[TV Review] Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Shocking Truth (2000)

Challenging film shoots are well-known in the world of horror. Everyone knows about the way Shelley Duvall was treated by Stanley Kubrick on the set of The Shining (1980) and the struggle of the white contact lenses used in The Evil Dead (1981).

However, perhaps one of the most famous gruelling movie shoots ever is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and the infamous dinner scene which rounded off the movie and proved an ordeal for everyone involved. 

In 2000, David Gregory wrote and directed the documentary Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth, which looks at the creation of the cult classic slasher movie in detail, focussing on the struggles that took place during the filming process, including the 27-hour dinner scene shoot which was forced to run long due to budget restraints, prior commitments of actor Jim Siedow, and not wanting to remove Grandpa Sawyer’s makeup and ruin it.

If you’ve read Chain Saw Confidential: How We Made the World's Most Notorious Horror Movie (2013) by Leatherface actor Gunnar Hansen, you may have a little insight into the process behind making The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, Gregory’s documentary fills in the gaps by speaking to the others involved in making the film, including most of the main cast, director Tobe Hooper, writer Kim Henkel, art director Robert A. Burns, and makeup artist Dorothy J. Pearl.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) proved that horror movies didn’t need to be set in the past or faraway places and that an attack on the American home was far scarier. The Last House on the Left (1972) also showed that horror movies didn’t need a supernatural element to send chills through the audience. Working with this knowledge, Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel sat down to write a new breed of horror movie which was an assault on the American dream.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth provides an interesting insight into the complicated character of Leatherface, with Hansen describing him as the most powerful character in the movie, but also the most scared. Hansen also dives into how he created such an iconic killer when his face was mostly hidden and he had no lines.

However, perhaps the most interesting interview segments are with Art Director Robert A. Burns, who was in charge of decorating Leatherface’s house to ensure it had the exact look and feel they wanted to make it as realistic as possible. Furniture was designed using the leftover pieces of humans and animals Leatherface’s family were likely to have lying around. Burns also wanted to ensure that Leatherface’s mask looked like something he would have created himself, rather than something that looked too produced, a criticism Burns had of Tom Savini’s mask design in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). Even with a low budget, and having to literally trawl fields and the bone pile in a vet’s office to find the parts they needed, Burns’ determination to create fear through the realism of the house’s design is clear. 

A large portion of the documentary focuses on the filming of the climactic dinner scene, and what a terrible time everyone involved had. It’s interesting to hear everyone’s views on this scene, and how it affected their opinion of creating the film in general. While Marilyn Burns was confident they were making a good movie, and Jim Siedow was proud that they made it through the process, Robert A. Burns instead takes a dig at Tobe Hooper’s poor planning and how the cast and crew should never have been in that position in the first place. 

If you’re a real Texas Chainsaw geek, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth gives us a look at the complexities of trying to get paid when you’re involved with such a low budget production, and why it’s probably not a good idea to get a Mafia-owned company to distribute your movie. It also explores the sequels in the series, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), and The Return of theTexas Chainsaw Massacre (1995), looking at the difficulty all the later entries in the series had getting taken seriously, making it past the censors, or being edited in a way the directors were happy with.

Overall, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth is a fascinating look behind the scenes of one of the best slasher movies ever made. Through this documentary, we see how The Texas Chain Saw Massacre changed the face of horror forever. Leatherface was one of the first great masked killers, chainsaws loved to pop up in horror after 1974, and Marilyn Burns’ Sally is one of the earliest examples of the kickass final girl, even if Halloween (1978) usually gets the credit.

Unlike other horror documentaries, it doesn’t waste a lot of time on b-roll shots and narrator scene-setting, and instead, dives right into the interviews and the insider info that the audience is looking for. However, I wish it had been a bit longer because I feel like I could have listened to Robert A. Burns simultaneously moan and talk about creating home accessories out of animal bones for hours. 

The documentary was released before the 2001 remake or any of the new takes on the timeline hit our screens, but it’s an incredible insight into the first four movies in the series, and why The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was so important to the world of horror.

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