The making of the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
Since it had an extremely low budget, the movie was made within one month - for the duration of those four weeks, filming was constant for 12-16 hours per day, 7 days a week
It was filmed in the middle of the summer in central Texas, which means temperatures rose above 100 degrees daily, and the 1900s farmhouse it was filmed in had no cooling system or ventilation
It was especially excruciating for Gunnar Hansen who played Leatherface, because he wore a heavy wool suit with a latex mask every single day, for 16 hours straight
Actors’ costumes were never washed because they could not afford more costumes- the costume of the actress who played Sally, Marilyn Burns, was “solid” with stage blood by the end of filming
The cast stayed away from Hansen until their character was killed off- the scream when the character Jerry saw Leatherface was genuine because the actor hadn’t seen Hansen in costume yet.
The blood on the walls was real animal blood from a slaughterhouse
All of the dead animals in the film are real, they were decomposing roadkill collected in the countryside; the bones adorning the furniture are also real
The cast were all amateur actors from Texas
The infamous dinner scene was filmed in 27 straight hours- due to the intensity and stress, Marilyn Burns was genuinely terrified by the time the scene was finished
Sally’s blood in the dinner scene was Burns’ real blood after a stage blood prop failed, her finger was sliced with a razor
The iconic chainsaw was real and had the teeth on it for many of the scenes, causing a few close calls
No one in the cast left uninjured by the time filming was over
Leatherface was famously inspired by Ed Gein, but the villains were also inspired by Elmer Wayne Henley’s seemingly moral duality
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