The award also goes to Leatherface: in Chainsaw Confidential, Gunnar Hansen wrote that he had one dyed shirt and wore it for four straight weeks, so by the end of the shoot no one would stand near him.
The other pick is the grandfather, a desiccated body sitting up in the attic heat for weeks, fueled only by blood and called one of the freakiest things ever seen in a movie.
Filmed mostly at a 1900s farmhouse near Round Rock; art director Robert A. Burns collected the remains; Gunnar Hansen cut Marilyn Burns' finger for real; the gas station is now a horror-themed barbecue attraction; mob and Deep Throat money financed the film and the cast lost its share
They filmed mostly at a 1900s farmhouse near Round Rock, Texas, and the art director who drove around picking up the cattle remains was Robert A. Burns.
In his book Chainsaw Confidential, Gunnar Hansen admitted that after several failed attempts he secretly removed the protective tape from the knife and cut Marilyn Burns' finger for real, which the hosts call an OSHA violation.
The gas station featured in several scenes is now a horror-themed attraction at a Texas barbecue restaurant and motel, closer to Austin, still with the vintage We Slaughter Barbecue sign; a live show there is floated.
Short of money to finish, the production got financing from basically the mob and the company behind Deep Throat, which needed to wash money; the cast was promised a piece, got only half of what was claimed, signed it away, and the owners lied about how much it made.
Nobody from the film slingshot into an acting career, unlike the Obsession argument that you get paid on your next job; the company that owed the money had gone bankrupt and New Line Cinema belatedly gave them some money.
A recurring theme is that nearly everyone involved made no money, was emotionally scarred and stayed bitter, except Gunnar Hansen; they had to make it their crowning achievement, giving interviews in rooms of memorabilia and signing chainsaws at conventions.
Earlier, the hosts read that the finger cut was real and it was her actual blood because they could not pull off the cut with fake blood.
There aren't really any what-ifs because none of the actors were known; Gunnar Hansen regarded Leatherface as having an intellectual disability and performed him that way, and John Larrakat (as transcribed) narrated the opening credits, was paid in marijuana and, per an interview, had not seen the movie as of about 2008.
Slaughterhouses as a horror setting; grave robbing as a premise; the graveyard scene; seatless 70s vans; the We Slaughter BBQ sign; chainsaws; the dad and his hitchhiker son; fear of the wrong hitchhiker; the poster; the one-chainsaw budget and 868 edits; its influence on Alien and other filmmakers; Daniel Pearl's cinematography; Marilyn Burns' screams; the helper who turns on you; Leatherface's masks; the film as a rich text
Slaughterhouses make a great horror location, tying human violence to a murderous bent of society, and grave robbing creates dread through the radio report and the opening shot of the statue of bones in the graveyard.
The graveyard scene, with the old drunk and the people leering at the women, is low-key creepy; every stop is meant to be small-town America backbone, a gas station or a graveyard, shown in its most demonic version.
Seventies vans with no seats or seatbelts and everyone piled in the back, and the We Slaughter BBQ sign, which promises the freshest possible barbecue.
Chainsaws are still underrated, Scarface has a great one, and seeing one makes you want to grab it and do the Leatherface.
The dad and his hitchhiker son, with lines like 'come here, you nap-haired idiot'; the fear of picking up the wrong hitchhiker; and the poster.
They had only one chainsaw and one Leatherface outfit for the whole movie, there are 868 edits in an 83-minute movie, and the film inspired Ridley Scott to make Alien.
It was hugely influential, loved by Scorsese, Spielberg, Tarantino and Friedkin; Daniel Pearl's cinematography is called easily the best aspect, a precursor to Paris, Texas vistas mixed with handheld documentary style, looking far better than the shoestring budget allows.
Marilyn Burns' screaming, the trope of the person you think will help turning on you, and the masks: Gunnar Hansen described a killing mask, an old lady mask and a pretty woman mask, the last worn at dinner with a wig and black suit because in Texas you dress up for dinner.
The film is a rich text, with countless books and analysis from gender studies to anthropology about its relevance to Texas and American history in the Nixon era; the best horror says something about its time.
