The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a 1974 American independent horror film produced, co-composed, and directed by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hansen. The plot follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead. The film was marketed as being based on true events to attract a wider audience and to act as a subtle commentary on the era's political climate. Although the character of Leatherface and minor story details were inspired by the crimes of murderer Ed Gein, its plot is largely fictional.
Hal Hartley is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and composer who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and '90s. His films include The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men, Amateur and Henry Fool, which are notable for deadpan humour and offbeat characters quoting philosophical dialogue.
Erica Lei Leerhsen is an American actress. She first gained recognition for her leading part in the moderately successful horror sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000). Her work led her to take on a recurring role in the first season of The Guardian and star in the horror hit The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003). She has since appeared in numerous films of that genre, including Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007), Lonely Joe (2009) and The Butterfly Room (2012). She has also acted in the Woody Allen films Hollywood Ending (2002), Anything Else (2003) and Magic in the Moonlight (2014) as well as in Allen's play A Second-Hand Memory (2004).
Barbara Linnea Quigley is an American actress, best known as a scream queen in low-budget horror films during the 1980s and 1990s. Born in Davenport, Iowa, Quigley first pursued her career in the late 1970s, shortly after moving to Los Angeles. While working at Jack LaLanne's health spa, she was encouraged by her friends to try modeling, and also began taking acting and guitar-playing classes. After appearing as an extra in various films, Quigley got her first acting role in the Charles Band-produced film Fairy Tales (1978). She continued receiving small parts, mostly in B movies. Her first bigger part was in the 1981 slasher film Graduation Day. Quigley followed with more films such as Savage Streets (1984) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).
Dominique Swain is an American actress. She first came to attention as the title character in Adrian Lyne's 1997 adaptation of Lolita, alongside a supporting role in John Woo's Face/Off that same year. She worked predominantly in independent cinema throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, with credits including Girl (1998), Intern (2000), Tart (2001), and Pumpkin (2002). Subsequent credits include Alpha Dog (2006), Road to Nowhere (2010), and a succession of films in the action, thriller, and horror genres.
Nick Gomez is an American film director and writer. He has directed for a number of television and film. His first feature-length film was the 1992 movie Laws of Gravity, which won awards at both the Berlin International Film Festival and the Valencia International Film Festival. Gomez's next film was the 1995 crime drama New Jersey Drive, which was screened and competed for a Grand Jury Prize during that year's Sundance Film Festival.
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin is an American director, writer, actor, and musician. He is a founding member of the punk band Link 80 and co-creator of the filmmaking collectives Chad, Matt & Rob and Radio Silence. He is best known for his work in horror films, including V/H/S, Southbound, Ready or Not, Scream, Scream VI and Abigail.
Sidney Eddie Mosesian, known professionally as Sid Haig, was an American actor. He was known for his appearances in horror films, most notably his role as Captain Spaulding in the Rob Zombie films House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects and 3 from Hell. Haig's Captain Spaulding, and Haig himself, have been called icons of horror cinema. Haig had a leading role on the television series Jason of Star Command as the villain Dragos. He appeared in many television programs, including The Untouchables, Batman, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Star Trek, Get Smart, The Rockford Files, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, MacGyver, and Emergency!. Haig also had roles in several of Jack Hill's blaxploitation films from the 1970s.
Joe Richard Lansdale is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense, he has also written comic books and screenplays. Several of his novels have been adapted for film and television. He is the winner of the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and eleven Bram Stoker Awards.
Henry Fool is a 1997 American black comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Hal Hartley, featuring Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak, and Parker Posey. Set like previous Hartley films in less affluent parts of Long Island, it recounts how the lives of a fatherless family are overturned by a mysterious outsider and how, as in The Unbelievable Truth, expectation and reality again conflict.
Laurence T. Fessenden is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits include No Telling, Habit (1997), Wendigo (2001), and The Last Winter, which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He has also directed the television feature Beneath (2013), an episode of the NBC TV series Fear Itself (2008) entitled "Skin and Bones", and a segment of the anthology horror-comedy film The ABCs of Death 2 (2014). He is the writer, with Graham Reznick, of the BAFTA Award-winning Sony PlayStation video game Until Dawn. He has acted in numerous films including Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Broken Flowers (2005), I Sell the Dead (2009), Jug Face (2012), We Are Still Here (2015), In a Valley of Violence (2016), Like Me (2017), and The Dead Don't Die (2019), Brooklyn 45 (2023), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an American horror franchise created by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper. It consists of nine films, comics, a novel, and two video game adaptations. The franchise focuses on the cannibalistic spree killer Leatherface and his family, who terrorize unsuspecting visitors to their territories in the desolate Texas countryside, typically killing and subsequently cooking them. The film series has grossed over $252 million at the worldwide box office.
The Unbelievable Truth is a 1989 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Hal Hartley and starring Adrienne Shelly and Robert Burke. It tells the story of Audry, who dumps her high-school boyfriend and becomes a successful fashion model, but all along is in love with a mysterious man called Josh, released after conviction for manslaughter. He, after his experiences, is uncomfortable with relationships, but learns that he cannot stay an observer of life and must fight to win her. The film was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize in 1990 at the Sundance Film Festival. Along with Trust (1990) and Simple Men (1992), it is Hartley's first feature film and the first part of "Long Island trilogy" retrospectively.
Richard Colin Brake is a Welsh actor. Following his film debut in Death Machine (1994), Brake had a supporting role as Joe Chill in Batman Begins (2005). He subsequently appeared in numerous horror films such as Doom (2005), Hannibal Rising (2007), Mandy (2018), and Barbarian (2022), as well as his first lead role in Perfect Skin (2018). A frequent collaborator of Rob Zombie, Brake has appeared in four of his films: Halloween II (2009), 31 (2016), 3 from Hell (2019), and The Munsters (2022).
Leatherface is a character from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series. He first appeared in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) as the mentally disabled member of a family of deranged cannibals, featuring his face masks and chainsaw. Created by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, Leatherface was partially inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, in addition to confessions by serial killer Elmer Wayne Henley. The character has subsequently been represented in various other media, including novels, video games, and comic books; appearing in all nine films in the series.
Jim Mickle is an American director and writer, known for such films as Mulberry Street, Stake Land, We Are What We Are and Cold in July. He also co-developed the SundanceTV series Hap and Leonard, and the Netflix series Sweet Tooth.
Tyler Gillett is an American film director, cinematographer, actor, writer, and producer. A co-creator of the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, Gillett co-directed, with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, the horror films Devil's Due (2014), Ready or Not (2019), Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023) and Abigail (2024). He was also featured in a popular 2020 episode of the podcast Reply All.
The Babadook is a 2014 Australian psychological horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her feature directorial debut, based on her 2005 short film Monster. Starring Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney, Barbara West, and Ben Winspear, the film follows a widowed single mother who with her son must confront a mysterious humanoid monster in their home.
Pollyanna McIntosh is a Scottish actress and director known for her roles in films Exam (2009), The Woman (2011), Let Us Prey (2014), the first season of Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard (2016), and social issue horror film Darlin' (2019) which she wrote, directed and starred in. McIntosh also starred as Jadis in The Walking Dead franchise (2017–2024), Queen Ælfgifu of Denmark in the Netflix series Vikings: Valhalla (2022), and voices Kris in the Max adult animation series Scavengers Reign (2023).
Damien Leone is an American filmmaker, film editor, and special effects artist. He is best known for writing and directing All Hallows' Eve (2013), Terrifier (2016), Terrifier 2 (2022), and Terrifier 3 (2024), each of which feature his character Art the Clown.
