Tobe Hooper and the MPAA
When it comes to being a filmmaker, especially one within the horror genre, one of the hardest things you have to do if you want your film distributed in movie theaters across the country, is submit your film to the MPAA. Now known as the MPA as of September 2019, the MPAA is an organization that represents the five major American movie studios as well as Netflix. The group is charged with reviewing and rating movies and television shows based on the content within the medium. The ratings range from G (General Audiences) to NC-17 (No One Under 17 Admitted), if your film receives the NC-17 rating, no major theater will show your movie.
Horror movies are an off-and-on target for members of the MPAA, especially those that contain large amounts of gore, sex, or a "disturbing moral tone," though, that last one has been used in rare cases. Horror filmmakers are always trying to attain an R or PG-13 rating, so their film is widely distributed, and as many people can see the movie as possible. This sometimes means having to re-edit the film and cut out suggestive or gory shots to get a good rating. Compromising the vision of the filmmakers who worked on the sets of said movies.
In 1974, a film came out that would become one of the most feared titles in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
When the film was released, it sent a wave of shock across the United States as the most shocking film ever committed to celluloid. People were disgusted at the morbid nature of the story, and they felt that the film was insanely graphic and should've been given an X rating. However, when reviewing the movie, you notice that there's very little gore at all, maybe a few spurts of blood and a quick shot of a chainsaw cutting into a leg, but nothing graphic.
Due to the budget, the crew could not afford special effects, so director Tobe Hooper decided to shoot and edit the movie in such a way that it only leaves the suggestion of gore, rather than showing it. Tobe Hooper is ever rumored to have called the MPAA and asked questions about specific scenes he had involving something gruesome. Though some stories say that Tobe Hooper had to recut Texas Chain Saw Massacre after the MPAA gave the film an X rating; what actually happened is the film passed through requiring no edits. It landed an R rating, much to Hooper's disappointment, who was hoping the film would get a G rating. Though it didn't get a G, the film would ultimately become successful and one of the more essential horror movies of the modern era.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II
In 1984, Tobe Hooper signed a contract with The Cannon Film Group to make three movies, the first two were Lifeforce, and the Invaders from Mars remake and the final film in that deal was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, which was released in 1986.
The film is the opposite of the original in almost every way, with lots of dark humor and of course, lots of gore. Given that the SFX makeup artist was Tom Savini, the film has several gruesome death scenes, as well as lots of gore and disgusting situations that genuinely make you feel queasy at times, which goes to show you how well the effects were done.
According to Tobe Hooper on the director's commentary of Texas Chainsaw Part 2, when he submitted the film to the MPAA, a member told him that the whole movie would need to be re-shot for them to get an R rating. So Part 2 was released in very few theaters across the country, but when it was released on home video, "sales were really really well," according to Hooper. This was also during a brief time when there was no X rating for movies after it became porn exclusively, and the dreaded NC-17 rating wouldn't come along for the next few years.
Though the Not Rated tag hindered the theatrical release of the film, Tobe Hooper decided that he would just release the movie as is without making any significant cuts due to the content within the film. It's something to be admired that the man stood his ground and released a movie on his own terms without bowing to the Hollywood censorship board. Both situations prove the artistic will and integrity of the late Tobe Hooper. Truly, a filmmaker we needed but didn't deserve and sadly went unappreciated for most of his career.
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