Chain reactions

Fifty years after Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shocked the world and forever changed the face of global cinema and popular culture, Chain Reactions charts the film’s profound impact and lasting influence on five great artists—Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama—through early memories, sensory experiences, and childhood trauma. By crafting a dynamic dialogue between contemporary footage and never-before-seen outtakes, and delving into personal impressions triggered by distinct audiovisual formats (16mm, 35mm, VHS, digital), Chain Reactions goes to the heart of how a scruffy, no-budget independent film wormed its way into our collective nightmares and permanently altered the Zeitgeist.

With Chain Reactions, I wanted to create a conversation between original footage of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (in the form of never- before-seen outtakes), and contemporary  to the film, fifty years on. The house in which our participants are located is a ghostly, expressionistic version of the original Sawyer house. Kirk and Pam take us to the “old place” that “looks like something out of a dream”—only this time, we cross the threshold with them to reflect on the power, beauty, and resonance of an essential and prescient American masterpiece. The timeline of Chain Reactions matches the timeline of Chain Saw, each chapter lit for a different time of day—starting at high noon, taking us through a long night (with Stephen King making a special appearance as the mystery man hiding in the basement at the hour of the wolf), and ending with the ever hopeful sunrise, as Sally escapes Leatherface yet again... as she always will... while cinema’s saddest monster waves his chainsaw at the sky in rage and despair... Tobe Hooper’s purest expression of the American nightmare. This is Chain Saw as a form of ghost story, the narrative trapped in its fateful loop—as potent, poetic, beautifully crafted, at times strangely hilarious, and certainly as terrifying as ever—half a century after it changed the course of cinema and pop culture history.

PRODUCTION 1: Exhibit A Pictures - Kerry Deignan Roy, Robert Muratore
3059 Vine Street
80205, Denver
United States of America
Tel. 1 3038861605
kerry@exhibitapictures.com
Social Media:
Instagram: @ExhibitAPictures
Facebook: @ExhibitAPictures
X: @ExaPics
#chainreactionsdoc

PRODUCTION 2: Exurbia Films - Kim Henkel, Ian Henkel
902 Gardner Road
78721, Austin
United States of America
Tel. 5126592359
ian@exurbiafilms.com
Social Media:
Intagram: @thetexaschainsawmassacre
Facebook: @thetexaschainsawmassacre @exurbiafilms
X: @ChainsawTX

PRODUCTION 3: Dark Sky Films - Greg Newman
16101 S. 108th Ave
60467, Orland Park
United States of America
Tel. 1 7082560700
gnewman@mpimedia.com
Social Media:
Instagram: @darkskyfilms
Facebook: @DarkSkyFilms

WORLD SALES: Franziska McCray
fmccray@mpimedia.com

PRESS OFFICE: Daniela Sapkar
Sapkar Public Relations
76 9th Avenue, Suite 1101
10011, New York, United States of America
Tel. 1 6466444418
daniela.markoska@sapkarpr.com