Armed with an eye-catching title and a memorable tagline (Who will survive and what will be left of them?), Tobe Hooper gave the world the most deranged family of all time, and its worth remembering that at a time when studios owned the box office with The Exorcist (1973) and Jaws (1975), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre not only made millions but proved more influential than either. Hooper has a nice line in black humour, a penchant for eccentric characters and his best films always have a garish, unsettling look (check out the fairground in The Funhouse). Like Chop Top in Texas Chainsaw 2, he also enjoys hitting people across the head and seems to think that subtlety and nuance are towns in the Midwest. This makes for some terrifically twisted entertainment, particularly in the outrageous Eaten Alive (1976), surely the greatest movie ever about a motel owner who feeds his guests to the crocodile in his front yard. Equally memorable is Lifeforce (1985), with its beautiful nude space vampire, and who can forget the sight of a man tearing off his face in Poltergeist (1982)?
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
