5. Tobe Hooper Drives Everyone Insane In The Heat The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hoopers Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed in the Texas summer of 1973, and this wasnt just any summer either it was the kind of heatwave summer where you could fry an egg on a road. Temperatures pushed as high as 43 degrees, and due to budgetary concerns the cast often had to film in 16-hour shifts, seven days a week. Theres a reason why everyone looks insane in this film theyve quite literally been driven out of their minds by heat, lending the whole shebang a unique, crazed quality. However, while the outdoor scenes were hard, they had nothing on the indoor scenes. A 1900s abode doubled for the Sawyers that is, the crazed cannibal familys residence, a small, poky place with barely any ventilation, and stuffed with film equipment. There was also perishable food knocking about too which rotted in the heat, creating an unbearable stench. So when you came to the scene where the entire family sits down to dinner with their female captive, you knew something had to give. And boy howdy, did it. Hooper, looking to get just the right shot, chose to use the heat to his advantage he shot the scene again, again, again and again during a 24 hours shoot, eventually mentally breaking everyone in the room through a combination of rotting food and soaring heat. The worst part was that he did this on purpose, to make the family seem crazier and Marilyn Burns Sally Hardesty more deliriously frightened. In fact, many actors including Leatherfaces Gunnar Hansen snapped and began believing they actually were their characters. I think that when youve got a chainsaw-wielding man to believe he is in fact a bloodthirsty murderer, the con mightve gone too far.