.Written, directed and produced by Tobe Hooper & Kim Henkel
.The film is considered an innovator of the slasher genre - pre-dating Halloween, Friday 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street
.Cast mainly non professional actors
.Despite being labelled as excessively graphic, there is not much explicit "gore"
.Violence and gore is implied
.Hooper was hoping for a PG rating which is why the explicit "gore" is kept to a minimum. Needless to say, he failed. The film has an R rating
.An independent film which cost $83,532
.Generated over $36m at the U.S box office in 1974
.The most sucessful independent film ever - until Halloween in 1978
.The film was highly influential for the "slasher genre"
.This film, like "Psycho" and "Silence Of The Lambs", was inspired by the Wisconsin serial killer, Ed Gein
.Ed Gein did apparently wear human skin but he didn't use a chainsaw
.The mis en scene in this film is very important, the house was modelled on crime scene notes describing .Gein's house
The film is renowned for its use of the marketing technique (based on true events) ...The false documents
.The film is filmed in documentary style - it is interesting to note that hooper was formerly a documentary cameraman
.The small budget dictated the use of non-actors and the camera equipment. The film used proved a masterstroke as fans and critics alike claim the "gritty" look gives the film its documentary-style feel and therefore embeds the "horror" in reality
.Hooper also directed Poltergeist
.Hooper likes to taunt the audience by exploring taboos - in this film it's cannibalism
.The eerie and disturbing music score was not composed for this film. Much of it came from the sounds an animal would hear inside a slaughterhouse
.Became a sucess because of word of mouth - not much money for a marketing campaign.
.Early 1970's America was a hotbed of social unrest. Massive fuel shortages, Watergate and the Vietnam War. High unemployment
.Dinner table scene shot in one 27 hour shoot
"Inspired camera angles and brave new editing techniques ensured that when the eye didn't see something, the imagination would fill in the blanks
Bringing Sall Home
Camera Angles:
Low angle
Close up
Panning
Tilt
2 Shot
High angle
Point of view - Objective, Intrusion
Music - Building up sound
Mis En Scene/Editing - Focus, disorientation
Fade to black
Doorway, voyeur
