The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait (1988)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A Brilliant Conflict

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

About fifteen years after the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre film came out, Brad Shellady filmed a simplistic documentary of actors accounts, looking back to their horror hit. Shellady could have spent some more resources interviewing the entire cast but purposely only wanted to talk to the family. This consisted of Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface, Jim Siedow as the Old Man, Edwin Neal as Hitchhiker and John Dugan as Grandpa. Shellady's filmmaking was unbearable trying to set a tough Texas tone set in random places. It's cool that the audience only hears the actors speak throughout but there is a disconnection and repetitiveness to some of the stories. Edwin Neal was the true bright spot of the documentary, having a Jim Carry type A personality, while Siedow was rather dull and Hansen seemed almost bitter about the role. It's a neat little documentary to search out, the doc has aged in a good way and something the fans would really love.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait (1988) *** 1/2 (out of 4)John Dugan (Grandpa), Jim Siedow (The Cook), Edwin Neal (The Hitchhiker) and Gunner Hansen (Leatherface) are interviewed for this rather interesting documentary that takes a look at the making of THE Texas CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and gives us the stories from the actual cannibal family seen in the movie.This documentary was quite popular when it was first released and it's even better today since two of the members have sadly passed away. Getting to hear these stories is certainly something special and I especially like the fact that all of the attention is given to the family. Each man talks about how they ended up getting their roles and then we get into the production of the film. A lot of discussion goes towards how brutal the shooting was and this includes the horrid smells during the dinner scene as well as the abuse that they had to put on the actress.At just a hour there are plenty of great stories told here so fans of the film will certainly enjoy this.

The things the actors say are interesting, too bad Shellady didnt film them in any sort of interesting way. talking head, talking head, talking head... Ed Neal's shot is blurry, Seidow comes off like hes in a nursing home, and Dugans cat steals his scenes from him. Would have been nice to get comments from Henkel or someone else behind the scenes. a lot of stuff got repeated (OK! IT WAS HOT WHEN YOU FILMED THE DINNER SCENE!!!) but otherwise it was interesting. See if someone transcripted it, it'll beat watching it.

This is sort of a hard one to find now but well worth the trouble. Here are interviews with the actors that portrayed the maniacal family in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I was amazed at how the disturbing character of the hitchiker is now a comedian! He's actually quite funny as he goes into detail about the rigors of filming. Gunnar also recounts scenes such as the dinner scene and how horrible it was to shoot. See it.