Friday declared The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Day in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas  — There are few films a half-century old that still have the power to shock like director Tobe Hooper’s horror classic, “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”

Released in the U.S. on Oct. 11, 1974, the film still routinely tops lists of the greatest horror films ever made. In fact, it landed at No. 1 on Variety’s recently published “The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time,” besting classics including Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist.”

The film was shot on a shoestring budget in and around Austin, Texas, and in celebration the city declared Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Day.

Despite its exploitation title, the film is largely bloodless, instead relying on claustrophobic relentlessness and a documentary feel to unsettle the viewer.

The film spawned many sequels and a remake in 2003. The quality of the sequels varies a great deal, and none of them captured the feel of the original.

While the iconic farmhouse on Quick Hill Road in Round Rock which served as the location for much of the terror has been relocated and turned into a restaurant, you can still visit many of the film’s Austin-area locations. The graveyard is in Leander. The gas station is in Bastrop.

Sadly, Hooper and several of the film’s stars are no longer around to celebrate the milestone. Hooper died in 2017. Star Marilyn Burns passed away in 2014. Gunnar Hansen, memorable as the terrifying Leatherface, died in 2015.

Here’s to another 50 years of a Texas terror classic.