Takashi Miike Spills the Chaotic Secrets Behind His First Ever Screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — And It’s Nothing Like You’d Expect!
Added on September 21, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
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Ever wonder if the stars themselves conspired to make Texas the scariest place on Earth? Well, apparently, when the cult classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sliced onto the scene over 50 years ago, it didn’t just set the horror bar sky-high — it also cast an eerie cosmic shadow that had people from Osaka to Austin thinking the Lone Star State was one big, desolate nightmare. Takashi Miike, the wild director behind Audition and Ichi the Killer, stumbled into watching this flick by pure cosmic accident — expecting Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights but ending up in the middle of a horror storm that forever changed how Japan looked at Texas. Can you imagine gearing up for some silent film charm and instead getting a chainsaw-wielding ride into cinematic danger? It’s like a Mercury retrograde prank on your movie plans! This uncanny collision of fate and film is just one angle explored in the documentary Chain Reactions, where horror legends and superfans alike dig into why this blood-soaked masterpiece still cuts so deep. Curious to hear what Miike and others have to say about it? LEARN MORE
One thing that can be said of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is that its reputation and appreciation has only grown in the 50+ years since its release. Really, when it comes to the most influential horror movies ever, it’s undoubtedly near the top. As such, it has become the subject of yet another documentary, Chain Reactions.
One of the key interviewees in Chain Reactions is director Audition and Ichi the Killer director Takashi Miike, who remembered The Texas Chainsaw Massacre establishing a reputation in Japan for the titular state as supremely frightening — and not in the way we here in the U.S. think it is. As Miike tells it, he wasn’t even supposed to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but rather a revival of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. “I went into it by chance, with a good disposition since I’d originally planned on watching City Lights. Then, the movie started. It was an old theater. Shochikuza in Osaka. There were pillars in the theater. It was perfect for horror. Up until that point, movies had been something safe. For the first time, I felt that movies could be something dangerous. As I watched the film, the characters became more endearing. I started to feel affection for them. By the end, I was rooting for them and laughing out loud. I had never experienced a film like that. In Japan, at the time, because of that film, everyone thought Texas was a dangerous place. How can I put it? A desolate landscape.”
We won’t go into the legacy and impact of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre here (hey, we’ve got videos for that!) but Chain Reactions does do a fine job at interpreting the film from the viewpoint of some famous fans. In addition to Miike, the doc also features writer Stephen King, genre buff Patton Oswald, critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation). You can read our 7/10 review of Chain Reactions here.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has spawned its share of sequels and reboots. But its future may be in good hands, as the franchise may be headed to A24. That still might irk some fans but we all know it’s better off there than at Platinum Dunes…
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