10 Old School Horror Movies Perfect For Halloween

Let no one tell you that being known as the director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre helped Tobe Hooper’s short-term career. When British censors took issue with the film’s “level of terrorisation”, they refused to grant the picture a certificate and it remained unseen – legally at least – until 1999. For good measure, they also banned Hooper’s next two theatrical features, Death Trap and The Funhouse.

The BBFC took issue with the film’s “pornography of terror”, a phrase that’s mystifying in this era of The Walking Dead and The Green Inferno. With little blood shown onscreen, Hooper’s film instead relies on claustrophobia and suspense, something that’s usually lost on the clods who churned out sequels and remakes. If anything, the film’s success is due to what Hooper doesn’t show.

Rob Zombie probably wouldn’t have a filmmaking career if it wasn’t for Tobe Hooper, but Chain Saw also proved influential at the BBFC. To ensure that the British character remained unsullied by such filth, and to ensure that the masses didn’t imitate what they saw on the screen, the censors banned any film whose title referenced murder committed with “everyday implements”, including Axe (1974), The Driller Killer (1979) and The Toolbox Murders (1978).