Tobe Hooper, every horror fan should know him. He's up there with the greats like John Carpenter and Wes Craven. If you're not familiar with him then you might better remember his 1974 picture, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If it's bloody and edgy, then Hooper's name is attached to it. Here I'll be running down his movie career, not the whole package just some of his that I've seen and am familiar with.
We'll start with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hooper directed completely under a low budget and independently. Before its release, the only monsters we had were demons and the classical likes of Frankenstein and Dracula. Horror was taken to a whole new level when this movie came out as it brought gory bloodshed and sometimes hard to watch scenes. What made it truly scary was the fact that the beginning set up a documentary like setting before diving in. This set up the illusion that the events were true. They weren't really, but it could happen. There's nothing supernatural about a family of maniacs living in the backwoods and killing people after torturing them. The villain, Leatherface, would become one of the future faces of horror with his chainsaw.
The sequel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, was released 12 years later in 1986 with Hooper returning to direct. Not really much to say about it except it upped the bloodshed and took an aim for a dark comedy. A really, really dark comedy. It wasn't as good as the original, but still has that Tobe Hooper feel. From there on out, the series would receive a number of other sequels, each one worse then the last. Then an ok reboot, I guess.
Before Texas Chainsaw 2, Tobe Hooper directed The Funhouse in 1981. My dad saw this movie with his parents while it was in theaters when he was a kid...I think he left the auditorium shaking and traumatized. Its really a lesser known movie and is often included in compilations of underrated horror movies. The plot focuses on a two teen couples attempting to spend the night in a carnival's dark ride funhouse. The attraction is run by a strange man with his son who always wears a Frankenstein monster mask when out in public. I won't give away too much, but the face reveal of the killer will burn itself into anyone's mind, regardless of how it ages.
The following year in 82, Hooper would work alongside Steven Spielberg and bring us Poltergeist. This is a supernatural horror story at its finest. It's also fair to mention that it was rated PG, even though there are some scenes that pushes it into the R territory. Spielberg then got the brilliant idea to suggest a rating that ran between PG and R, and we all know what came of that; the PG-13 rating. So, in a way, Tobe Hooper helped create PG-13. Poltergeist would also go on to be nominated for three Oscars, a rare case for a horror movie. We also got a Poltergeist remake earlier this year...yeah, but why though?
The last Hooper film I remember watching was The Mangler from 1995. Yes, based on the Stephen King short story about a possessed laundry pressing machine. This wasn't the first time Hooper did a King story, he directed a TV movie of Salem's Lot back in the 70s. The movie starred Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill from Silent of the Lambs) and Robert Englund (Freddy from the Nightmare on Elm Street series). For such a short story to be adapted into a movie, new material had to be added. The gore and scare factors play well here and it has the Hooper fib to it, but I guess it didn't work out in the long run. Despite it, it actually stays pretty faithful to the short story, about the same as Children of the Corn did. IMDB is way too harsh on this movie, giving it a 3.9. I say its worth about a 5.5. Its no masterpiece, but its worth a watch. As for the two other sequels, throw them in the garbage.
A few honorable mentions are Salem's Lot (1979), Eaten Alive (1976), and Spontaneous Combustion (1990). Tobe Hooper continues directing today, but all his work is a bit under the radar and don't see a theatrical release unless its big budget. I would agree that Texas Chainsaw Massacre is his magnum opus and heavenly contribution. He made his impact on horror and continues to be referred to as one of the masters of the genre.
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