Program Note
Half a century ago, an American independent horror film called The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shocked the world and forever changed the face of cinema and popular culture. With the realistic portrayal of an American nightmare featuring the terrifying, chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, the film became the seminal, genre-establishing slasher film. Chain Reactions is an extraordinary documentary on an extraordinary film, directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, a prolific documentarian of cinema, who superbly examines the legacy of Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror masterpiece. He conducts a series of personal and revealing interviews with high-profile fans of the film, including Stephen King, Miike Takashi and Patton Oswalt, among others. They reveal the connections between the film and its villain, Leatherface, while Mr. Philippe examines the audience's attraction to horror films through these cinephile interviews. The film won the Best Documentary on Cinema at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. (Jongsuk Thomas NAM)