#Edwin Neal as The Hitchhiker

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

A scene ‘Family Portrait’ from the movie 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 1974.

[worrygutz]

This post of Ed Neal talking about filming the TCM dinner scene with Marilyn Burns:(

[pierrot-fish]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EDWIN NEAL!

He is 79 today yahoo

[rentrashposting]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ALL TIME FAV<333

[choptopsplate]

twins

[tsmass]

You know this man's always having a brat Summer🐾🐕☀️🌻🪰

[redkillzzz]

MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE 💗

nubbins got his ass kicked or something

[redkillzzz]

Silly picture of Edwin Neal aka Nubbins Sawyer/Hitchhiker

[aussiehorrific]

The Hitchhiker, played by Edwin Neal, in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, ca. 1974.

[brokehorrorfan]

Celebrate 50 years of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with the original cast and crew when Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror masterpiece screens at The Cabot in Beverly, MA on October 18.

William Vail (Kirk), John Dugan (Grandpa), Edwin Neal (The Hitchhiker), Ed Guinn (The Truck Driver), and Daniel Pearl (cinematographer) will be in attendance for the event.

Tickets are on sale now starting at $24.25. VIP packages - including a photo op, a pre-signed poster, and prime seating - are available for $84.

The screening is presented by Shadows of Salem Horror & Paranormal Convention, at which the Texas Chain Saw Massacre alumni will be guests in Salem, MA on October 19-20.

[redkillzzz]

FRIST TIME SEEING HIS ROOM MY HUSBAND

Ladies, gentlemen, and fellow gender nonconformists. You're on a date, he takes you home to his bedroom, & it looks like this. What're you doing?

[jumpstartfactoftheday]

JumpStart Math for Second Graders is the only JumpStart game to feature the voice of Edwin Neal, who is best known for his acting role as the hitchhiker in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In JumpStart Math for Second Graders, Edwin Neal voiced both the cook and Buzzo the rat, who are pictured at the left.

[worrygutz]

Edwin Neal not being given much direction from Tobe Hooper, who basically let him do his own thing until it was considered ‘too far’ (picking and eating his sores).

Edwin Neal encouraging Jim Siedow and John Dugan to mess with Tobe during filming by mocking him on different occasions, either by making gestures or doing impressions.

Edwin Neal flipping Tobe Hooper off after his scenes while the camera is still rolling... its all so in character for hitchhiker.

I just think he’s great.

[trashmuis]

I had SUCH a good time this weekend!!!!

This was my first ever horror convention, and I left SO happy!!!

Bill Moseley was sooo chill and so nice! I can't believe I actually got to meet him and pose with him and get a selfie and an 2 autographs! I got a signed Chop Top headshot personalized for me, plus I got a Cornbugs CD (Celebrity Psychos) signed, and a selfie with him holding it <3 !!

it was pretty cool because he couldn't get the plastic off of the CD case so he pulled out a pocket knife with a dramatic flourish and sliced it open, but he accidentally cut into the case but I was like "no that's fine thank u omg" so I have a slightly knife-cut version of the CD case i guess, with his name on the CD itself and honestly I'm happy about it. for the photo, he asked me my name and shook my hand and was really kind, and he asked what i wanted for the quote and i just. i panicked. i froze. i forgot every line of dialog in the movie. i said "um there are too many, uh, i don't know um-" and then he proceeded to rattle off like every quote at me in the voice with the intonation and- that was. that was great. i settled with the classic "lick my plate, you dog dick" line bc it's iconic and also feels like he is insulting me with his quote on the picture which is just too goddamn funny to pass up.

Bill Johnson was a sweetheart and it just was obvious. like i can tell even from his demeanor that he was so patient and kind. i got a headshot of Leatherface signed (which goddamn he has beautiful handwriting and it was amazing to watch him make sure it looked as good as possible) and I also got a selfie with him too :D !!

I bought a crap ton of stuff and WON the silent auction being held in the main autograph room, so even if I never meet Edwin Neal (I hope one day....) I DO have an autograph from him that I got from that! It's a picture of the hitchhiker cutting himself and it's signed by him, and it's verified and that's so dope

I wore my costume all day on Saturday, and got some professional pics with both Bills, all in costume. So. That was cool! I got some photos with other people, and my costume is probably floating around there somewhere on Facebook, according to one guy. But. That's ok. I'm basically unrecognizable in that outfit lmao

Bill Moseley complimented my Chop Top costume tho at the photoshoot, and then again when he was leaving! That was great

That night, I went to see the TCM2 showing with live commentary and it basically was just watching the movie with Bill Moseley and Tom Morga. Bill just drank a Dr. Pepper (I know because he declared that before the movie started) and ate popcorn and kind of laughed at parts, and gave a few facts I wasn't aware of, and Tom mostly bounced off of Bill. some of these details are in the tags of my other posts but i do mean it when I say, it is incredible to be in an actual full-sized theater watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and hearing Bill Moseley chuckle at the movie every now and then

and then in the morning today, I went around for the last time, bought a few more Leatherface items, and sadly had to go home

but I ABSOLUTELY want to go to a horror convention again, and if I get the opportunity to meet Bill Moseley again I probably will and I'll gift him something next time bc I just. I want to. I wasn't expecting Bill Johnson to be there tbh (it was much more last minute on the website?) but if I see him again too, I'll do the same :)

[smokin-symbiotes]

October Horror Movies #1:

'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974)

Summary: Five friends go on a road trip through Texas only to be systematically murdered by a family of cannibals.

I'm dedicating myself to watching a horror movie a day for the month of October, and I started with 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974). Spoilers and unpleasent content ahead.

The biggest preoccupation of the movie is with meat, from how it's processed to how it's consumed. The earliest lines of dialogue between our five unsuspecting victims are about how some of their family worked at a slaughterhouse. The strange hitchhiker they pick-up also worked at a slaughterhouse and has photos of hanging cattle carcasses--notably, after he shows these photos, he takes a photo of the group, too, linking them to the beef.

The methods in which the group are murdered deliberately parallel the death and storage of animals for food. (i.e. violent bludgeoning, getting impaled on meat hooks, getting carved up). Like cattle, they are lured to their deaths one by one: one of the characters even goes up a ramp before being suddenly killed, much like how animals are loaded off of ramps into a slaughterhouse.

The friends are treated like factory farm animals by the family of killers, the Sawyers. The are objectified, tortured, killed, and reduced to their meat and leftover parts—as seen by the Sawyer's decor of human skin and bones, they turly let nothing go to waste. Through this grisly display, we are put into a position where we must empathize with the meat on our plate.

This objectification greatly emphasizes the terror serial killers produce, whether they're on-screen or in real life. Speaking as a layperson, the fear of serial killers stems from their tendency to objectify their relationships with other humans. Either they are conduits to help them fit in (i.e. family, clergy, co-workers), or they are objects to subject their repressed desires to. This theme is particularly animated in the lengthy dinner sequence, where our proto-final girl, Sally (Marilyn Burns), is taken captive by the Sawyers and is forced to have dinner with them.

Here, she is no longer a free person, but a living manequin that the Sawyer family tortures and mocks. She is forced to play 'House', with her captives, in which she takes the role of 'Daughter', the hitchicker, Nubbins (Edwin Neal) is the bratty brother, Old Man (Jim Siedow) is the stern father, and Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) shifts into the role of the housewife. 'Grandpa' ... well, is just granpda (John Dugan)—this is film critic Kim Newman's interpreation of the family, and I agree. They're a warped version of the "average" American family.

Leatherface's role in this dynamic demonstrates the lack of a concrete idenity in an American family. Earlier in the film he has a much more masculine persona, wearing what appears to be a man's face as he kills the travelers, dressed in a white button down shirt and tie: here, he is a worker, dutifully killing the livestock to provide meat for his family. Then, he dons an "old woman's" face as he prepares the family meal and wears a blouse and apron: he's now a caretaker, providing a delicious meal for his family. Finally, he's wearing his "housewife" face, caked in makeup and wearing a bright blue suitjacket: he preens his new daughter and will later help grandpa try to bash her head in. Notably, while he's in these femme personas, he is subservient to the whims of the Old Man, who is aggressive and abusive towards the rest of the family—he is the ever-sufferng, dutiful housewife.

All this is to say, the people in an American family are defined by just their signifers. What makes someone a husband, wife, son, or daughter isn't who they are: it's rather defined by what they do and where they are placed. If someone in the Sawyer family, any family really, were to perish or leave, another person has the potential to fit into place. These roles are rigid through expectations that is placed on the player, but are fluid in that anyone can play the role.

Speaking of roles—and ciricling back to serial killers—I think Sally offers a grounded take on a horror movie protagonist. She's defined by futility and chance. It's a hopeless scenario: she and her friends are in the middle of nowhere, stalked by seasoned killers under the sweltering Texas sun. The only reason they're in this mess is because they picked up a hitchhiker: for their trouble, they're rewarded with death. Sally's trials are particularly tortuous: she witnesses her brother getting chainsaw'd by Leatherface, she's chased through the wilderness by him, when she finally finds help it's from the Old Man, she's tied down and forced to play house with her friends' killers—while you're watching the movie you're wondering, how the hell will she got out of this?

It's through luck. Bad luck got her into this mess, and good luck gets her out of it. After her killers remove her restraints and try to get the feeble Grandpa to kill her, Nubbins loses his grip and she flees. Believing they've won already, their efforts to recapture her are playful—Nubbins pays for his indolence by chasing her into the road, and then is promptly flattend by an oncoming semi-truck. Leatherface finally catches up, but the truck driver is a good Samaritan. He stops, and as he and Sally are chased by Leatherace, he grabs a heavy wrench from his vehichle and throws it at Leatherface's head, incapacitating him. Finally, a pickup driver follows shortly behind, rescuing Sally from her doom. She drives off into the morning sun, laughing hysterically, while Leatherface can only swing his chainsaw in an impotent rage. I think Tobe Hooper is trying to link Sally's instability with Leatherface's. She has been fundamentally warped by her experiences, and within her lies the same turmoil that Leatherface is expressing externally.

The movie's ending may seem implausible, but usually this is how the story of most serial killers end. Most serial killers aren't Machievllian operators like Hannibal Lecter or Dexter Morgan: they last undected for years thanks to a mixture of luck and shoddy police work. There is a small list of victims that have escaped their serial killer captors thanks to their incompetence—there is a longer list of serial killers who get caught because their incompetence is so blatlant, police finally have reason to intervene. The movie is a microcosm and decsonstruction of the serial killer mythos: the Sawyer family seems fantastic, terrifying, and seemingly unstoppable—yet they only seem that way because the deck is stacked in their favor (numbers, location, element of suprise). You take them out of their element, change a variable—their haplessness comes out and is their downfall.

One last note, the technical aspects of this film are devilishly modern. Menacing tracking shots, pulsing industrial score, disorienting editing—it all produces a nasueting atmosphere lingers with you for the rest of your life. I would liken the experience of watching the film to that of a noise concert: overwhelming aural stimulus and imagery pumelling you into submission. The reving of the chainsaw and Sally's screams serve as the overpowering score for the last act, and when the screen cuts to black, the silence is deafening.

[world-cinema-research]

Week 7 Blog Essay: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and the Comparison to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

(TWO FILM ESSAY)

By Jensen Boles

In the year of 1974, Tobe Hooper directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was also known for directing films such as Eggshells (1969), Poltergeist (1982), as well as the sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986).

Above is the original theatrical trailer for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Tobe Hooper's casting choice for this film mainly consists of unknown actors consisting of Gunnar Hansen, Marylin Burns, Edwin Neal, Paul A. Partain and Jim Seidow. While these actors were unknown at the time, they did eventually gain some recognition from horror fans, thanks to this film. Gunnar Hansen who played Leatherface in the film, even stated in an interview "Yes. And in fact, once Chainsaw came out, I started getting asked to be in films."

The story of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is set in the same year the film came out, being 1974. The story of this film follows five friends who head to rural Texas to visit the gravesite of one of their grandfathers which has been desecrated. While on their way they stumble upon a psychopathic hitchhiker and an abandoned house that's home to a chainsaw wielding, cannibalistic psycho, named Leatherface along with the rest of his family who are also psychopaths and cannibals who are also known for tormenting their victims.

The film was known for having a low production budget consisting of only $140,000 and having a cast of mainly unknown actors as mentioned above. However the film made $26,572,161 for the worldwide box office. The film was also known for being really controversial due to its excessive violence and disturbing content which got the film banned in the UK for 25 years. The film was also inspired by the real life serial killer known as Ed Gein.

Despite the film's low budget and controversy at the time, the film was still praised by fans as well as a few critics such as Roger Ebert who stated "It’s also without any apparent purpose, unless the creation of disgust and fright is a purpose. And yet in its own way, the movie is some kind of weird, off-the-wall achievement. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to make a movie like this, and yet it’s well-made, well-acted, and all too effective." Roger Ebert was stating that despite the unconventional elements along with the film's low budget and controversy, the film was still effective and enjoyable in the horror genre.

Moving onto my second film of the week, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which was released in the year 2000 and has a totally different plot which is set in 19th century Qing Dynasty, China and involves a young Chinese warrior named Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi) who steals a sword from a famous swordsman named Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat). Li Mu Bai was originally going to give his sword to a young female warrior, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) before it was stolen by Jen. Yu Shu-Lien, then gives chase to Jen and along the way, she encounters bitter loose ends, fervent passions, and an unconquerable desire for freedom.

Above is a still frame from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that consists of Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) about to battle Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi) in the most iconic scene from the movie.

In comparison to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had a larger production budget consisting of $15,000,000 and made $213,966,221 worldwide. The film has also won an Academy Award for best cinematography as well as a Saturn Award for best Action/Adventure film.

The film has also garnered praise by fans and critics alike. Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian said "In the old-fashioned entertainment that it delivers, and in its inspired combination of seriousness and playfulness, Crouching Tiger is already assuming the lineaments of a classic." I think Peter Bradshaw makes a good point because the film is still considered a classic to this day and the cinematography still holds up today as well.

All in all, both of these films are totally different from one another because of the different budgets, the different setting, and the different style of films. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had a lower budget and was set in Texas in the year of 1974, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon however, had a higher budget and was a period piece set in 19th century China. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was also a horror film which had gained some controversy over the years, while Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was based off of a Chinese novel and had won awards for best cinematography and for best action film. Even the actors for both films are considered different, while The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had unknown actors at the time, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had a few well known actors, yet some of the actors weren’t known well amongst certain audiences.