10 Greatest Horror Movie Directors Of All Time

Notable films: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Eaten Alive, Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Toolbox Murders

The late Tobe Hooper has had an illustrious career in the film industry, his legacy within the horror genre influencing a wide range of directors, including other luminaries of the genre such as Hideo Nakata, Rob Zombie and Wes Craven.

Hooper's body of work demonstrates a diverse approach to horror, from the London-based horror science fiction film Lifeforce, which offered up luridly colourful fun with an invasion of space vampires, to the Steven Spielberg-produced Poltergeist, which proved that a genuinely chilling movie could be made which could nevertheless be palatable to large mainstream audiences (how many other PG rated horror movies can make the same claim?)

But it was his second feature film, 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which secured Hooper's legacy in the annals of horror movie history. The ultra low budget slasher film which introduced the world to one of the most iconic horror villains of all time, Leatherface, set the tone for a gritty aesthetic which has been mimicked countless times since, as well as bringing the use of power tools as weapons of murder to the table.

Inspired by the case of cannibal Ed Gein, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre itself went on to influence a range of filmmakers, not least Ridley Scott, who reportedly watched it before filming Alien to help him ratchet up the terror.