A restored 4k version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hits theaters today from MPI Media Group/Dark Sky Films on the 50th anniversary of the iconic indie scarefest by the late Tobe Hooper. It’s booked in 900 theaters with Regal, Cinemark, Cineplex, Marcus, Harkins and all Alamo Drafthouse locations.
Other venues include the Music Box Theatre’s 700-seat auditorium. The run starts today – the same day the original was released in 1974 — goes through Halloween and into the first week of November.
MPI is taking a flexible approach with theaters and exhibitors have been adding shows on solid pre-sales.
The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hanssen as Leatherface and follows five youths on a weekend getaway who fall victim to a butcher in a mask made of human skin and his family of cannibals. Violent and confrontational, it faced a storm of controversy and censorship but became a landmark, followed by a prequel, sequel and remakes.
MPI, which launched as a home video outfit in the 1970s, had the rights to the film and the release today is its first since the distributor and its genre horror label Dark Sky were relaunched under Justin DiPietro, former head of Cohen Media Group with years at Alamo Drafthouse and Netflix, who came on this summer as EVP of both MPI and Dark Sky.
The re-release was already underway. “They had this thing cooking,” DiPietro said, starting with a 50th anniversary screening at SXSW. Beyond Fest in LA just held the first Red Carpet premiere of the movie with a cast and crew Q&A moderated by Eli Roth. It had a New York premiere at MoMA.
Trailer below: