R.I.P. Tobe Hooper (1943-2017)

As to why seeing our beloved artists die has such an effect on us, some eloquent soul said: "We don't cry because we knew them, we cry because they helped us know ourselves."

There are a small group of films that changed the Horror Genre forever. A very few of those groundbreaking efforts could be said to have helped create it.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is on that shortest of short lists.

Regarded as one of the best Horror films ever made, TCM is a clinic on low-budget atmosphere and terror. It's a relatively bloodless film, but it remains a disturbing and difficult watch none the less. It was one of the very first Slasher films, and it gave us one of the first, and arguably best, Final Girls in Sally Hardesty. Backwoods Horror began in earnest here. Hell, grungy, realistic, terror began here.

And let us not forget that he also gave us what we consider to be the best vampire story ever filmed with Salem's Lot. When we started this site, we chose The Master as our mascot because we could think of no more terrifying of an image to convey what we were all about. The vampires in that film are still to this day, the most terrifying ever committed to film.

Poltergeist was a huge film as well, ushering in the era of family-friendly scares in the 80's. The Funhouse, Lifeforce, and Invaders From Mars were all solid Genre efforts as well, and he produced most of the TCM films that came after his magnum opus, a few of which were good, but never quite recaptured the magic that he created back in 1974.

Leatherface, however, is eternal. 

All of this came from the mind of Tobe Hooper, and it all shaped our lives in a special way.

It's not yet know how Hooper died, but it really doesn't matter. Another Genre legend is gone, and more importantly, another good man is gone, and we are lesser for it.

Sleep well, sweet prince. We'll all save our last crazed dance for you.