TSPDT

Key Production Countries: USA, UK
Key Genres: Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Slasher Film, Science Fiction, Horror Comedy, Alien Film
Key Collaborators: Yoram Globus (Producer), Menahem Golan (Producer), Marilyn Burns (Leading Actress), Don Jakoby (Screenwriter), Dan O'Bannon (Screenwriter), Daniel Pearl (Cinematographer), Alain Jakubowicz (Editor), Robert Englund (Leading Character Actor), Jim Siedow (Leading Character Actor), Wayne Bell (Composer), Mort Rabinowitz (Production Designer), James Karen (Character Actor)

"Though he has worked in the horror and dark fantasy genres for more than two decades, producer-writer-director Tobe Hooper's significant contributions can all be traced to just two films. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Poltergeist (1982). Though produced under very different circumstances - the former was an ultra-low-budget exploitation potboiler while the latter was a major studio spectacular - both films were major commercial successes that reflected the zeitgeist of their day." - Kent Greene (The Hollywood.com Guide to Film Directors, 2004)

"Though he rarely gets credit for his skills as a technician – the way, say, his fellow masters John Carpenter and Dario Argento do – so much of his special, mad genius lies in the formal elements of his work: the way his camera moves, the lighting design, the rhythms of his cutting. Tobe Hooper was a great filmmaker, one who understood the form enough to subvert it at every possible opportunity. That subversion was at the heart of all of his movies, which might help explain why so many of them were misunderstood upon release. Thankfully, the years have been good to his work and it seems like some fans are finally coming around to his unique brand of madness. He was a total original, one who changed the face of horror forever but always continued to push himself, never making the same movie twice." - Patrick Bromley (Bloody Disgusting, 2022)

"This Texas-born director's delight in surprising and shocking his audience could well stem from the fact that, as a child, he worked as a professional stage magician. And so for a while he became the demon king of horror film makers, with handsome box-office receipts from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to prove it. Hooper's interest in films dates from his high school days, when he turned out an 8mm version of Frankenstein." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)

"Tobe Hooper retains a curious position in American genre cinema. He’s acknowledged as a master of horror by fans and fellow directors, yet beyond era-defining classics The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Poltergeist (1982) the Austin native’s filmography might look short on quality. But digging deeper into his back catalogue is a worthwhile endeavour, which will give you a much clearer picture of the laconic Texan as not only a versatile craftsman (when opportunity arose), but a keen chronicler of the freaky side of the American national psyche. A self-confessed horror buff and an unabashed lover of shlock material and its surrealistic possibilities, he also had a penchant for oddball characters, narratives tinged with folkloric aspects and class warfare subtexts. Add to this a quirky sense of humour as dry as Texas scrub." - Martyn Conterio (BFI, 2021)

"Hooper galvanized horror fans around the world with his 1974 independent production, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, now enshrined by cultists as one of the forerunners of the "splatter" subgenre… Hooper, one of many youngish directors influenced by old horror movies and early TV shows, has demonstrated that, once past the trademark gore and shock scenes with which he loads his pictures, there's less to his directorial style than meets the eye." - Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia, 1995

"I don't believe in using too much graphic violence, although I've done it. It's better to be suggestive and to allow the viewer to fill in the blanks in their minds." - Tobe Hooper