I think I mentioned this once a long time ago, but Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE is one of my favorite movies, and one of the great cinematic obsessions of my life. So I’m happy to say that the recent documentary about the movie, CHAIN REACTIONS, is a good one.

It’s not about the making of the movie. For that I recommend Brad Shellady’s THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: A FAMILY PORTRAIT (1988), which is an oral history through interviews with the actors who played the family members. This one is more of a video essay, speaking to five people who had nothing to do with the movie – a comedian, two filmmakers, a critic and a novelist. (Specifically it’s Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama.) I think they have some good insights, but what made this really work for me is the specific ways director Alexandre O. Philippe (MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN, LYNCH/OZ) visually weaves together the interviews with different experiences of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and horror films as a whole, while avoiding pretty much all of the annoying cliches of modern fan documentaries.

Normally one thing you don’t need in a movie documentary (but get anyway) is to hear from some comedian about his fandom. But Oswalt (BLADE: TRINITY) starts things off well. He’s a true movie lover and goes into thoughtful analysis mode. Miike (13 ASSASSINS) is perhaps the most exciting interview, because he comes from the perspective of another culture discovering the movie and being shocked, and he makes a convincing case that it turned him into the artist who later made many movies that returned the favor, giving the same sort of jolt to people over here. Heller-Nicholas brings another cultural perspective, being Australian, but she’s also the film scholar of the bunch. King (THE NIGHT FLIER) represents an older generation, and the most accomplished voice here specifically in the horror genre. Of course he was also friends with Hooper, so he talks about the two of them cameoing together in SLEEPWALKERS (but does not mention Hooper’s movies of SALEM’S LOT and THE MANGLER). Kusama (DESTROYER) gives what I would consider the most hifalutin analysis, but that’s in keeping with some of her own work (which I’m a fan of), and gives us yet another angle on the movie. She also brings more of Hooper’s other work into the discussion, even his virtually unseen EGGSHELLS. Like me, Philippe noticed how many shots in that are similar to ones in TEXAS CHAIN SAW.

A big part of my history and evolving understanding of the movie has to do with film transfers. I first saw it on VHS in middle school or high school, when I thought it “sucked.” Then I saw it as a more open-minded 19 or 20 year old, still on VHS, and fell in love. I was convinced that the rough quality of the image was key to how scary it was. I always said it seemed like it was made by crazy people. In CHAIN REACTIONS, Oswalt says something similar – that it seems like the family in the movie stole the cameras and made it themselves.

But my thinking about that changed when it hit the DVD era and started to look better. You can see my Ain’t It Cool News review of the 2006 “2-Disc Ultimate Edition” from Dark Sky (same company that put out CHAIN REACTIONS) where I wondered “Is a ‘better’ transfer really, in fact, BETTER for a movie like this? Is it even natural? What would the Bible say about this? Years ago I saw it on a not-remastered VHS tape and thought it was supposed to look shitty, I thought that was part of what made it so scary. When I saw a better version I realized that it still was scary. But do I really want it to keep getting cleaner and clearer?”

Years later I got sent a review disc of the blu-ray, so it was the first thing I put in when I gave in and got a hi-def TV and blu-ray player. And I saw the movie theatrically when it first got a 4K transfer. So finally I accepted that Hooper and Daniel Pearl actually shot a beautiful movie. It doesn’t need to hide behind gloom and grime to work, even if that’s how we first saw it.

Philippe understands the importance of these variations in presentation. Each of the interviewees tells a story about the first time they saw the movie. Oswalt saw it on VHS. Miike says he only saw it because a screening of CITY LIGHTS was sold out. He talks fondly of the particular theater he saw it in, and there are photos. Kusama saw a very respectable rep screening at the Angelika, then later was more scared of it at home. Throughout the documentary we see clips of the movie in all sorts of formats: the most pristine transfer that exists, a shitty Betamax, a scratched to death 35mm, an overscanned 16mm so you can see the sprockets.

This is decidedly not one of those docs where they add fake scratches or grain to a clip to imply “grindhouse” – they actually obtained or created all of these transfers, and here’s how I know: I blind bought the collector’s edition specifically because it comes with two bonus discs containing eight different transfers of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, including “35mm Grindhouse Print” and “1987 Bootleg Czechoslovakian VHS.” I watched a bit of each of them, particularly interested in “1978 Super 8mm Print (Iver Film Services).” I noticed it was missing the opening crawl and the sun flares. Then I realized it was because for Super-8 they had to edit it down to a 22 minute short. So check that version out if you’re ever in a hurry.

Most of the prints include the Bryanston Pictures logo at the beginning, which is pretty cool to see. They were the company that put out DEEP THROAT, run by a mobster, sued into bankruptcy in 1976.

The clips of other movies are also hypnotic to look at. We see lots of NOSFERATU as Oswalt talks about a formative viewing at a Halloween party and parallels he sees between Murnau’s film and Hooper’s. Scenes from HOUSE and KWAIDAN come up as Miike discusses CHAIN SAW’s influence on Japanese film, and in this context they seem CHAIN SAW-esque. The climax of THE EVIL DEAD explodes across the screen when King mentions it, and it seems like the craziest shit you’ve ever seen. He talks about being in the hospital, his son Joe Hill showing him THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT on VHS and it being too much for him, and we have a split screen of similar eye close ups in both films. Heller-Nicholas talks PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, WAKE IN FRIGHT, THE PROPOSITION and WOLF CREEK – sun-drenched Australian horror.

I like the rhythm of this. I mostly avoid movie fan documentaries these days – I’d rather read this information in an article than see it spewed by talking heads in front of their poster or VHS collections, cut to death with cheesy music and motion graphics. I suspect Philippe hates that shit as much as I do. He has faith that he doesn’t have to resort to too many gimmicks to keep this visually interesting, though there are a few nice shots of some of the interviewees watching an old tube TV in a spooky house set.

And his interviews look nice. They involve— you know, cinematography and production design. And I think it’s key that they’re presented as 5 chapters, not cut together. It feels more like a meditation, less like a special feature. Maybe these aren’t all the deepest thoughts, maybe I don’t agree with all their takes, but I get to feel like I have enough time with each of them to understand their bond with CHAIN SAW, and their perspective on it.

Like me, Kusama and Oswalt are curious about all the references to the sun, the moon, the zodiac, and planetary alignment. Oswalt explains his theory that the sun is turning everyone mad, it’s an apocalypse, and it’s spreading across the world. Okay, I absolutely don’t think that’s what’s happening in the movie, but I love that he says it. It’s a poetic interpretation. Like he says, the more you watch it the more you see in it.

Another touch that’s crazy for a guy like me is the way it casually drops in outtakes. Now I know that for some of the most iconic shots in horror part 2 star Lou Perryman was standing right there, because I’m pretty sure that’s him with the clapboard.

There’s even a shot of a toddler in a diaper walking through the Sawyers’ evil living room carrying a fake femur like he’s Bam Bam Rubble! I’m assuming that’s somebody’s kid and not a deleted Chain Saw family member. The diaper doesn’t look like it’s made out of skin or anything.

One of the production companies is Kim Henkel’s Exurbia Films, so they own the rights to all this.The blu-ray extras also include 2 hours and 20 minutes of TEXAS CHAIN SAW outtakes. Of course I was going to buy something like that, but I’d be interested to know if any non-CHAIN SAW obsessive ever saw CHAIN REACTIONS and gained a new appreciation for the film. I kinda think you have to be a hardcore to get very excited about it. But there are plenty of us out there. If you’re one of them you can watch the documentary on Shudder.