Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Night 27 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.
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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.
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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.
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Night 27...."The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

Ick...Yuck...Eeew...Blaaaah.
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Directed by Tobe Hooper (Salem's Lot, Venom and Invaders from Mars) and released on October 1, 1974 by Bryanston Distributing. A group of teens are traveling the back roads of Texas wanting to visit the old home two of them grew up in. Running low on gas they try the local gas station but they are out. When they reach the house they decide to visit the neighbors to see if they have any gas they can borrow. Bad idea! The neighbors happen to be sadistic cannibals that are looking for some fresh meat.
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I saw this movie for the first time about 9 years ago. It was horrible and disturbing! Pretty sure I'd be OK never seeing it again. But I couldn't leave it off the list because it is a truly horrifying picture. The gritty look of the film makes it seem more like a documentary and therefore feels real. It's the dinner scenes towards the end that really leaves you with a disgusting and dirty feeling. It's just wrong on so many levels!!! But it does archive what many horror films don't. It scares you.
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Some trivia about the movie....
1. The movie wasn't released in Australia until the early 1980s.
2. When it was first released, the film was so horrifying that people actually walked out on sneak previews for it.
3. The film was rejected by the British film censors in 1975, but it did get a limited cinema release in the London area thanks to the GLC (Greater London Council). It was banned again in 1977, when the censors' attempts to cut it were unsuccessful, (for the purposes of a wider release), then it was banned again in 1984, due to the growing controversy involving 'video nasties'. In 1999, after the censors finally changed their policy, they took the plunge, and passed it uncut, for the cinema and video, after 25 years, since they first banned it.
4. The film was originally entitled "Headcheese", but was filmed as "Leatherface", then changed again at the last minute to "Texas Chain Saw Massacre".
5. Due to the low budget, Gunnar Hansen had only one shirt to wear as Leatherface. The shirt had been dyed, so it could not be washed; Hansen had to wear it for four straight weeks of filming in the Texas summer. By the end of the shoot no one wanted to eat lunch with Hansen because his clothing smelled so bad.
6. Tobe Hooper intended to make the movie for a "PG" rating, by keeping violence moderate and language mild, but despite cutting and repeated submissions, the Ratings Board insisted on the "R" rating for the effectiveness of what is onscreen and what is implied offscreen. Hooper had a similar ratings problem with the sequel.
7. According to John Larroquette, his payment for doing the opening narration was a marijuana joint.
8. Some urban legends say that the the "real" Texas Chainsaw Massacre took place near Poth, (a small town about 50 miles south of San Antonio). This is false. The film is fictional and based loosely on the life of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein (as is the classic Psycho (1960).
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Rules for pendant giveaway...
(1) comment about a movie per movie.
(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).
(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/41kQm -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.
1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.
Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.

11 comments:

  1. I remember when I watched this movie I got paranoid everytime I heard the sound of a machine! LOL

    Oh well, my guess for tomorrow must only be Evil Dead: The Musical!
    Kisses from Nydia.

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  2. This movie manages to scare the pants off of me every single time I see it!

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  3. This movie every time I heard motor sound I could hardly stay seated.I can never sit still at all through the movie.
    my guess Rosemarys Baby?

    Nora SP
    neneelynn@yahoo.com

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  4. saw 1V
    ha ha
    tweeted @kohsamui14 and following...
    by the pool in the sunshine halloween in florida
    taken the sheet off my head...
    dont laugh its true.. have to keep the light from disturbing hubby while I blog through jet lag

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  5. Yeah that about sums up this movie,lol.

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  6. omg this was so funny and scary at the same time. not sure which!

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  7. http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/5215964785
    daily tweet 1

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  8. my guess: Dance of the Dead?

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  9. http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/5217928550

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

    tweeted 2

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  10. http://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/5221488576

    daily tweet 3

    dreamzz12{at}aol{dot}com

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  11. I've never seen the original...just the remakes, which are still quite disturbing.

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