00:43:11,371
I tethered it
much more closely, I think,
545
00:43:11,458 --> 00:43:13,460
to a lot of Australian film
that I'd seen.
546
00:43:14,243 --> 00:43:15,767
[girl] What we see...
547
00:43:17,246 --> 00:43:18,683
and what we seem...
548
00:43:20,989 --> 00:43:22,121
are but a dream.
549
00:43:25,472 --> 00:43:27,343
A dream within a dream.
550
00:43:27,430 --> 00:43:29,476
[tranquil music playing]
551
00:43:41,401 --> 00:43:43,359
[Heller-Nicholas]
Because yellow is really
552
00:43:43,490 --> 00:43:46,362
very, very at the forefront
of the aesthetics
553
00:43:46,449 --> 00:43:48,713
of the outback
and of the desert.
554
00:43:53,282 --> 00:43:56,198
So, yellow is how I see heat.
555
00:43:56,329 --> 00:43:58,636
And I knew that Texas was hot,
and it's like, okay,
556
00:43:58,766 --> 00:44:00,463
so it looks like this,
it looks yellow.
557
00:44:00,550 --> 00:44:04,250
It's this very
Australian aesthetic of heat.
558
00:44:10,909 --> 00:44:13,999
You know, it looks like things
like The Proposition.
559
00:44:16,305 --> 00:44:17,829
Australia.
560
00:44:21,180 --> 00:44:23,008
What fresh hell is this?
561
00:44:23,095 --> 00:44:25,750
And it looks like things
like Wolf Creek.
562
00:44:25,837 --> 00:44:27,752
[tense music playing]
563
00:44:32,974 --> 00:44:35,194
[screaming]
564
00:44:35,324 --> 00:44:38,719
[Heller-Nicholas]
It looks like the start
of Wake in Fright.
565
00:44:38,806 --> 00:44:41,635
I first saw Wake in Fright
on a VHS tape
566
00:44:41,766 --> 00:44:46,248
that was taped off
this one famous
TV broadcast in 1989.
567
00:44:46,335 --> 00:44:49,991
And, of course, it's this
washed-out print
that was shown on TV,
568
00:44:50,122 --> 00:44:53,603
on a tape that had been played
a hundred times before.
569
00:44:53,734 --> 00:44:56,432
And I saw it at school,
and it was, you know,
570
00:44:56,519 --> 00:44:57,869
hot Australian summer
571
00:44:57,999 --> 00:45:00,088
with no air conditioning
in my classroom,
572
00:45:00,219 --> 00:45:03,048
which fits in, of course,
beautifully to the film.
573
00:45:03,570 --> 00:45:07,705
It's like this sort of
post-apocalyptic Kansas
574
00:45:07,835 --> 00:45:10,838
in like a really fucked
up Wizard of Oz.
575
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:12,884
And it's, like,
this is the outback.
576
00:45:12,971 --> 00:45:14,929
Welcome to Australia. [laughs]
577
00:45:15,060 --> 00:45:16,975
[wind howling]
578
00:45:18,803 --> 00:45:20,892
[Heller-Nicholas] My memory
of it, seeing it on video,
579
00:45:21,022 --> 00:45:24,547
looks exactly like
my memory of seeing
Texas Chain Saw Massacre,
580
00:45:24,678 --> 00:45:27,159
and it's tethered so tightly
581
00:45:27,246 --> 00:45:29,596
to the things
that were going on in my world,
582
00:45:29,683 --> 00:45:32,425
and in my life, in my country,
at the time.
583
00:45:32,555 --> 00:45:35,297
In 1983, we had,
uh, dust storms,
584
00:45:35,384 --> 00:45:38,213
these enormous dust storms,
terrifying dust storms.
585
00:45:38,300 --> 00:45:43,392
We had horrific bushfires,
the Ash Wednesday bushfires,
586
00:45:43,479 --> 00:45:46,047
which were
absolutely catastrophic.
587
00:45:46,134 --> 00:45:48,093
It's the most scary thing
that's ever happened to me.
588
00:45:48,180 --> 00:45:50,008
It's the most frightened
I've ever been.
589
00:45:50,095 --> 00:45:53,141
I have this very, very strong,
vivid memory
590
00:45:53,272 --> 00:45:56,666
of these sort of yellow,
very heavily yellowed images
591
00:45:56,754 --> 00:45:58,407
of houses that have
been burnt down
592
00:45:58,494 --> 00:46:00,714
and all that remains
are the chimney stacks.
593
00:46:00,845 --> 00:46:03,108
And every time, even now,
no matter how many times
594
00:46:03,238 --> 00:46:04,936
I see Texas Chain Saw Massacre
595
00:46:05,023 --> 00:46:07,286
and I see that tombstone,
I always think
596
00:46:07,373 --> 00:46:09,636
it's a chimney stack
every single time.
597
00:46:12,073 --> 00:46:14,902
There she is, ladies.
Hanging Rock.
598
00:46:15,033 --> 00:46:17,383
[Heller-Nicholas] Hanging Rock
was so physically close
599
00:46:17,470 --> 00:46:18,950
to where those fires were.
600
00:46:19,037 --> 00:46:21,039
The bush that you see
in Hanging Rock
601
00:46:21,169 --> 00:46:24,085
is the bush that was destroyed
in those fires.
602
00:46:24,172 --> 00:46:25,652
It's the same place.
603
00:46:27,349 --> 00:46:30,700
And there's a beautiful little
montage sequence in Hanging Rock
604
00:46:30,788 --> 00:46:32,877
where the girls are sort of
swaying and spinning
605
00:46:33,007 --> 00:46:35,880
and they take off their shoes
and it's hot.
606
00:46:35,967 --> 00:46:37,229
And I feel that heat.
607
00:46:37,359 --> 00:46:40,536
My body remembers that heat,
and that panic,
608
00:46:40,667 --> 00:46:43,496
and that fear,
and that disorientation.
609
00:46:48,109 --> 00:46:50,590
So, when I think of
the dust storms
610
00:46:50,677 --> 00:46:53,027
and I think of the fires,
over time,
611
00:46:53,114 --> 00:46:56,117
they've sort of blurred
with images from films.
612
00:46:56,248 --> 00:46:59,642
And the heat that I associate
with Texas Chain Saw Massacre
613
00:46:59,773 --> 00:47:03,777
has sort of bled into
my memories
of the Ash Wednesday fires.
614
00:47:09,870 --> 00:47:12,568
And the fact that one was real
and one was a film,
615
00:47:13,221 --> 00:47:15,006
you know, memory doesn't care,
it doesn't care.
616
00:47:15,136 --> 00:47:17,791
It's like this weird,
porous thing.
617
00:47:21,839 --> 00:47:23,971
I find it hard to be
objectively critical
618
00:47:24,058 --> 00:47:25,581
about Texas Chain Saw Massacre
619
00:47:25,712 --> 00:47:27,279
because it's a film
that you feel
620
00:47:28,541 --> 00:47:29,585
before you think about.
621
00:47:29,716 --> 00:47:31,544
It's a very smart film.
622
00:47:32,675 --> 00:47:35,591
The depth
of the cultural knowledge
623
00:47:35,678 --> 00:47:37,376
is extraordinary to me.
624
00:47:37,506 --> 00:47:38,856
And I don't even know
if it's conscious.
625
00:47:38,986 --> 00:47:42,511
It probably isn't even
a conscious thing.
626
00:47:42,598 --> 00:47:45,340
I think of that moment
in the van
627
00:47:45,427 --> 00:47:47,212
where the hitchhiker shows them
628
00:47:47,342 --> 00:47:49,127
the photographs of the meat.
629
00:47:49,214 --> 00:47:50,737
And the first photograph
630
00:47:50,868 --> 00:47:54,349
looks exactly like
a Rembrandt painting.
631
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:56,438
And the second photograph,
632
00:47:57,135 --> 00:48:01,269
very heavily reminiscent,
I think, of a Francis Bacon.
633
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:04,272
And it's-- There's Leatherface
vibes there for me.
634
00:48:04,838 --> 00:48:07,972
There's no way
that the Black Maria truck
at the end is an accident.
635
00:48:08,624 --> 00:48:11,279
Black Maria was the name
of Thomas Edison's film company.
636
00:48:11,366 --> 00:48:13,891
It was the very first
film company.
637
00:48:15,153 --> 00:48:16,894
I feel like the hitchhiker
638
00:48:16,981 --> 00:48:19,026
when he takes his Polaroid photo
and he's like... [gasps]
639
00:48:19,113 --> 00:48:20,158
You know, it's, "[gasps] Look."
640
00:48:20,288 --> 00:48:21,986
The magic of photography,
641
00:48:22,116 --> 00:48:23,726
the magic of cinema.
642
00:48:23,857 --> 00:48:26,555
- [giggles]
- You took my picture.
643
00:48:26,686 --> 00:48:29,776
[Heller-Nicholas]
And that feeds back
into this early film tradition
644
00:48:29,863 --> 00:48:32,474
where it's like, "[gasps]
I can't believe
cinema's a thing."
645
00:48:32,561 --> 00:48:35,651
You know, I can't believe
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
646
00:48:35,782 --> 00:48:37,131
is a thing.
I can't believe it works.
647
00:48:37,218 --> 00:48:39,612
I can't believe this film
pulls off what it does.
648
00:48:40,221 --> 00:48:41,483
Magic.
649
00:48:41,570 --> 00:48:44,660
Everything means something,
I guess.
650
00:48:44,747 --> 00:48:47,620
[Heller-Nicholas] That's
my motto as a film critic.
651
00:48:47,707 --> 00:48:51,493
You know, film critics
are often accused
of reading too much into things.
652
00:48:51,580 --> 00:48:54,366
No art is ever created
in a vacuum.
653
00:48:54,453 --> 00:48:58,370
Whether it's conscious or not,
film soaks up the zeitgeist.
654
00:48:58,457 --> 00:49:00,807
It has to. It has to.
655
00:49:00,938 --> 00:49:03,288
It's extraordinary to me
the parallels
656
00:49:03,418 --> 00:49:04,854
between Texas Chain Saw Massacre
657
00:49:04,985 --> 00:49:05,812
and a lot of Australian cinema
in the 1970s.
658
00:49:07,335 --> 00:49:09,511
It's eerie because these are...
659
00:49:09,642 --> 00:49:13,211
These are places
that are literally worlds apart.
660
00:49:13,341 --> 00:49:15,822
[ominous music playing]
661
00:49:15,953 --> 00:49:17,345
It's an odd thing to say,
but I think
662
00:49:17,476 --> 00:49:21,001
we almost don't pay
enough attention to Leatherface,
663
00:49:21,132 --> 00:49:24,309
which I know sounds strange
because he's one
of the great monsters of horror.
664
00:49:24,744 --> 00:49:26,876
Where are the kids?
Where are they? Show me!
665
00:49:27,007 --> 00:49:28,966
[speaking gibberish]
666
00:49:30,968 --> 00:49:32,186
[Heller-Nicholas]
It's a home invasion film
667
00:49:32,273 --> 00:49:33,666
from Leatherface's
point of view.
668
00:49:33,753 --> 00:49:35,711
He's... He's really stressed out
669
00:49:35,842 --> 00:49:38,279
that these young people
just turn up in his house.
670
00:49:38,410 --> 00:49:42,544
If you watch him as he moves
from the kitchen to the window,
671
00:49:42,675 --> 00:49:44,633
he's fussing,
like, he's flapping.
672
00:49:44,720 --> 00:49:46,940
He's like, "I don't know
what to do with myself."
673
00:49:47,027 --> 00:49:49,551
It's such a, like, it's such
an Italian, like, "Mamma mia,"
674
00:49:49,682 --> 00:49:51,205
like, it's so gestured.
675
00:49:51,336 --> 00:49:53,729
It's gorgeous.
676
00:49:53,860 --> 00:49:57,690
It's very Buster Keaton,
the way that he moves.
677
00:49:57,820 --> 00:49:59,779
[yelling]
678
00:50:02,869 --> 00:50:05,176
[Heller-Nicholas]
It's silent cinema, you know?
679
00:50:05,306 --> 00:50:06,786
It's the legacy
of the Black Maria.
680
00:50:10,790 --> 00:50:13,836
As much as my memories
of the film
are tethered to yellow,
681
00:50:13,967 --> 00:50:18,450
so much of the film's energy
completely changes
with the color red.
682
00:50:19,494 --> 00:50:21,105
When I think
of Hieronymus Bosch,
683
00:50:21,235 --> 00:50:23,281
I think of the Hellmouth,
684
00:50:24,108 --> 00:50:28,938
you know, these big, sort of
gaping red, terrifying voids
685
00:50:29,069 --> 00:50:33,291
that I think Texas Chain Saw
makes quite literal.
686
00:50:42,343 --> 00:50:44,171
This idea of the Hellmouth,
you know,
687
00:50:44,302 --> 00:50:46,130
taken from the Medieval art
688
00:50:46,260 --> 00:50:48,915
that was presented in paintings
and in manuscripts
689
00:50:49,046 --> 00:50:51,570
as a literal mouth,
like a big red mouth
690
00:50:51,657 --> 00:50:52,745
with, you know, people inside
691
00:50:52,832 --> 00:50:55,182
or devils with big red mouths.
692
00:50:55,704 --> 00:50:57,271
Those strange
little art objects,
693
00:50:57,358 --> 00:51:00,100
the feathers and the bones,
these weird little things,
694
00:51:00,231 --> 00:51:03,582
they're like they're straight
from a Hieronymus Bosch
painting.
695
00:51:03,669 --> 00:51:08,021
And it almost feels to me
like Texas Chain Saw
is riffing on that.
696
00:51:10,632 --> 00:51:12,895
The scene
with Sally and the Cook,
697
00:51:12,982 --> 00:51:16,203
I think, is, um,
is really pivotal.
698
00:51:16,334 --> 00:51:20,077
Sally's literally sandwiched
between the cannibalistic grill
699
00:51:20,207 --> 00:51:21,600
and the saucers
on the other side.
700
00:51:21,730 --> 00:51:23,341
I think that's really great.
701
00:51:23,819 --> 00:51:26,431
And Cook pushes her
against a chopping block,
702
00:51:26,518 --> 00:51:29,086
you know, in case
the cannibalism motif
703
00:51:29,173 --> 00:51:31,044
isn't kind of
coming through already.
704
00:51:31,175 --> 00:51:32,785
And we have this
incredible moment
705
00:51:32,915 --> 00:51:35,048
where he leaves to get the car.
706
00:51:35,179 --> 00:51:36,963
She thinks he's going to help.
707
00:51:37,050 --> 00:51:39,096
And the sound
of the sizzling escalates
708
00:51:39,183 --> 00:51:41,359
and the sound
of the radio escalates.
709
00:51:41,489 --> 00:51:44,318
[man on radio]
Barometer is 29.9 and rising.
710
00:51:44,449 --> 00:51:45,885
- Acting on a tip...
- [sizzling]
711
00:51:45,972 --> 00:51:48,453
[Heller-Nicholas]
You see the horror in her face
712
00:51:48,583 --> 00:51:51,978
when she puts it all together
and realizes
that what she's hearing
713
00:51:52,109 --> 00:51:54,850
and what she's seeing
are connected.
714
00:51:54,937 --> 00:51:56,896
The way that that grill
is presented
715
00:51:56,983 --> 00:52:00,552
is this terrifying
red, gaping void.
716
00:52:00,639 --> 00:52:02,380
It is the entry to hell.
717
00:52:02,510 --> 00:52:04,033
[reporter] ...there were
instances in which only
718
00:52:04,164 --> 00:52:06,514
the heads and extremities
were removed.
719
00:52:06,601 --> 00:52:09,213
And others in which only
a hand or foot is removed.
720
00:52:09,343 --> 00:52:11,650
The remainder of the cadaver
left intact.
721
00:52:16,002 --> 00:52:17,743
[ominous music playing]
722
00:52:38,067 --> 00:52:41,158
Somebody! Help me!
723
00:52:42,028 --> 00:52:44,030
[screaming]
724
00:52:46,989 --> 00:52:49,731
Help me!
725
00:52:49,862 --> 00:52:51,516
Please! Please help me!
726
00:52:51,646 --> 00:52:52,691
Please!
727
00:52:55,346 --> 00:53:06,922
[fire crackling]
728
00:53:07,009 --> 00:53:10,317
[man] My first movie experience
was a horror movie.
729
00:53:10,448 --> 00:53:12,014
It was called Bambi.
730
00:53:12,450 --> 00:53:14,408
I was probably 3 years old,
731
00:53:14,495 --> 00:53:17,368
and I remember
Bambi's mother saying,
732
00:53:17,498 --> 00:53:19,065
"Man has been in the forest,"
733
00:53:19,152 --> 00:53:21,807
and I just went,
"Oh, my goodness."
734
00:53:21,937 --> 00:53:23,765
What happened, Mother?
735
00:53:23,896 --> 00:53:25,898
Why did we all run?
736
00:53:29,510 --> 00:53:30,729
Man...
737
00:53:31,947 --> 00:53:33,601
was in the forest.
738
00:53:33,732 --> 00:53:35,734
[woman screaming]
739
00:53:42,610 --> 00:53:44,569
[chainsaw buzzing]
740
00:53:52,620 --> 00:53:54,579
[ominous music playing]
741
00:54:03,109 --> 00:54:07,287
[King] I've been a movie fan
since forever.
742
00:54:07,896 --> 00:54:11,335
My first editor,
Bill Thompson, said, uh,
743
00:54:11,465 --> 00:54:14,207
"Steve King has got a projector
in his head."
744
00:54:14,338 --> 00:54:16,035
And there's some truth to that
745
00:54:16,122 --> 00:54:18,429
because I grew up on the films.
746
00:54:20,561 --> 00:54:25,349
I gravitated toward
monster movies.
747
00:54:25,871 --> 00:54:28,265
My brother didn't care for them,
748
00:54:28,352 --> 00:54:32,356
and so I would usually
find myself sitting by myself.
749
00:54:35,576 --> 00:54:37,143
I love the black-and-white
movies.
750
00:54:39,101 --> 00:54:43,018
The idea that reality
751
00:54:43,105 --> 00:54:46,979
and the outrageously crazy
752
00:54:47,109 --> 00:54:51,113
could merge together in a film
753
00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:53,681
and it would be realistic.
754
00:54:53,812 --> 00:54:55,944
What I'm thinking about
in particular
755
00:54:56,031 --> 00:54:58,077
was Ray Harryhausen's work
756
00:54:58,164 --> 00:55:00,949
in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers,
757
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:03,517
where you see a flying saucer
758
00:55:03,604 --> 00:55:07,826
crashed into the reflecting pool
in Washington D.C.
759
00:55:07,956 --> 00:55:09,828
And you see another one
that wobbles
760
00:55:09,958 --> 00:55:12,874
and then takes off
the Washington Monument.
761
00:55:12,961 --> 00:55:14,833
And I thought,
"I wanna do that."
762
00:55:14,920 --> 00:55:19,185
I wanna bring the reality
and the make-believe together
763
00:55:19,272 --> 00:55:23,711
in the same place
so that you can't even
tell the difference.
764
00:55:23,842 --> 00:55:24,930
[gasps]
765
00:55:26,671 --> 00:55:28,673
[gasping]
766
00:55:31,153 --> 00:55:32,416
[screams]
767
00:55:32,546 --> 00:55:33,678
Stay away!
768
00:55:37,029 --> 00:55:39,901
[King] There are a lot of movies
that are like that,
769
00:55:39,988 --> 00:55:43,078
that, uh,
I just absolutely love.
770
00:55:43,731 --> 00:55:45,907
One of them is The Haunting
of Hill House.
771
00:55:46,038 --> 00:55:50,129
That movie scared
the living shit right out of me.
772
00:55:52,261 --> 00:55:55,003
It wasn't anything that you saw.
773
00:55:55,134 --> 00:55:57,310
It was what you thought you saw.
774
00:55:59,007 --> 00:56:03,621
[King] You could see a door
bellowing in and out
like a lung.
775
00:56:03,751 --> 00:56:06,232
[creaking]
776
00:56:06,363 --> 00:56:08,626
You could see a shape
in the plaster
777
00:56:08,756 --> 00:56:11,803
that began to look like a face,
that sort of thing.
778
00:56:11,933 --> 00:56:13,631
I... I just loved that.
779
00:56:14,632 --> 00:56:16,895
It's all suggested.
780
00:56:16,982 --> 00:56:18,723
It's all shadows.
781
00:56:20,594 --> 00:56:24,076
And there's a scene early on
in The Exorcist
782
00:56:24,206 --> 00:56:27,296
where a clock just stops
for no reason.
783
00:56:27,427 --> 00:56:30,474
It just tick, tick, tick,
784
00:56:30,604 --> 00:56:32,389
and then it just stops.
785
00:56:32,824 --> 00:56:35,740
That's a very unsettling moment.
786
00:56:35,827 --> 00:56:40,005
You have to be a real artist
like Robert Wise
787
00:56:40,135 --> 00:56:43,617
in The Haunting of Hill House
to do the thing
788
00:56:43,704 --> 00:56:46,533
where it's just
almost suggested.
789
00:56:47,186 --> 00:56:50,929
There isn't really
a lot of blood
in Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
790
00:56:51,756 --> 00:56:53,758
[buzzing]
791
00:56:58,371 --> 00:57:00,286
[screaming]
792
00:57:01,853 --> 00:57:05,857
I should say that I never saw
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
793
00:57:05,944 --> 00:57:07,119
when it came out.
794
00:57:07,511 --> 00:57:11,993
I saw it in 1982 in Colorado.
795
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:13,778
I was a young father,
796
00:57:13,908 --> 00:57:17,303
and I was writing to stay ahead
of the bill collectors.
797
00:57:20,088 --> 00:57:22,439
I was in the theater
almost by myself.
798
00:57:23,483 --> 00:57:25,006
And that's when a movie
799
00:57:25,137 --> 00:57:27,574
really has a tendency
to work on you, you know,
800
00:57:27,661 --> 00:57:31,796
to get its cold little fingers
under your skin.
801
00:57:32,449 --> 00:57:37,802
It had that kind of
washed-out '70s look
802
00:57:37,889 --> 00:57:40,108
for want of a better term.
803
00:57:40,239 --> 00:57:43,198
You could tell that this print
had been around for a while,
804
00:57:43,329 --> 00:57:47,464
and it's better for it
because it just looks...
805
00:57:47,899 --> 00:57:49,944
It looks fucking real,
806
00:57:50,641 --> 00:57:54,035
and it works because
there's no artifice about it.
807
00:57:54,166 --> 00:57:57,256
There's no, you know,
kind of buildup.
808
00:57:57,386 --> 00:57:59,345
There's no character nuance.
809
00:57:59,432 --> 00:58:04,393
I mean, there are scenes
in the graveyard.
810
00:58:04,524 --> 00:58:06,004
They're not extras.
811
00:58:06,134 --> 00:58:08,441
They're not
Hollywood people at all.
812
00:58:08,528 --> 00:58:13,402
They look like they came
from the nearest
little Texas town.
813
00:58:13,925 --> 00:58:15,274
My granddaddy's buried here.
814
00:58:15,361 --> 00:58:17,189
Can we find out
if anything happened to him?
815
00:58:17,276 --> 00:58:18,669
What's your granddaddy's name?
816
00:58:18,799 --> 00:58:20,061
Honey, that big heavy fella
817
00:58:20,148 --> 00:58:21,933
with that flashlight
in his hand,
818
00:58:22,063 --> 00:58:23,151
that's the sheriff.
819
00:58:23,717 --> 00:58:26,633
You go tell him your
granddaddy's buried in there.
820
00:58:26,764 --> 00:58:28,461
- He'll let you in.
- Thank you.
821
00:58:28,548 --> 00:58:29,941
Say, fella, I'm gonna
run off with your girl.
822
00:58:30,071 --> 00:58:31,420
You don't mind, do you?
823
00:58:31,508 --> 00:58:32,813
[King] It's fantastic.
824
00:58:33,205 --> 00:58:37,949
And that adds to the horror,
because you never feel
825
00:58:38,036 --> 00:58:41,343
that kind of barrier,
826
00:58:41,474 --> 00:58:43,911
that see-through
barrier between,
827
00:58:43,998 --> 00:58:46,218
"Oh, well,
this is just a movie."
828
00:58:46,871 --> 00:58:49,351
You wanna get about four
or five men and a couple dogs?
829
00:58:49,438 --> 00:58:52,616
There's a house over here
behind those trees.
We wanna go check it out.
830
00:58:52,746 --> 00:58:55,227
[King] Night of the Living Dead
is the same way.
831
00:58:55,314 --> 00:58:57,359
You know, you don't know
any of those people.
832
00:58:57,446 --> 00:58:59,797
They look like real people.
833
00:58:59,884 --> 00:59:02,408
The zombies
look like real people.
834
00:59:06,020 --> 00:59:07,544
It just feels
835
00:59:08,588 --> 00:59:11,635
like you can't tell
836
00:59:12,244 --> 00:59:15,726
where fact ends
and fiction begins.
837
00:59:17,597 --> 00:59:19,556
[ominous music playing]
838
00:59:24,517 --> 00:59:26,519
[screaming]
839
00:59:28,260 --> 00:59:30,871
The thing that sticks
in my mind, of course,
840
00:59:30,958 --> 00:59:34,353
was they're trying
to kill the girl
841
00:59:34,440 --> 00:59:37,269
and they want to use
a sledgehammer on her,
842
00:59:37,399 --> 00:59:41,360
and they keep trying
to give the old man
843
00:59:41,447 --> 00:59:45,233
who's just green, uh,
to give him the hammer.
844
00:59:45,799 --> 00:59:49,411
And that's... That's a very
Cormac McCarthy scene.
845
00:59:49,542 --> 00:59:53,024
In fact, in some ways, I see
846
00:59:53,154 --> 00:59:56,114
a book like Blood Meridian
by Cormac McCarthy
847
00:59:56,244 --> 00:59:58,464
and Texas Chain Saw Massacre
848
00:59:58,812 --> 01:00:02,642
as almost like fraternal twins.
849
01:00:03,077 --> 01:00:06,994
The slaughterhouse,
the idea about the bolt gun,
850
01:00:07,081 --> 01:00:09,606
it's a real Cormac McCarthy
touch.
851
01:00:13,610 --> 01:00:15,742
- [man 1] What is that for?
- [man 2] Would you...
852
01:00:15,873 --> 01:00:17,744
- Would you hold still, please?
- [man 3] The air gun.
853
01:00:17,875 --> 01:00:20,617
It shoots a bolt into their
skull and then retracts it.
854
01:00:20,747 --> 01:00:23,141
It's just, "Boom."
Goes, "Boom."
855
01:00:23,271 --> 01:00:24,446
[woman] Franklin, I like meat.
856
01:00:24,533 --> 01:00:26,187
Please change the subject.
857
01:00:26,318 --> 01:00:29,147
- Boom.
- That's terrible.
It's still going on.
858
01:00:29,234 --> 01:00:31,149
[man] Josh!
859
01:00:33,891 --> 01:00:36,937
Josh, where are you?
Tell me where you are!
860
01:00:37,024 --> 01:00:41,115
[King] Texas Chain Saw
has a lot in common
861
01:00:41,246 --> 01:00:43,422
with The Blair Witch Project.
862
01:00:43,509 --> 01:00:45,554
My memory is...
863
01:00:45,642 --> 01:00:48,470
I'd gotten hit by a van,
and I was in the hospital,
864
01:00:48,601 --> 01:00:51,604
and I was in early recovery,
and I was in a lot of pain,
865
01:00:51,691 --> 01:00:54,738
and I was taking a lot of dope
for the pain,
866
01:00:54,825 --> 01:00:58,393
and my son came in,
and my memory is
867
01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:01,701
that he had a TV monitor
868
01:01:01,832 --> 01:01:06,227
hooked up to an actual
tape machine.
869
01:01:06,314 --> 01:01:09,100
And we sat and we watched
that movie.
870
01:01:09,187 --> 01:01:10,971
And the more we watched,
871
01:01:11,102 --> 01:01:14,366
the more these kids got into
the woods and started to see
872
01:01:14,453 --> 01:01:18,065
these talismans hanging
from the trees and everything.
873
01:01:18,152 --> 01:01:21,112
I got to a point where I said,
"Joe, turn it off.
874
01:01:21,199 --> 01:01:22,722
I can't take anymore."
875
01:01:22,853 --> 01:01:25,769
And that's rare.
876
01:01:25,899 --> 01:01:28,510
I'm kind of case-hardened,
but every now and then,
877
01:01:28,597 --> 01:01:29,860
one will get under your skin,
878
01:01:29,947 --> 01:01:33,037
and that one really
got under my skin.
879
01:01:33,124 --> 01:01:37,476
Both of them were made
on tiny budgets
880
01:01:37,563 --> 01:01:40,044
with small casts.
881
01:01:40,174 --> 01:01:44,613
And both of them have a look
882
01:01:44,744 --> 01:01:47,138
that's almost amateurish,
883
01:01:47,225 --> 01:01:49,053
but they both work...
884
01:01:51,359 --> 01:01:55,146
because you don't really see
885
01:01:55,276 --> 01:01:58,453
what's going on at first.
886
01:01:58,584 --> 01:02:00,629
I don't think in
The Blair Witch Project
887
01:02:00,717 --> 01:02:03,981
you ever see exactly
what's going on,
888
01:02:04,068 --> 01:02:09,160
because it all leads up
to that final shot
889
01:02:09,290 --> 01:02:12,337
with the guy standing
in the corner of the basement
890
01:02:12,424 --> 01:02:14,034
with his face to the wall.
891
01:02:14,165 --> 01:02:17,429
It's terrifying, but you can't
even say why it's terrifying.
892
01:02:19,170 --> 01:02:21,912
Whereas in Texas Chain Saw,
893
01:02:22,042 --> 01:02:24,392
the brilliant thing
that Tobe did
894
01:02:24,479 --> 01:02:29,702
was he begins with a number
of Polaroid photographs
895
01:02:29,789 --> 01:02:33,532
that flash and are gone,
flash and are gone.
896
01:02:33,619 --> 01:02:36,317
And we find out later
that they're bodies
897
01:02:36,404 --> 01:02:37,841
that have been exhumed
from a cemetery.
898
01:02:37,971 --> 01:02:40,278
But really beyond that...
899
01:02:40,365 --> 01:02:43,803
My old agent, Kirby McCauley,
used to say,
900
01:02:43,890 --> 01:02:47,285
"It's all violins.
It's all violins."
901
01:02:47,372 --> 01:02:49,461
You don't really see too much.
902
01:02:51,680 --> 01:02:53,987
I think that at some point,
903
01:02:54,118 --> 01:02:57,599
you have to put your cards
down on the table.
904
01:02:57,730 --> 01:03:00,341
You have to show what's there.
905
01:03:00,428 --> 01:03:02,779
That's always been
my philosophy.
906
01:03:05,085 --> 01:03:06,739
[grunts]
907
01:03:09,046 --> 01:03:13,485
[King] Horror is disintegrating
into a pile of putrescence.
908
01:03:13,572 --> 01:03:15,226
[screaming]
909
01:03:33,897 --> 01:03:39,076
[King] Whereas terror
is that ball
bouncing down the stairs
910
01:03:39,206 --> 01:03:41,687
in The Changeling.
911
01:03:42,601 --> 01:03:45,691
It's a really scary moment.
912
01:03:47,475 --> 01:03:51,088
I've always felt
that horror was easy,
913
01:03:51,218 --> 01:03:54,308
and at the same time
914
01:03:54,700 --> 01:03:57,007
terror is probably
a finer emotion
915
01:03:57,094 --> 01:04:00,401
if you want to put
an adjective on it.
916
01:04:00,532 --> 01:04:06,407
But I've tried to use terror
in some of my stories,
917
01:04:06,538 --> 01:04:08,540
mostly The Shining,
918
01:04:08,627 --> 01:04:13,110
which is a story
where you just see things
919
01:04:13,240 --> 01:04:15,503
out of the corner of your eye
for quite a while
920
01:04:15,634 --> 01:04:17,549
before the horror
really kicks in.
921
01:04:20,334 --> 01:04:25,644
The things that are primal
and terrifying
922
01:04:26,166 --> 01:04:29,735
are the things
that we know as children
923
01:04:29,822 --> 01:04:31,389
that we really, really fear.
924
01:04:31,476 --> 01:04:35,132
Like, when I was a kid,
I can remember
925
01:04:35,219 --> 01:04:36,568
seeing frost on the window
926
01:04:36,698 --> 01:04:38,352
and thinking
that it was the face
927
01:04:38,439 --> 01:04:42,661
of some crazy person who was
out there trying to get in.
928
01:04:42,791 --> 01:04:46,708
And so, if I were
to make a movie,
929
01:04:46,795 --> 01:04:48,928
and put frost on the window,
930
01:04:49,059 --> 01:04:51,626
and shoot it the way
that Robert Wise
931
01:04:51,713 --> 01:04:55,282
shoots some
of the plaster figurines
932
01:04:55,369 --> 01:04:58,155
in that bas-relief
in that movie,
933
01:04:58,242 --> 01:04:59,591
I think it would work,
934
01:04:59,721 --> 01:05:02,550
because I think
that most children
935
01:05:02,681 --> 01:05:06,119
they may not have seen
frost on a window
that looks like a face,
936
01:05:06,206 --> 01:05:10,994
but they've seen, like,
dolls that are terrifying
for some reason.
937
01:05:11,081 --> 01:05:15,041
That appear to be pleasant
enough in the daytime,
938
01:05:15,172 --> 01:05:19,785
but once it's nighttime,
they take on a different aspect.
939
01:05:19,872 --> 01:05:22,788
Tobe did some of that
in Poltergeist.
940
01:05:28,750 --> 01:05:30,274
[jingling]
941
01:05:32,493 --> 01:05:35,061
So, it can go either way.
942
01:05:35,192 --> 01:05:37,324
But you have to be a real artist
943
01:05:37,455 --> 01:05:41,807
to do the thing where
it's just almost suggested.
944
01:05:58,563 --> 01:05:59,956
My boots aren't laced!
945
01:06:01,087 --> 01:06:03,698
Oh, my God,
what the fuck is that?
946
01:06:03,785 --> 01:06:05,700
What the fuck is that?
947
01:06:05,831 --> 01:06:08,660
[breathing heavily]
948
01:06:09,095 --> 01:06:10,836
[King] It is scary in a way,
949
01:06:10,967 --> 01:06:13,447
and Blair Witch
is scary in a way
950
01:06:13,534 --> 01:06:18,975
that Hollywood movies
don't seem to be able
to replicate.
951
01:06:19,105 --> 01:06:24,241
And I think part of the reason
is because there are
too many people
952
01:06:24,328 --> 01:06:27,244
involved with
the creative process in movies.
953
01:06:28,810 --> 01:06:31,248
I've run into producers who say,
954
01:06:31,335 --> 01:06:33,380
"Well, yes,
I want to give you notes
955
01:06:33,511 --> 01:06:35,469
about this and that
and the other thing."
956
01:06:35,556 --> 01:06:38,124
I hate the goddamn notes, okay?
957
01:06:38,211 --> 01:06:41,954
Because whatever
they want to do,
958
01:06:42,041 --> 01:06:47,220
every step homogenizes
the process
a little tiny bit more.
959
01:06:47,655 --> 01:06:49,396
With Texas Chain Saw,
960
01:06:49,527 --> 01:06:51,355
Tobe didn't have
to worry about any of that.
961
01:06:51,442 --> 01:06:55,098
He could do
where the spirit moved him.
962
01:06:55,924 --> 01:07:00,712
So, you see that
in small budget,
independent movies.
963
01:07:02,714 --> 01:07:05,064
It's true with Evil Dead.
964
01:07:05,195 --> 01:07:08,676
Evil Dead is balls-to-the-wall
horror.
965
01:07:08,807 --> 01:07:10,722
When I saw Evil Dead in Cannes,
966
01:07:10,809 --> 01:07:12,506
I went nuts for that movie.
967
01:07:12,593 --> 01:07:13,942
I thought it was
really terrific,
968
01:07:14,073 --> 01:07:18,208
really scary, and really,
really original.
969
01:07:19,861 --> 01:07:22,038
[growling]
970
01:07:25,867 --> 01:07:28,740
[yells] Oh, God.
971
01:07:31,395 --> 01:07:33,832
[King] And I said to Sam
when I finally met him,
972
01:07:33,919 --> 01:07:35,399
Sam Raimi, I said,
973
01:07:35,529 --> 01:07:37,662
"How did you do
that steady cam thing?"
974
01:07:37,792 --> 01:07:42,319
I said, "Kubrick took
all this special equipment
975
01:07:42,406 --> 01:07:44,451
and very expensive stuff
976
01:07:44,582 --> 01:07:48,064
to make what's essentially
a very cold movie."
977
01:07:48,194 --> 01:07:52,372
And [laughs] Sam Raimi just
kind of laughed and he said,
978
01:07:52,459 --> 01:07:55,593
"There were two people
holding a two-by-four
979
01:07:55,723 --> 01:07:57,421
with the camera mounted on it,
980
01:07:57,551 --> 01:07:59,727
and they just ran like hell."
981
01:07:59,814 --> 01:08:03,209
That's the solution
that wouldn't occur to somebody
982
01:08:03,296 --> 01:08:05,081
who's making a Hollywood movie.
983
01:08:07,605 --> 01:08:11,696
The merits of Texas
Chain Saw Massacre.
984
01:08:11,826 --> 01:08:16,527
Well, I think it puts us all
in touch with our primal fears,
985
01:08:16,614 --> 01:08:19,791
and it gives us a chance
986
01:08:19,878 --> 01:08:23,751
in a relatively harmless place
987
01:08:23,838 --> 01:08:30,149
to experience emotions that
we ordinarily wouldn't feel.
988
01:08:30,280 --> 01:08:33,021
And I think those things
are valuable.
989
01:08:33,152 --> 01:08:34,284
Not everybody does.
990
01:08:35,154 --> 01:08:36,808
Is that social?
991
01:08:36,895 --> 01:08:37,939
Is that social?
992
01:08:38,026 --> 01:08:40,246
I don't know if it really is.
993
01:08:40,377 --> 01:08:43,728
You know, that's a...
994
01:08:45,904 --> 01:08:47,471
That's a question of morality,
995
01:08:47,558 --> 01:08:52,824
and I'm not sure that when
you deal with entertainment,
996
01:08:53,564 --> 01:08:56,871
those boundaries
are necessarily the same.
997
01:08:56,958 --> 01:09:00,005
Speaking just for myself,
998
01:09:00,571 --> 01:09:06,533
I actually want to violate
good taste.
999
01:09:06,664 --> 01:09:10,146
I think that that's where
you're supposed to go,
1000
01:09:10,233 --> 01:09:13,540
as somebody who writes
horror fiction,
1001
01:09:13,671 --> 01:09:16,326
or stuff that
has to do with the macabre.
1002
01:09:16,456 --> 01:09:20,112
I'm sure that, at the time,
1003
01:09:20,243 --> 01:09:23,681
when Poe wrote that
Tell-Tale Heart story,
1004
01:09:23,811 --> 01:09:26,553
and he wrote about
dismembering the body
1005
01:09:26,684 --> 01:09:28,468
and putting it under
the floorboards,
1006
01:09:28,599 --> 01:09:32,080
there were people who went,
"That's too far,
that's too far."
1007
01:09:32,168 --> 01:09:35,040
Well, you're supposed
to go too far.
1008
01:09:35,171 --> 01:09:40,045
I think that
when it comes to movies,
1009
01:09:40,132 --> 01:09:43,309
the taste and conscience
side of it
1010
01:09:43,440 --> 01:09:45,746
belongs not with the filmmaker
1011
01:09:45,877 --> 01:09:49,576
but with the people
who do the rating for the films.
1012
01:09:49,663 --> 01:09:55,191
And I think that their tastes
and their ratings
are very plastic.
1013
01:09:57,410 --> 01:09:59,064
The swearing, Paul.
1014
01:10:01,327 --> 01:10:02,894
There, I said it.
1015
01:10:03,982 --> 01:10:06,463
Yeah? The profanity bothers you?
1016
01:10:06,593 --> 01:10:09,161
It has no nobility.
1017
01:10:09,292 --> 01:10:10,771
[King] For instance, you know,
1018
01:10:10,858 --> 01:10:15,167
you can see a movie
where Godzilla stomps a city
1019
01:10:15,254 --> 01:10:17,169
and it will get a PG-13 rating.
1020
01:10:17,256 --> 01:10:21,521
And as long as you don't
show dismembered bodies,
1021
01:10:21,608 --> 01:10:23,262
it's all right.
1022
01:10:23,393 --> 01:10:25,046
But when you draw back
a little bit
1023
01:10:25,177 --> 01:10:27,832
and you think about it,
there are thousands of people
1024
01:10:27,919 --> 01:10:33,446
that are being killed
by movies like Godzilla,
1025
01:10:33,577 --> 01:10:36,884
or Marvel pictures
with supervillains
1026
01:10:37,015 --> 01:10:38,799
that lay waste to huge cities.
1027
01:10:38,930 --> 01:10:40,975
We just don't see them.
1028
01:10:41,062 --> 01:10:43,108
[dramatic music playing]
1029
01:10:45,241 --> 01:10:49,201
Sam Peckinpah once said,
1030
01:10:49,332 --> 01:10:51,072
"There's nothing
more pornographic
1031
01:10:51,159 --> 01:10:53,249
than a Hopalong Cassidy movie
1032
01:10:53,379 --> 01:10:55,990
where you go 'pow', like that,
1033
01:10:56,077 --> 01:10:59,385
and the guy goes 'Oh' like this
and he falls down."
1034
01:10:59,472 --> 01:11:03,563
There's no blood, there's no
mess, there's nothing like that.
1035
01:11:03,650 --> 01:11:04,999
It's very sanitized.
1036
01:11:05,086 --> 01:11:08,916
He just goes, "Oh, God."
Like that.
1037
01:11:09,003 --> 01:11:12,224
He doesn't say "Oh, God,"
because that wasn't allowed.
1038
01:11:12,311 --> 01:11:14,792
But Peckinpah said,
1039
01:11:14,922 --> 01:11:18,317
"I'm gonna actually
show what happens,"
1040
01:11:18,448 --> 01:11:21,059
so that in a movie
like Straw Dogs
1041
01:11:21,189 --> 01:11:23,670
or The Wild Bunch,
1042
01:11:23,757 --> 01:11:28,806
you see what happens
to the people who are shot.
1043
01:11:28,936 --> 01:11:30,111
There's blood.
1044
01:11:30,242 --> 01:11:32,592
He even shows it in slow motion.
1045
01:11:32,897 --> 01:11:36,596
So, yeah, morality and movies,
1046
01:11:36,683 --> 01:11:39,338
morality and art,
1047
01:11:39,425 --> 01:11:41,471
I don't think
they really go together.
1048
01:11:41,558 --> 01:11:44,300
Somebody else has got
to decide that.
1049
01:11:44,952 --> 01:11:49,783
You can't ask Tobe
what he thinks
about taste and conscience,
1050
01:11:49,870 --> 01:11:55,528
because Tobe is gone
to the great reward in the sky.
1051
01:11:55,615 --> 01:11:58,270
If you asked me, I would say
1052
01:11:58,401 --> 01:12:03,580
he never thought about taste
and conscience in the least bit
1053
01:12:03,667 --> 01:12:05,321
when he made that movie.
1054
01:12:07,323 --> 01:12:12,110
You never know what boundaries
are gonna be violated,
1055
01:12:12,197 --> 01:12:13,459
because that's what it's about,
1056
01:12:13,590 --> 01:12:15,766
it's an outlaw genre, really.
1057
01:12:15,896 --> 01:12:17,333
And it always has been.
1058
01:12:19,900 --> 01:12:22,468
You can't ever get comfortable.
1059
01:12:22,599 --> 01:12:27,212
And that is the artist's job,
to make you uncomfortable.
1060
01:12:27,865 --> 01:12:32,739
And I think that there's a great
gun culture in this country
1061
01:12:32,826 --> 01:12:37,135
that's partially fueled
by movies like Death Wish.
1062
01:12:37,701 --> 01:12:41,269
The difference between
a movie like Death Wish
1063
01:12:41,400 --> 01:12:43,533
and a movie like
Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1064
01:12:43,620 --> 01:12:46,100
is you don't really expect
1065
01:12:46,231 --> 01:12:50,322
some impressionable
18- or 19-year-old
1066
01:12:50,453 --> 01:12:53,760
to go out and buy a chainsaw
and start cutting people up,
1067
01:12:53,847 --> 01:12:57,024
whereas somebody
who saw Death Wish
1068
01:12:57,111 --> 01:13:01,855
might very well say, "Yeah,
that's a pretty good idea.
1069
01:13:01,986 --> 01:13:04,162
Never mind the movie, fuck that.
1070
01:13:04,292 --> 01:13:08,296
Let's go out and shoot a bunch
of drug pushers or something."
1071
01:13:08,384 --> 01:13:10,647
You have to be careful
about that.
1072
01:13:10,777 --> 01:13:14,868
Now, I have a book called Rage
that was published.
1073
01:13:14,999 --> 01:13:18,959
It was written halfway through
senior year in high school,
1074
01:13:19,090 --> 01:13:22,136
and it was about this kid,
Charlie Decker,
1075
01:13:22,223 --> 01:13:24,748
who comes in
and shoots his teacher
1076
01:13:24,878 --> 01:13:27,620
and holds his class hostage
with a gun.
1077
01:13:27,751 --> 01:13:32,799
And it gets the class
sort of, like, on his side,
1078
01:13:32,930 --> 01:13:36,760
and then, later on,
there was a shooter in Oregon
1079
01:13:36,847 --> 01:13:39,937
and he shot three or four kids
1080
01:13:40,024 --> 01:13:42,766
and that book was found
in his locker,
1081
01:13:42,896 --> 01:13:44,768
and there were a couple
of other cases.
1082
01:13:44,855 --> 01:13:47,292
And I said,
1083
01:13:47,379 --> 01:13:49,337
"This might actually
be an accelerant."
1084
01:13:49,425 --> 01:13:51,122
And I pulled the book,
1085
01:13:51,209 --> 01:13:54,908
because I don't want
to think of myself
1086
01:13:55,039 --> 01:13:56,954
as partially responsible
for that.
1087
01:13:57,041 --> 01:14:00,348
It was written at a time
when school shootings
were unheard of.
1088
01:14:00,479 --> 01:14:03,047
That's my only defense,
and it isn't a good one.
1089
01:14:06,790 --> 01:14:09,140
Seventy-four, November,
take nine.
1090
01:14:09,227 --> 01:14:11,577
I admire this movie so much,
1091
01:14:11,664 --> 01:14:14,928
and it was made for,
1092
01:14:15,015 --> 01:14:16,974
you know, chump change, really.
1093
01:14:17,104 --> 01:14:17,975
It's amazing.
1094
01:14:18,671 --> 01:14:20,238
And Tobe was young
1095
01:14:20,368 --> 01:14:22,196
when he made this movie, too,
1096
01:14:22,327 --> 01:14:25,591
because you don't know
at that point
1097
01:14:25,678 --> 01:14:28,420
that you can't do
certain things.
1098
01:14:28,507 --> 01:14:30,727
So, everything is on the table.
1099
01:14:30,857 --> 01:14:33,251
It's a fantastic thing.
1100
01:14:33,773 --> 01:14:36,646
It's a kind of a classic
feel to it,
1101
01:14:36,776 --> 01:14:40,650
a classic, primal,
horror movie feel.
1102
01:14:44,262 --> 01:14:49,049
Man, the movie is like
fucking less than
an hour and a half long.
1103
01:14:49,136 --> 01:14:50,573
It's almost a short subject.
1104
01:14:50,660 --> 01:14:53,489
It really gets in there.
1105
01:14:53,619 --> 01:14:56,013
It's like a Beatles song,
in a sense.
1106
01:14:56,143 --> 01:14:57,971
The archetypal Beatles song
1107
01:14:58,058 --> 01:15:00,147
would be like, "She Loves You,"
1108
01:15:00,278 --> 01:15:03,020
or "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."
1109
01:15:03,150 --> 01:15:05,283
Two minutes and 17 seconds,
1110
01:15:05,370 --> 01:15:07,851
gets in,
does its business, done.
1111
01:15:10,593 --> 01:15:13,552
There's no fat, there's nothing.
1112
01:15:13,639 --> 01:15:17,034
So, yeah, I would say
that it's timeless.
1113
01:15:18,078 --> 01:15:19,776
And you can't say...
1114
01:15:19,863 --> 01:15:22,822
You can't say
it's part of the zeitgeist,
1115
01:15:22,953 --> 01:15:24,955
because it's so early, you know.
1116
01:15:25,085 --> 01:15:30,874
It feels like, almost like...
the zeitgeist came later.
1117
01:15:30,961 --> 01:15:32,049
Do you see what I'm saying?
1118
01:15:33,529 --> 01:15:37,663
That it's like...
Just its own thing.
1119
01:15:37,750 --> 01:15:41,928
I read somewhere
that Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1120
01:15:42,059 --> 01:15:47,717
is the only movie
about psychotics
that was made by a psychotic.
1121
01:15:47,804 --> 01:15:51,634
And it does have
some of that feeling to it.
1122
01:15:52,417 --> 01:15:56,682
I worked with Tobe
a little bit on Sleepwalkers,
1123
01:15:56,769 --> 01:16:01,687
and Tobe was just this
soft-spoken, nice man,
1124
01:16:01,774 --> 01:16:04,516
and quite handsome.
1125
01:16:04,647 --> 01:16:06,649
And he had his lines down pat.
1126
01:16:06,779 --> 01:16:09,347
Hey, buddy, buddy.
1127
01:16:09,434 --> 01:16:10,609
I ain't taking the rap on this.
1128
01:16:10,696 --> 01:16:12,132
I lock this place up
every night.
1129
01:16:12,263 --> 01:16:14,352
It's not my fault
if every pervert, weirdo--
1130
01:16:14,439 --> 01:16:16,833
Don't talk to me,
go to talk to someone in charge.
1131
01:16:16,920 --> 01:16:18,965
I'm busy.
1132
01:16:19,096 --> 01:16:21,925
And I didn't get
a real chance to talk to him,
1133
01:16:22,012 --> 01:16:23,796
but my idea about him was,
1134
01:16:23,883 --> 01:16:27,495
he's like the rest of us
that do this for a living.
1135
01:16:27,583 --> 01:16:29,672
He puts on his normal face
1136
01:16:29,759 --> 01:16:32,022
and he comes out
and he does his job.
1137
01:16:32,109 --> 01:16:33,371
And I'm the same way.
1138
01:16:33,458 --> 01:16:34,764
I wear a normal mask
1139
01:16:34,894 --> 01:16:36,853
when I'm doing these things,
1140
01:16:36,940 --> 01:16:40,726
and then I turn into
somebody else
1141
01:16:40,813 --> 01:16:43,207
when I'm writing something
that's really scary.
1142
01:16:43,294 --> 01:16:46,384
And there's always
a kind of a smile on my face
1143
01:16:46,514 --> 01:16:49,474
because I'm thinking to myself,
"I'm gonna getcha."
1144
01:16:55,872 --> 01:17:01,921
[woman] No! No! No! No! No!
1145
01:17:02,008 --> 01:17:04,445
No, please, no!
1146
01:17:04,532 --> 01:17:07,623
Please, please, please, no!
1147
01:17:09,494 --> 01:17:11,496
[woman screaming]
1148
01:17:14,630 --> 01:17:17,981
[tense music playing]
1149
01:17:19,547 --> 01:17:21,506
No!
1150
01:17:25,162 --> 01:17:27,338
[woman screaming]
1151
01:17:28,992 --> 01:17:31,516
[tense music building]
1152
01:17:31,647 --> 01:17:33,518
[glass crashing]
1153
01:17:36,695 --> 01:17:38,654
[yelling]
1154
01:17:40,568 --> 01:17:41,352
[grunts]
1155
01:17:53,494 --> 01:17:55,409
The first time I got
to see the movie
1156
01:17:55,496 --> 01:17:57,194
was on film actually,
1157
01:17:57,281 --> 01:17:59,065
at the Angelika Film Center.
1158
01:17:59,152 --> 01:18:00,588
I was about 19.
1159
01:18:00,719 --> 01:18:03,722
I was probably
in the fourth or fifth row.
1160
01:18:03,853 --> 01:18:07,465
And I remember walking
out of that theater
1161
01:18:07,595 --> 01:18:10,773
feeling like I had never seen
1162
01:18:10,860 --> 01:18:16,387
such a legitimately
terrifying vision of the world.
1163
01:18:21,000 --> 01:18:23,176
I didn't understand
that the movie
1164
01:18:23,307 --> 01:18:24,830
was going to affect me
1165
01:18:24,917 --> 01:18:29,313
the way a great work of art
can affect you.
1166
01:18:29,443 --> 01:18:36,363
And to see a movie that had this
grindhouse kind of reputation,
1167
01:18:36,886 --> 01:18:41,455
and then to recognize it
as an American masterpiece
1168
01:18:41,542 --> 01:18:43,631
was just this really
interesting,
1169
01:18:43,719 --> 01:18:47,897
disjunctive experience for me
as a young artist.
1170
01:18:48,549 --> 01:18:52,989
I feel like we are watching
this incredible depiction
1171
01:18:53,119 --> 01:18:55,992
of multiple populations
1172
01:18:56,079 --> 01:18:58,646
that feel entitled
to a way of life.
1173
01:18:59,038 --> 01:19:02,738
You don't want to go
fooling around
on other folks' property.
1174
01:19:02,825 --> 01:19:05,697
Some folks don't like it,
and they don't mind showing you.
1175
01:19:05,828 --> 01:19:07,743
Oh, my father owns it.
1176
01:19:07,873 --> 01:19:10,310
- That's your daddy's place, huh?
- Yeah.
1177
01:19:10,441 --> 01:19:13,357
[Kusama]
Whether it's the kids in a van
1178
01:19:13,487 --> 01:19:18,710
who want to see an old home
that's in their family...
1179
01:19:18,797 --> 01:19:21,278
They already have a legacy
of owning property.
1180
01:19:21,365 --> 01:19:25,021
They have the legacy
of having a car
and taking a vacation,
1181
01:19:25,151 --> 01:19:27,110
road-tripping together.
1182
01:19:27,240 --> 01:19:30,766
...or the nightmare family
they run into
1183
01:19:30,896 --> 01:19:34,465
and are tragically going
to collide with.
1184
01:19:34,552 --> 01:19:36,119
[screaming]
1185
01:19:41,515 --> 01:19:47,957
[Kusama] That family is sort of
the other side of the coin,
1186
01:19:48,044 --> 01:19:51,047
of this depiction
of an American family
1187
01:19:51,134 --> 01:19:53,701
in which their industry
has been taken away,
1188
01:19:53,789 --> 01:19:56,269
their livelihood
has been taken away.
1189
01:19:56,835 --> 01:20:01,666
And yet, there is a sense
that they are owed
1190
01:20:01,797 --> 01:20:05,235
their jobs back
as professional killers
1191
01:20:05,931 --> 01:20:08,281
and good killers.
1192
01:20:08,368 --> 01:20:10,806
To watch the dinner scene again
1193
01:20:10,936 --> 01:20:14,722
in the very quiet privacy
of my own home,
1194
01:20:14,810 --> 01:20:17,116
where I'm certain my dog
1195
01:20:17,247 --> 01:20:20,816
thought something terrible
was happening in the other room,
1196
01:20:21,120 --> 01:20:25,733
I was really struck
by the depiction
1197
01:20:25,864 --> 01:20:29,781
of, first of all,
this idea of the patriarchy.
1198
01:20:29,912 --> 01:20:31,609
I won't have this.
1199
01:20:31,696 --> 01:20:35,091
It brings up so many complicated
feelings as you're watching,
1200
01:20:35,178 --> 01:20:37,354
because on the face of it
1201
01:20:37,441 --> 01:20:41,140
what's happening
is offensively violent,
1202
01:20:41,227 --> 01:20:42,838
offensively grisly,
1203
01:20:42,925 --> 01:20:46,319
and yet it has this quality
of high comedy,
1204
01:20:46,406 --> 01:20:50,889
because it really is so revealed
as base and pathetic.
1205
01:20:50,976 --> 01:20:53,631
They, as a family,
are so pathetic.
1206
01:20:53,718 --> 01:20:55,285
He's just a cook.
1207
01:20:56,373 --> 01:20:59,071
Shut up, you bitch hog.
1208
01:20:59,158 --> 01:21:00,681
[woman sobbing]
1209
01:21:00,812 --> 01:21:03,206
Me and Leatherface
do all the work.
1210
01:21:03,336 --> 01:21:05,425
He don't like it,
ain't that right?
1211
01:21:05,512 --> 01:21:06,731
You're just the cook.
1212
01:21:06,862 --> 01:21:08,559
Shut your mouth!
1213
01:21:09,821 --> 01:21:12,650
You don't understand nothing.
1214
01:21:12,737 --> 01:21:14,913
[Kusama] I cannot help
but watch the movie
1215
01:21:15,000 --> 01:21:18,395
and feel some
very uncomfortable sympathy
1216
01:21:18,482 --> 01:21:21,964
for those characters,
and deep sadness.
1217
01:21:22,094 --> 01:21:25,097
When they're talking to Sally
at the dinner table,
1218
01:21:25,184 --> 01:21:29,058
it's the saddest, scariest
depiction of masculinity
1219
01:21:29,188 --> 01:21:32,061
I think that might
exist on film.
1220
01:21:32,191 --> 01:21:36,717
And of a broken masculinity.
1221
01:21:36,848 --> 01:21:39,242
[woman sobbing then screams]
1222
01:21:39,329 --> 01:21:42,636
[Kusama] Leatherface is a child.
1223
01:21:42,767 --> 01:21:46,597
And the chainsaw itself
is just another prop
1224
01:21:46,684 --> 01:21:49,730
in a role he's trying
to find a place
1225
01:21:49,817 --> 01:21:52,820
in the production to play.
1226
01:21:52,908 --> 01:21:56,259
Like, he's in a family
with no role,
1227
01:21:56,389 --> 01:22:02,439
and that has made him
completely insane.
1228
01:22:03,396 --> 01:22:05,050
Howdy.
1229
01:22:05,137 --> 01:22:08,271
Want to take off the mask, huh?
1230
01:22:09,315 --> 01:22:11,317
No? Okay. All right.
1231
01:22:11,448 --> 01:22:17,149
[Kusama] And so,
to see human monsters like this,
1232
01:22:17,280 --> 01:22:21,153
it's actually evoking,
I think, the feelings
1233
01:22:21,284 --> 01:22:25,462
that a lot of older
horror classics,
1234
01:22:25,592 --> 01:22:27,812
I think particularly
of Frankenstein,
1235
01:22:27,899 --> 01:22:31,250
where that monster
is the product
1236
01:22:31,337 --> 01:22:32,904
of something larger,
1237
01:22:32,991 --> 01:22:36,908
something far more diabolical
and fucked up.
1238
01:22:42,261 --> 01:22:44,655
I can't look at Leatherface
1239
01:22:44,785 --> 01:22:48,441
and feel like
he's simply a monster.
1240
01:22:48,572 --> 01:22:52,576
He is a part of us.
1241
01:22:53,229 --> 01:22:57,668
And for that reason,
I can't reject him out of hand.
1242
01:22:57,755 --> 01:23:02,716
There's something about
this family's
1243
01:23:03,326 --> 01:23:06,503
inability to modernize
that is both, like,
1244
01:23:06,633 --> 01:23:12,030
incredibly touching
and maddening,
1245
01:23:12,117 --> 01:23:15,251
because they are stuck
in an America
1246
01:23:15,338 --> 01:23:17,731
that doesn't exist
for them anymore,
1247
01:23:17,818 --> 01:23:19,516
and it's made them insane.
1248
01:23:19,603 --> 01:23:21,953
And I feel like
that's something that
1249
01:23:22,040 --> 01:23:25,609
Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel
were investigating.
1250
01:23:25,739 --> 01:23:29,265
What do you do when you take
a person's livelihood away?
1251
01:23:29,352 --> 01:23:31,658
No matter what you think
of their livelihood.
1252
01:23:32,094 --> 01:23:34,531
And I think in a funny way,
1253
01:23:36,489 --> 01:23:39,666
the monster family
and the victim family
1254
01:23:39,753 --> 01:23:44,236
are incredibly entwined
in their identity, in a way,
1255
01:23:44,323 --> 01:23:48,110
and in their expectation
of what America owes them,
1256
01:23:48,240 --> 01:23:51,765
and what the promise
of the American dream really is.
1257
01:23:51,852 --> 01:23:54,246
Didn't you say there's
a swimming hole around here?
1258
01:23:54,333 --> 01:23:56,944
Yeah.
1259
01:23:57,075 --> 01:23:59,208
Well, Pam and I'd like
to go swimming, man.
1260
01:24:01,862 --> 01:24:05,736
Uh, there used to be a trail
down between those
two old sheds.
1261
01:24:07,085 --> 01:24:09,435
Come on, we'll find it.
1262
01:24:09,957 --> 01:24:13,135
- [woman moans]
- This must be it.
1263
01:24:13,265 --> 01:24:16,834
[Kusama] Perhaps the bigger
nightmare of the movie
1264
01:24:16,921 --> 01:24:19,402
is that it didn't exist at all.
1265
01:24:24,276 --> 01:24:27,845
I feel like
watching the movie 50 years on,
1266
01:24:27,932 --> 01:24:33,590
it is as if we are witnessing
the young artist Tobe Hooper
1267
01:24:33,720 --> 01:24:36,462
looking into the future
of America.
1268
01:24:36,549 --> 01:24:41,511
And he is imagining
a world on fire.
1269
01:24:41,641 --> 01:24:44,644
He is imagining
a level of American violence
1270
01:24:44,775 --> 01:24:49,171
that seems to be unprecedented,
day after day.
1271
01:24:49,301 --> 01:24:53,262
He's seeing a depiction
of community relationships
1272
01:24:53,349 --> 01:24:58,093
that have completely
disintegrated, and...
1273
01:24:58,615 --> 01:25:00,834
It's like the movie
is evergreen,
1274
01:25:00,921 --> 01:25:03,402
so sadly, for Americans,
1275
01:25:03,533 --> 01:25:06,013
because it feels relevant still,
1276
01:25:06,101 --> 01:25:08,320
even strangely
more relevant to me now.
1277
01:25:08,407 --> 01:25:11,193
[reporter] Health officials in
San Francisco reluctantly admit
1278
01:25:11,280 --> 01:25:13,543
they may have a cholera
epidemic on their hands.
1279
01:25:13,630 --> 01:25:18,243
Some 40 cases of the highly
infectious disease have
been confirmed.
1280
01:25:18,374 --> 01:25:21,420
[Kusama] And he sets it all up
in those opening minutes
1281
01:25:21,507 --> 01:25:24,075
with the bad news
1282
01:25:24,206 --> 01:25:26,860
that could be
the bad news I'm listening to
1283
01:25:26,991 --> 01:25:30,429
on my drive to talk
to you today, 50 years on.
1284
01:25:30,516 --> 01:25:33,867
I mean, it's an uncanny
kind of prescience.
1285
01:25:33,954 --> 01:25:39,612
By putting the date
at the beginning of a movie
like this or like Psycho,
1286
01:25:39,699 --> 01:25:42,833
instead of making it more real,
1287
01:25:42,920 --> 01:25:45,662
what it does is
it makes it timeless.
1288
01:25:45,792 --> 01:25:47,751
[suspenseful music playing]
1289
01:25:53,887 --> 01:26:00,024
In planting this concept
of specificity for the audience,
1290
01:26:00,111 --> 01:26:03,506
a day that something
terrible happened,
1291
01:26:03,636 --> 01:26:06,204
for which and to which
we can apply
1292
01:26:06,335 --> 01:26:09,251
all kinds of memories
of our own.
1293
01:26:09,338 --> 01:26:12,515
It's like Texas Chain Saw
Massacre is saying,
1294
01:26:12,645 --> 01:26:18,173
"Well, this film
is going to now enter
1295
01:26:18,303 --> 01:26:20,697
that pantheon of memory for you
1296
01:26:20,827 --> 01:26:23,569
and will be burned
in your memory forever."
1297
01:26:23,656 --> 01:26:29,184
It's like he's branding
the audience with the time.
1298
01:26:29,314 --> 01:26:31,360
The date is very powerful to me.
1299
01:26:31,490 --> 01:26:35,102
Um, August 18th is the day
my brother died.
1300
01:26:35,233 --> 01:26:38,715
And I feel like I know...
1301
01:26:39,324 --> 01:26:42,371
I just feel like
that date visits me, uh,
1302
01:26:42,501 --> 01:26:46,766
in this interesting
kind of cosmic way.
1303
01:26:46,897 --> 01:26:49,378
And, um...
1304
01:26:50,030 --> 01:26:53,773
It's just a strange,
strange thing.
1305
01:26:53,860 --> 01:26:55,384
Strange.
1306
01:26:55,514 --> 01:26:57,516
When malefic planets
are in retrograde...
1307
01:26:57,647 --> 01:26:59,344
And Saturn's malefic, okay.
1308
01:26:59,431 --> 01:27:01,955
...their malefice is increased.
1309
01:27:02,086 --> 01:27:05,307
The depiction of
and the conversation around
1310
01:27:05,437 --> 01:27:08,788
the planetary alignments
on an astrological level
1311
01:27:08,875 --> 01:27:11,356
along with
the constant reference
1312
01:27:11,443 --> 01:27:14,968
to the sun and the moon visually
in the language of the film
1313
01:27:15,099 --> 01:27:18,755
to me is part
of that bigger strategy
1314
01:27:18,842 --> 01:27:21,453
that Tobe Hooper was employing
1315
01:27:21,584 --> 01:27:26,676
that seemed to suggest
something almost mythic
1316
01:27:26,763 --> 01:27:29,287
about what we were
about to watch,
1317
01:27:29,418 --> 01:27:31,942
that it's not
small-town America.
1318
01:27:32,029 --> 01:27:37,295
It's a depiction
of primal human animus,
1319
01:27:37,426 --> 01:27:42,039
primal human urges
and disappointments
1320
01:27:42,126 --> 01:27:44,781
that can only
end in catastrophe.
1321
01:27:44,911 --> 01:27:47,218
But it's as if he's saying,
you know,
1322
01:27:47,349 --> 01:27:49,873
this is the landscape of myth.
1323
01:27:57,663 --> 01:27:58,838
[rooster crowing]
1324
01:27:58,969 --> 01:28:02,233
[Kusama] And so,
we are witnessing that
1325
01:28:02,364 --> 01:28:07,151
getting acted out upon these
terribly unlucky characters.
1326
01:28:07,238 --> 01:28:11,286
But then we're also witnessing
this violence being perpetrated
1327
01:28:11,416 --> 01:28:15,464
by characters who themselves
also seem terribly unlucky.
1328
01:28:20,120 --> 01:28:22,558
[narrator] The film
which you are about to see
1329
01:28:22,645 --> 01:28:26,126
is an account of the tragedy
which befell a group
of five youths...
1330
01:28:26,213 --> 01:28:29,521
[Kusama] I mean, I always forget
about the opening crawl,
1331
01:28:29,608 --> 01:28:33,656
and then to see it, it's like
what Hooper is preparing us for
1332
01:28:33,743 --> 01:28:36,180
is the American nightmare.
1333
01:28:36,267 --> 01:28:40,967
And then he's titillating us
by saying,
"And it's a true story,"
1334
01:28:41,054 --> 01:28:45,015
which is its own kind of
theatrical flourish of the film.
1335
01:28:45,102 --> 01:28:50,455
And then to be in that graveyard
1336
01:28:50,586 --> 01:28:55,199
and get those fast shock cuts.
1337
01:29:00,900 --> 01:29:02,946
[reporter] ...this morning.
Officers there discovered
1338
01:29:03,033 --> 01:29:05,427
what appeared to be
a grisly work of art.
1339
01:29:05,557 --> 01:29:10,040
[Kusama] Along with this
incredible tracking shot,
1340
01:29:10,127 --> 01:29:12,608
it's as if to me, Hooper,
the filmmaker,
1341
01:29:12,695 --> 01:29:16,089
is announcing himself
and saying,
1342
01:29:16,220 --> 01:29:20,833
"And now I present to you
a grisly work of art."
1343
01:29:20,964 --> 01:29:22,487
Such an interesting question
1344
01:29:22,618 --> 01:29:29,494
to think about the role
of beauty and poetry in art.
1345
01:29:30,234 --> 01:29:35,152
And this larger question
perhaps about its necessity.
1346
01:29:36,675 --> 01:29:40,331
The feathers
that fly through the air
1347
01:29:40,462 --> 01:29:44,814
as we watch characters
crawling across a floor
1348
01:29:44,901 --> 01:29:49,558
to find a piece of furniture
made out of bones.
1349
01:29:50,254 --> 01:29:54,389
It's so much like the thing
that would bring a child
1350
01:29:54,476 --> 01:29:56,347
back to Grimms' Fairy Tales,
1351
01:29:56,478 --> 01:30:00,917
even if it meant they lost some
sleep and had nightmares.
1352
01:30:01,439 --> 01:30:05,487
And I think
that is the secret ingredient
1353
01:30:05,617 --> 01:30:08,707
to the film's brilliance,
1354
01:30:09,142 --> 01:30:11,797
is that he's not
making something
1355
01:30:11,928 --> 01:30:14,800
that we can strictly
look away from.
1356
01:30:15,366 --> 01:30:19,805
The final sequence of
Texas Chain Saw on the highway,
1357
01:30:19,892 --> 01:30:23,635
it's a collision
of competing ideas
1358
01:30:23,722 --> 01:30:28,945
about the American project
as something hopeful,
1359
01:30:29,032 --> 01:30:31,774
optimistic, fair,
1360
01:30:31,904 --> 01:30:38,389
and then the madness
of human impulse,
1361
01:30:38,476 --> 01:30:40,565
human instinct.
1362
01:30:40,696 --> 01:30:44,003
Hooper is saying, in my opinion,
1363
01:30:44,134 --> 01:30:47,267
"I'm not optimistic
about America,
1364
01:30:47,920 --> 01:30:51,620
but I do believe
beauty still has a place."
1365
01:30:57,321 --> 01:30:58,540
[screaming]
1366
01:30:58,627 --> 01:31:00,150
[dramatic music playing]
1367
01:31:08,550 --> 01:31:11,901
[Kusama] And that that idea
that in other horror films,
1368
01:31:11,988 --> 01:31:17,123
the sun rises
to put evil to bed.
1369
01:31:17,210 --> 01:31:20,126
I think, in Hooper's case,
1370
01:31:20,213 --> 01:31:24,000
he's saying the sun rises
so that we may see evil better,
1371
01:31:24,130 --> 01:31:29,353
[chuckles]
so that it's more legible to us.
1372
01:31:31,573 --> 01:31:32,791
I have a friend in San Francisco
1373
01:31:32,878 --> 01:31:35,402
- that you could stay with.
- Really?
1374
01:31:35,490 --> 01:31:37,970
[Kusama] Eggshells
is an interesting first film
1375
01:31:38,057 --> 01:31:44,063
because it's really clear
that Tobe Hooper was interested
1376
01:31:44,194 --> 01:31:47,589
by American motifs.
1377
01:31:47,719 --> 01:31:49,765
[folk rock music playing]
1378
01:31:51,680 --> 01:31:54,770
[Kusama] The concept
of the big old house.
1379
01:31:59,905 --> 01:32:02,386
The concept of the town square.
1380
01:32:05,824 --> 01:32:09,219
I think Eggshells displays
1381
01:32:09,654 --> 01:32:13,528
this really interesting
sense of freedom.
1382
01:32:16,182 --> 01:32:17,619
Freedom with the camera,
1383
01:32:17,706 --> 01:32:20,752
freedom with the rhythms
of the storytelling.
1384
01:32:20,839 --> 01:32:23,668
And it was sort of
like a test run
1385
01:32:23,755 --> 01:32:26,323
for Texas Chain Saw Massacre,
1386
01:32:26,410 --> 01:32:31,546
which I think became a much more
classically distilled story.
1387
01:32:31,633 --> 01:32:34,853
And then he took some
of those stylistic flourishes
1388
01:32:34,984 --> 01:32:39,249
and really found
his filmmaking voice,
his visual language.
1389
01:32:41,643 --> 01:32:46,343
And there's something about
this is America, right?
1390
01:32:46,430 --> 01:32:50,826
Like the plains,
a sense of wide-open space,
1391
01:32:50,913 --> 01:32:52,567
a sense of possibility.
1392
01:32:52,697 --> 01:32:56,614
A sense of modernity is welcome
here with this, you know,
1393
01:32:56,745 --> 01:33:00,009
vehicle slicing through
the frame.
1394
01:33:00,096 --> 01:33:04,100
So, it's kind of playing
on our romantic notions
1395
01:33:04,187 --> 01:33:06,581
of the American landscape.
1396
01:33:08,887 --> 01:33:10,106
Hello?
1397
01:33:10,236 --> 01:33:12,369
[Kusama] His obsession with
doorways
1398
01:33:12,456 --> 01:33:15,938
and framing people in doorways,
1399
01:33:16,068 --> 01:33:19,115
it makes me think of Bergman.
1400
01:33:20,333 --> 01:33:23,162
It makes me think of Tarkovsky.
1401
01:33:23,249 --> 01:33:25,295
[man singing in Russian]
1402
01:33:33,172 --> 01:33:36,611
[Kusama] I feel like Hooper
is right up there
1403
01:33:36,741 --> 01:33:41,528
with indelible images
about characters
1404
01:33:41,659 --> 01:33:46,838
at a threshold from which
walking through the door
1405
01:33:46,969 --> 01:33:51,147
ensures you will never return
to your old life.
1406
01:33:51,234 --> 01:33:53,105
There's a sequence
in Texas Chain Saw
1407
01:33:53,236 --> 01:33:58,415
that I watch and have
to fight the urge to look away,
1408
01:33:58,545 --> 01:34:04,247
and also want to figure out
exactly how it was achieved.
1409
01:34:04,377 --> 01:34:07,598
Which is the moment
1410
01:34:07,685 --> 01:34:13,648
that Leatherface takes
Pam's barebacked body,
1411
01:34:13,735 --> 01:34:18,914
lifts it up onto that meat hook.
1412
01:34:19,871 --> 01:34:25,137
I'm sure there are cuts that
allow for a trick of the eye,
1413
01:34:25,268 --> 01:34:27,749
but my experience
of it is always,
1414
01:34:27,879 --> 01:34:32,928
this is one continuous
nightmarish thing happening
1415
01:34:33,015 --> 01:34:37,410
and it feels so real.
1416
01:34:37,497 --> 01:34:42,502
It's so beautifully
staged and framed
1417
01:34:42,633 --> 01:34:47,246
to set it up with the bare hook
previous to that moment
1418
01:34:47,333 --> 01:34:49,248
so that you are really
focused on it.
1419
01:34:49,379 --> 01:34:53,252
You really sense its potency
in the frame.
1420
01:34:53,818 --> 01:34:56,038
I have that experience
with other movies,
1421
01:34:56,168 --> 01:35:00,216
like Come and See,
the Russian film.
1422
01:35:00,346 --> 01:35:03,045
There's a sense that
what I'm watching
1423
01:35:03,175 --> 01:35:06,135
is a living,
breathing nightmare.
1424
01:35:06,222 --> 01:35:08,224
[flies buzzing]
1425
01:35:10,095 --> 01:35:14,404
What makes this movie
an enduring masterpiece
1426
01:35:14,534 --> 01:35:17,973
is that its thesis seems to be
1427
01:35:18,060 --> 01:35:21,150
America is a madness,
1428
01:35:21,759 --> 01:35:25,807
and I want you to look at it
and experience it.
1429
01:35:26,242 --> 01:35:31,856
And there's art
that perhaps works
1430
01:35:31,987 --> 01:35:35,120
within a more polite setting,
1431
01:35:35,251 --> 01:35:37,862
but ultimately,
I think most great art
1432
01:35:37,949 --> 01:35:42,301
is a punch
in our complacent faces.
1433
01:35:42,388 --> 01:35:46,828
That movie expands my notion
of what art even is.
1434
01:35:46,915 --> 01:35:51,136
It allows me permission
1435
01:35:51,223 --> 01:35:56,402
to make stories that feel
maybe harder sometimes...
1436
01:35:56,489 --> 01:35:58,100
[grunts]
1437
01:35:59,101 --> 01:36:02,539
...or more unpleasant.
1438
01:36:03,758 --> 01:36:05,498
Spit on it, spit on it!
1439
01:36:05,585 --> 01:36:06,935
- Fuck you.
- Spit on it.
1440
01:36:10,199 --> 01:36:14,551
[Kusama] And still believe
that there's a place for beauty.
1441
01:36:14,638 --> 01:36:16,553
There's a place for redemption.
1442
01:36:17,946 --> 01:36:20,513
I think Tobe Hooper
wanted people
1443
01:36:20,600 --> 01:36:26,084
to walk out of that theater
shaken and changed.
1444
01:36:26,215 --> 01:36:32,874
And he did that using the medium
in a really sophisticated way.
1445
01:36:33,004 --> 01:36:37,966
He uses so much art and poetry
in the filmmaking
1446
01:36:38,053 --> 01:36:41,012
that I would think many
audience members
1447
01:36:41,143 --> 01:36:45,712
couldn't help but feel
seen, spoken to,
1448
01:36:45,800 --> 01:36:48,759
provoked, and respected.
1449
01:36:48,890 --> 01:36:52,589
I can't think of a better
mission as an artist,
1450
01:36:52,719 --> 01:36:59,639
you know, to make work that is
attempting to see its audience
1451
01:37:00,249 --> 01:37:04,079
and make them see something
bigger than just the mirror.
1452
01:37:05,428 --> 01:37:06,995
It's a hard movie to watch.
1453
01:37:07,082 --> 01:37:08,735
It's a hard movie to re-watch.
1454
01:37:08,866 --> 01:37:12,174
And I keep going back to it
because it's worth it.
1455
01:37:12,304 --> 01:37:16,526
It has poetry...
1456
01:37:17,483 --> 01:37:18,833
beauty...
1457
01:37:18,963 --> 01:37:20,835
No, no, they didn't see me.
1458
01:37:21,270 --> 01:37:22,837
[Kusama] ...shock...
1459
01:37:23,794 --> 01:37:25,056
awe.
1460
01:37:25,143 --> 01:37:26,318
[reporter]
The remains of relatives
1461
01:37:26,405 --> 01:37:27,363
have been removed.
1462
01:37:27,450 --> 01:37:28,538
No suspects are in custody.
1463
01:37:29,234 --> 01:37:30,540
[Kusama] Tragedy.
1464
01:37:32,063 --> 01:37:36,676
It's as big an American film
as any American classic.
1465
01:37:36,763 --> 01:37:39,549
And for that reason,
I keep returning to it,
1466
01:37:39,679 --> 01:37:41,638
because it gives something back.
1467
01:37:46,512 --> 01:37:47,862
There's always more to see.
1468
01:37:50,038 --> 01:37:51,126
Sally?
1469
01:37:53,606 --> 01:37:54,956
- Sally--
- [Kusama] There's always
1470
01:37:55,086 --> 01:37:57,523
more subtlety and meaning
1471
01:37:57,654 --> 01:37:59,438
to glean from re-watching it.
1472
01:37:59,525 --> 01:38:01,310
Sally!
1473
01:38:01,397 --> 01:38:03,399
[laughing maniacally]
1474
01:38:05,314 --> 01:38:08,056
[Kusama] How lucky
we are as cinephiles
1475
01:38:08,143 --> 01:38:12,495
to have Texas Chain Saw Massacre
as an American statement.
1476
01:38:12,625 --> 01:38:14,584
[chainsaw buzzing]
1477
01:38:19,458 --> 01:38:21,504
[ominous music playing]
1478
01:39:47,677 --> 01:39:50,985
[ominous music playing]
1479
01:40:47,737 --> 01:40:50,566
[ominous music continues]
1480
01:41:46,578 --> 01:41:47,623
[music fades out]