‘Tex. Chainsaw’ director dead
TOBE HOOPER, the horror film director best known for the 1974 cult classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” died Saturday in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 74.
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Sunday said Hooper died of natural causes, The Associated Press reported.
The Austin, Tex., native had worked mostly on documentaries and TV commercials when he struck gold with the lowbudget “Chainsaw,” which starred a group of unknown actors as Texas teenagers desperately trying to escape the clutches of a family of cannibals led by the chainsawtoting villain Leatherface.
Hooper shot the movie for less than $300,000, but thanks to word of mouth — and scathing reviews that focused on its gory violence, which only helped sell tickets — “Chainsaw” went on to gross more than $30 million and become a drivein and midnight-movie staple for years.
Though initially banned in several countries, horror A BURLY attacker broke a man’s jaw during an early morning melee in Brooklyn, and police said Sunday they’re looking into the attack as a possible anti-gay hate crime.
The 27-year-old victim was trying to break up a fight at 4 a.m. Saturday at film fans — and many of Hooper’s contemporaries — came to see it as a pioneering masterpiece of the slasher movie genre.
“Halloween” director John Carpenter considered “Chainsaw” “a seminal work in horror cinema,” while “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin called it “the most terrifying film ever.”
Hooper went on to direct several more low-budget horror flicks that often featured a wicked sense of humor, including the 1976 thriller “Eaten Alive,” 1981’s “The Funhouse,” a 1986 remake of “Invaders From Mars,” “Spontaneous Combustion” in 1990, and “The Toolbox Murders” in 2004.
But he found mainstream fame in 1982 with “Poltergeist,” which was written and produced by Steven Spielberg and starred JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson as parents whose new home — built on an old graveyard — is infested with ghosts.
Hooper also directed the “Chainsaw” sequel “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” in 1986, as well as a television adaptation of the Stephen King novel “Salem’s Lot” in 1979. Fulton St. and Franklin Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, police said.
That’s when the attacker called the victim, who is gay, by an anti-homosexual slur and punched him in the face, cops said.
Police on Sunday released photos and video of the attacker, who’s described as black, about 5-feet-10, and 200 pounds. He wore a white tank top and dark pants.
Cops ask that anyone with information call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.