Editing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (section)

===Development===
The concept for ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' arose in the early 1970s while [[Tobe Hooper]] was working as an assistant film director at the [[University of Texas at Austin]] and as a documentary cameraman.<ref name=":0">[[#Allon02|Allon 2002, p. 246]]</ref> He had already developed a story involving the elements of isolation, the woods, and darkness.<ref name="AustinChronicle">{{cite news|first=Marjorie|last=Baumgarten|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2000-10-27/79177/ |title=Tobe Hooper Remembers ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' |newspaper=[[The Austin Chronicle]] |publisher=Austin Chronicle Corp.|location=Austin, Texas|date=October 27, 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605111113/http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2000-10-27/79177/ |archive-date=June 5, 2011 |access-date=June 10, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He credited the graphic coverage of violence by [[San Antonio]] news outlets as one inspiration for the film<ref name="HooperInterview">{{cite video |people= Hooper, Tobe |date=2008 |title= Tobe Hooper Interview |medium=DVD |publisher=Dark Sky Films |time=00:00:58–00:01:14; 00:01:38–00:02:00}}</ref> and based elements of the plot on murderer [[Ed Gein]], who committed his crimes in 1950s [[Wisconsin]];<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/caseclosed/gein.shtml|title=BBC Crime Case Closed – Ed Gein |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040204231159/http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/caseclosed/gein.shtml|archive-date=February 4, 2004|last=Summers|first=Chris|year=2003|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=October 16, 2009}}</ref> Gein inspired other horror films such as ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960) and ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs]]'' (1991).<ref>[[#Allon02|Allon 2002, p. 248]]</ref><ref name="Bowen 2004, p. 17">[[#Bowen04|Bowen 2004, p. 17]]</ref><ref name="theshockingtruth">{{cite video|people=Gregory, David (Director and Writer)|date=2000|title=Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Shocking Truth|medium=Documentary|publisher=Blue Underground}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Joseph W.|title=The Psycho File: A Comprehensive Guide to Hitchcock's classic shocker|year=2009|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|isbn=978-0-7864-4487-8|page=12}}</ref> During development, several names for the film were considered, including ''Saturn in Retrograde'', ''Head Cheese'', ''Stalking Leatherface'', and ''Leatherface''.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Man Hollywood Trusts|magazine=[[Texas Monthly]]|volume=17|issue=9|page=185|publisher= Genesis Park, LP|location=Austin, Texas|date=September 1989|issn=0148-7736}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Herrera |first=Andrés |date=10 October 2024 |title=The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre-1974 |website=Handbook of Texas Online |publisher=[[Texas State Historical Association]]}}</ref>

{{Quote box
|quote = I definitely studied Gein&nbsp;... but I also noticed a murder case in [[Houston]] at the time, a serial murderer you probably remember named [[Elmer Wayne Henley]]. He was a young man who recruited victims for [[Dean Corll|an older homosexual man]]. I saw some news report where Elmer Wayne&nbsp;... said, "I did these crimes, and I'm gonna stand up and take it like a man." Well, that struck me as interesting, that he had this conventional morality at that point. He wanted it known that, now that he was caught, he would do the right thing. So this kind of moral schizophrenia is something I tried to build into the characters.
|source = — [[Kim Henkel]]<ref>[[#Bloom04|Bloom 2004, p. 2]]</ref><ref name="HenkelInterview">{{cite video |people= Henkel, Kim (Writer) |date=2008 |title= Kim Henkel Interview |medium=DVD |time=00:01:16–00:03:19|publisher=Dark Sky Films}}</ref>|bgcolor=#e6f6df|align = left|width = 35%
}}
Hooper has cited changes in the cultural and political landscape as central influences on the film. His intentional misinformation, that the "film you are about to see is true", was a response to being "lied to by the government about things that were going on all over the world".<ref name="HooperInterview" /> It reflected the skepticism against the [[Richard Nixon]] administration in the wake of the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate]], the [[1973 oil crisis]], the [[1973–1975 recession|1973 economic recession]], and "the massacres and atrocities in the [[Vietnam War]]".<ref name="HooperInterview"/><ref name=":2" /> The "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" that Hooper noticed while watching the local news, whose graphic coverage was epitomized by "showing brains spilled all over the road", led to his belief that "man was the real monster here, just wearing a different face, so I put a literal mask on the monster in my film".<ref name="Bowen 2004, p. 17"/> The idea of using a chainsaw as the murder weapon came to Hooper while he was in the hardware section of a busy store, contemplating how to speed his way through the crowd.<ref name="theshockingtruth"/>

Hooper and Kim Henkel cowrote the screenplay and formed Vortex, Inc.<ref>{{cite book|last=Armstrong|first=Kent Byron|title=Slasher Films: An International Filmography, 1960 through 2001|year=2003|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|page=316|isbn=978-0-7864-1462-8}}</ref> with Henkel as president and Hooper as vice president.<ref name="Cinefastique">{{Cite magazine|first1=Ellen|last1=Farley|first2=William Jr.|last2=Knoedelseder|title=The Chainsaw Massacres|magazine=[[Cinefantastique]]|publisher=Fourth Castle Micromedia|location=New York City|pages=28–44|volume=16|issue=4/5|date=October 1986}}</ref> They asked Bill Parsley, a friend of Hooper, to provide funding. Parsley formed a company named MAB, Inc. through which he invested $60,000 in the production. In return, MAB owned 50% of the film and its profits.<ref name="Bloom3">[[#Bloom04|Bloom 2004, p. 3]]</ref> [[Unit production manager|Production manager]] Ron Bozman told most of the cast and crew that he would have to defer part of their salaries until after it was sold to a distributor. Vortex made the idea more attractive by awarding them a share of its potential profits, ranging from 0.25 to 6%, similar to [[Point (mortgage)|mortgage points]]. The cast and crew were not informed that Vortex owned only 50%, which meant their points were worth half of the assumed value.<ref name="Cinefastique"/><ref name="Hansen">{{cite magazine|first=Gunnar|last=Hansen|author-link=Gunnar Hansen|date=May 1985|title=A Date with Leatherface|magazine=[[Texas Monthly]]|url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/a-date-with-leatherface/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114171141/https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/a-date-with-leatherface/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2024-01-14|publisher= Genesis Park, LP|location=Austin, Texas|volume=13|issue=5|pages=163–4, 206|issn=0148-7736}}</ref>