Shock Value - Jason Zinoman [72]
Burns remembers it as physically grueling. “I got a black eye that day,” she says, “and I remember getting beat up by everyone while Tobe was standing nearby saying, ‘Hit her harder! Harder!’”
The scene is as perverse as it is ridiculous, but you can’t really laugh because there is poor Sally desperately crying in the corner. Burns had a piercing yelp that never wavered, a steady sonic backdrop to the last third of the movie. When she finally escapes the basement and runs into the street trailed by Leatherface, galloping after his screaming heroine who jumps onto the back of a passing pickup truck, the camera jumps to a close-up of her wet eyes and then her face with a shocking quickness. The last look on her face sums up the spirit of the New Horror: crying, exhausted, and terrified, she stares at the monster from the back of a pickup truck. As he recedes into the distance, she laughs, an out-of-control, involuntary chuckle of madness. On the other end of the chase is the monster. Raising his buzzing chain saw to the sky, Leatherface, wearing a jacket and tie, spins around under the blazing sun, thrilling to the madness of the moment. The golden glow of the sun peeking through the clouds of the empty landscape provides a stunning backdrop to this odd frenzy of activity.
She got away, but what about Leatherface? He is stuck back home with his family. He does not escape, and staring at his prey, he might even be jealous. On the other hand, he did have an impressive record of destruction and fright, nothing for any psychotic redneck to be ashamed of. The ambiguous and oddly poetic final moments—and it’s notable that the movie ends with the killer—offer the possibility of a very bizarre happy ending. His twirl in the sunset looks a little like a rock star vamping in front of a crowd. Instead of a guitar, he’s swinging a chain saw, but the brutal, triumphant dance could be a celebration.
AT THE END OF THE SHOOT, there was no cast party and few expectations. Hooper thought he had some good footage, but he knew he hadn’t figured out a compelling beginning to the movie and the editing was going badly. By the summer of 1974, Skaaren started shopping it around to distributors. Columbia Pictures proposed an advance, then rescinded the offer a week later when its board of directors balked at buying such a gruesome movie. No other studio made an offer. Skaaren helped set up several screenings for independents, including American International Pictures. But the most interest came from a New York company, Bryanston Distributing, that offered $225,000. Bryanston was best known for distributing the porn blockbuster Deep Throat, but there were whispers that made their way to Texas that it was involved in organized crime. The producers could not be picky.
Skaaren, Bozman, and their lawyers took a flight to New York to visit the offices of Bryanston in the art deco Film Center on Ninth Avenue. Bozman recalls seeing a large Cadillac that looked to be a few years old right outside the building, with a large Italian man in a suit leaning on it. Bozman was nervous. After leaving the elevator, they walked into the office, where they were met by two men in dark suits behind a round table, surrounded