20 Movie Talents We Lost In 2017
15. Tobe Hooper
Director Tobe Hooper – the mind behind one of the horror genre’s most influential and controversial films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – passed away last August at the age of 74.
After his breakout 1974 film, Hooper went on to establish himself as a talented director of horrors with his critically acclaimed 1979 TV movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Salem’s Lot and the 1982 fright fest Poltergeist.
His later films never quite hit the heady heights of his earlier works, though Body Bags – his 1982 horror anthology collaboration with fellow horror director John Carpenter – and his 2004 splatter flick Toolbox Murders were quite well received.
Hooper did, however, contribute plenty to the ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ subgenre of horror with films like Lifeforce, Spontaneous Combustion and The Mangler.