The “What the Hell Really Happened to This Horror Movie” series sheds light on the true stories behind the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

“The film you are about to see is an account of the tragedy that befell a group of five youngsters, specifically Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother Franklin. It is all the more tragic because they were young. But even if they had lived a very, very long time, they could not have expected or desired to see as much madness and the macabre as they saw that day. For them, an idyllic drive on a summer afternoon became a nightmare. The events of that day led to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, the Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” When I joke about films being very loosely based on a true story, I am referring to this opening dialogue by John Larroquette and the huge popularity. While it is not the first film to falsely claim to be a true story, it is one of the most famous and certainly the most famous early example in the field of horror. I’ve joked about it enough, but let’s take a closer look at what, if anything, resembles the truth, from one of the best to ever do it. Don’t pick up any weird-looking stray hitchhikers while we find out what REALLY happened The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (see it HERE).

Tobe Hooper was an assistant director and documentary cameraman at the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1970s. He had ideas for a film about isolation, darkness, and forests, but like the gang from A Clockwork Orange, he felt he needed a bit of the old ultra-violence. That’s how he felt when he was astonished to see the graphic violence on the news coming out of San Antonio. He then based his killer, or at least some of the killer’s aspects, on Ed Gein of Wisconsin, who was convicted in the 1950s. And here comes the tricky part. Hooper drops a few things in the beginning of the film about how the film you’re about to see is true and that this was a deliberate deception. The Vietnam War, Watergate, and the 1973 oil crisis were all moments the public was lied to about, and his cinematic disinformation was his response.

Hooper was not alone, however, as he co-wrote the screenplay with the co-writer of his first film. Eggshells Kim Henkel. While Hooper based the crimes of the story very loosely on Ed Gein, Henkel was more interested in and amazed by the story of Elmer Wayne Henley, who was involved in what became known as the Houston Mass Murders. Henley helped lead nearly 30 young men and teenagers to the home of Dean Corll between 1970 and 1973 before Henley allegedly killed Corll in self-defense. What Henkel found interesting and what he added to his characters was their lack of remorse and full responsibility for their crimes. Henley, like the family who commits the murders in the present-day film, took full responsibility for his crimes and Henkel worked this into his part of the script.

Henkel was also the author of Eaten alive Hooper directed and The Invisible from 1980. He also directed and wrote the fourth part of the series Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next GenerationYes, that was to be his only directorial effort. The film’s cast consisted mainly of local talent from the stage, advertising or television, or even just people Hooper knew personally. Marilyn Burns didn’t earn much after that, but she appeared in Eaten alive and two more Texas Chainsaw Movies, while Gunnar Hansen would find a nice niche for himself in some funny horror movies, like Mosquito, campfire stories, And Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers before a final chainsaw Appearance in the 2013 iteration. Arguably the most famous talent on screen is just a voice. John Larroquette was an unknown who worked for grass and would end up taking over the narration again for the remake, its prequel and the 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The film was a huge success, grossing $30 million on a budget of $80,000-$140,000, but the people who actually made the film didn’t profit as much as one would hope from a bad deal with bad people. The film caused controversy when Hooper asked for a PG rating since many of the gory scenes were not explicitly visible, but they got an X instead before being downgraded to an R through editing. The film ended up as a video stunt and had some screenings that either resulted in walkouts, as in San Francisco, or theaters being threatened with citations and violations, as in Canada. It remains one of the highest-grossing independent films of all time, and one of the best horror films of all time.

The film opens with a camera shooting hard-to-make-out Polaroids, followed by a pile of gruesomely piled body parts, before we meet a group of friends including Sally and her brother Franklin, and their friends Jerry, Pam, and Kirk. They are on their way to a property owned by Sally and Franklin’s family, the Hardestys. They pick up a very strange hitchhiker who offers to sell them a photograph after mentioning that his family, like the Hardestys, are in the butchery business. They refuse to buy the photograph, and the man slashes Franklin before being chased out of the van. He also cuts his hand and smears blood on the side of the vehicle as it drives away.

(Factometer 5%) OK, we’ll try to make this interesting, but I was serious when I said that was the joke I use when I say that movies that are supposedly true stories “aren’t as bad as Texas Chainsaw” when it comes to their validity. If you look at Ed Gein’s side of things, there’s really nothing here that resembles what you see on screen. He had a brother and a very strange and sad childhood. If you look at what Kim Henkel used as inspiration, there’s not much that looks familiar with Henley either. He was one of four sons and I guess the fact that he was in Houston, Texas puts him in the same state as he was in the movie. The group of friends also don’t exactly get drawn into anything Henley was involved in. We’ll try to look at both inspirations throughout.

The van is slowly running out of gas, but we learn that the gas station is out of gas. They find an abandoned house belonging to Sally and Franklin’s family, but more importantly, Kirk and Pam find another house nearby that appears to be running on a generator. Generator means gas, and so the two head over to see if they can get some gas, when we come across someone we affectionately call Leatherface, as he is introduced to us by shockingly killing Kirk with a hammer blow to the head. He is called Leatherface because he makes a mask out of the skin of his victims. Pam goes to find Kirk and stumbles into a room filled with human and animal bones and skin, as well as feathers and other assorted atrocities, before being hung from a hook and killed. A short while later, Jerry enters the house and suffers the same fate as his friends.

(Factometer 25%) This is perhaps the part of the film that is most based on a true story. As for Ed Gein, in addition to murdering AT LEAST 2 people, he ultimately dug graves and used skin and bones for various things. When police finally arrested him, they found, among other things, chairs covered in human skin, skulls on his bedposts, bowls made of human skulls, a suit made of human skin including leggings and corsets, and a doorbell with female nipples. Gein was so obsessed with his mother from a young age that he eventually wanted to become like her and effectively crawl back inside her. Leatherface’s appearance, as well as the room Pam stumbles into, are really the biggest parts you could associate with Gein, and even then, it’s not exactly apples to apples, or, I suppose, bodies to bodies. The only similarity to Henley and the Houston mass murders is the number of victims. There is no confirmation of how many people Leatherface and his family killed, but it must have been a lot. Henley was involved in nearly 30 murders.

Sally and Franklin are the only ones left as night falls. They are attacked, Franklin is brutally killed in his wheelchair, and Sally is forced to escape through the woods. She makes it to the house where all her friends were killed, where she sees an old corpse upstairs and is chased to a gas station/diner. The owner drives her back to the house, where we learn that the hitchhiker, the gas station owner, and Leatherface are all brothers, and the very much alive old man is her grandfather. Sally is about to be killed with a hammer, but when the family’s attempt to get the grandfather to do it fails, she escapes. As the hitchhiker and Leatherface pursue them, the hitchhiker is killed after being hit by a truck, and Leatherface is knocked out and injured, while Sally escapes in the bed of the truck, screaming in joy and madness.

(Factometer 15%) Again, there’s not much to see. Looking at Ed Gein’s side of things, he was alone in the acts he committed and none of his victims while alive managed to escape. Gein was committed to a mental hospital after a non-jury trial, where he died in 1984 at the age of 77. The film bears at least some resemblance to the end of the Henley saga. While the main killer Corll favored men and teenagers, Henley ended up bringing a girl into the house where the murders took place, causing Corll to turn against Henley. The woman in question, when she was about to be murdered, was able to convince Henley to stop and kill Corll and let her escape, so we have a real-life Sally avatar. Henley called the police after two victims escaped safely and admitted everything. Just like Gein and unlike Leatherface, there should be no sequels with Henley. He was tried for six counts of murder in the deaths of the boys he brought to Corll and remains in prison. His next chance for parole is in 2025.

Well, we did it! We dealt with the completely untrue story of a supposedly true story. Texas Chainsaw is still an all-time classic, but if you want to see something based on the two inspirations to actually learn more, you’re much better off elsewhere. Although there are no major films about the Houston Massacre, there was a loose adaptation called Freak out from 2003. Gein has a few more options, the best is Mentally disturbed from 1974, but don’t miss the eponymous Ed Gein which is also known as In the light of the moon with Steve Railsback from 2000. Nothing will ever affect the original TCM although some of the sequels have tried their best, if you want to further explore the stories that were the inspiration, your best bet is to find another farm to explore.

Some of the previous episodes of What the hell really happened to this horror movie? can be seen below. To check out the other shows on our YouTube channel, JoBlo Horror Originals, head over to the channel – and subscribe while you’re there!