Leatherface is set to terrorize Texas once again.
A new restored cut of the original ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ will be unleashed into theaters this summer in celebration of the film’s 40th anniversary.
The restoration of the film took over five months of 40-hour work weeks to complete. Each of the films 120,960 frames had to go through an extremely detailed correction process that included fixing scratches, film and chemical stains, rips, tears, dirt and splices. They were then transferred from the films original 16 mm film that rolled though cameras over to a 4k scan.
The restoration took place at NOLO Digital Film in Chicago. Film engineer Boris Seagraves said it was an excruciating process.
“There were hundreds, if not thousands, of instances where you’d find a splice mark cooked into the middle of a frame,” said Seagraves. “Some frames would have close to two hundred dirt events on them.”
Director Tobe Hooper first shot the film back in 1973 in Round Rock, Texas. It went on to gross $30 million in drive-ins across America in 1974 and became a horror classic. Several remakes and sequels have been released since then.
The South by Southwest Film Festival will screen the restoration for the first time on Monday in Austin. The rest of the world will have to wait until more details are announced for the summer release so we can all be terrified once again.
In the meantime, check out our review of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and see why hearing a chainsaw will never be the same.
