Tobe Hooper has passed away

Tobe Hooper, best known for directing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Poltergeist, Lifeforce and the TV adaptation of Salem’s Lot, died Saturday in Sherman Oaks, Calif., according to the Los Angeles County Coroner. He was 74. The circumstances of his death were not known.

He first became interested in filmmaking when he used his father’s 8 mm camera at age 9. Hooper rose to fame in 1974, after the release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which he also co-wrote with producer Kim Henkel, and was based loosely on the crimes of Ed Gein. I remember when I finally got to see the film and was blown away by the creeping menace that builds until it is unleashed in that house and then it just doesn’t stop. It had a different look and feel to other horror movies. It was all violence and murder while the sun shined. All very disturbing and quite brilliant.

1982’s Poltergeist, written and produced by Steven Spielberg, also became another classic and it was a box office success for MGM becoming the eighth-highest grossing film of the year.

He continued working in television and film throughout the 1990s and 2000s.The last film he directed was the 2013 horror thriller Djinn.

So it seems that with the passing of George A. Romero and now Tobe Hooper we are losing some horror legends this year.

Let us start up our chainsaws and raised them into the air to salute the mighty Tobe Hooper.