Chain Saw Confidential: Original Leatherface Gunnar Hansen’s memoir is back in print!

Fifty years ago, director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew spent a blisteringly hot Texas summer working to bring us one of the greatest horror films ever made, the 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (watch it HERE). Ten years ago, Gunnar Hansen – who played the iconic Leatherface in that film – looked back at his time on the production with the memoir Chain Saw Confidential: How We Made the World’s Most Notorious Horror Movie. The book eventually went out of print, and in 2015 we lost Hansen, as he passed away at the age of 68. But now, just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the production and next year’s fiftieth anniversary of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre‘s release, Dark Ink has brought Chain Saw Confidential back to print! Copies can be purchased at THIS LINK.

Chain Saw Confidential has the following description: When The Texas Chain Saw Massacre first hit movie screens in 1974 it was both reviled and championed. To critics, it was either “a degrading, senseless misuse of film and time” or “an intelligent, absorbing and deeply disturbing horror film.” However it was an immediate hit with audiences. Banned and celebrated, showcased at the Cannes film festival and included in the New York MoMA’s collection, it has now come to be recognized widely as one of the greatest horror movies of all time. A six-foot-four poet fresh out of grad school with limited acting experience, Gunnar Hansen played the masked, chain-saw-wielding Leatherface. His terrifying portrayal and the inventive work of the cast and crew would give the film the authentic power of nightmare, even while the gritty, grueling, and often dangerous independent production would test everyone involved, and lay the foundations for myths surrounding the film that endure even today. In Chain Saw Confidential, Hansen here tells the real story of the making of the film, its release, and reception, offering unknown behind-the-scenes details, a harrowingly entertaining account of the adventures of low-budget filmmaking, illuminating insights on the film’s enduring and influential place in the horror genre and our culture, and a thoughtful meditation on why we love to be scared in the first place.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of my all-time favorite films, so I checked out Chain Saw Confidential as soon as it was first published a decade ago. I remember enjoying the read, but I haven’t gone back to it since. I’m glad to hear it’s back in print, and I will definitely be reading the book again soon.

Have you read Chain Saw Confidential? Will you be buying a copy of the new printing? Let us know by leaving a comment below.