Alexandre O. Philippe on CHAIN REACTIONS and The Legacy of Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- creepykingdom
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
By Shannon McGrew
In CHAIN REACTIONS, the latest documentary from Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52, Leap of Faith) fifty years after Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre shocked the world and forever changed the face of global cinema and popular culture, the documentary charts the film’s profound impact and lasting influence on five great artists - Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama - through early memories, sensory experiences, and childhood trauma.
For the release of CHAIN REACTIONS, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with Alexandre O. Philippe. During their chat, they discussed everything from his personal connection to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to the many ways audiences continue to experience the film.
Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Alexandre. To start things off, what was your entry point for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?
Alexandre O. Philippe: My entry into the film is fairly complicated. I grew up a massive cinephile. I was living in Geneva, Switzerland, and grew up watching a lot of horror films from a very early age. But The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of those films that I couldn’t quite get myself to watch. There was something about it, as Patton talks about in CHAIN REACTIONS, that’s a little too real. It felt like it was more than just a movie, and the title, of course, is absolutely terrifying.
I waited until my early twenties to watch it. I was in New Haven, Connecticut, and it was a beautiful day, and the birds were singing. For whatever reason, that day I thought, 'I’m going to rent The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.' I put the movie on; it was on a very small screen, and it was in the middle of the day; it could not have been a safer space. About two-thirds of the way into the film, when Tobe gets into these extraordinary extreme close-ups of Sally’s eyeball, I thought I was losing my mind. I had to pause, go outside, and walk around the block a couple of times, listen to the birds, and remind myself that we live in a beautiful world. I then went back in and finished the film, and to this day, it’s the only film I had to pause because I couldn’t handle it.
How did you decide who would be the talking heads in the documentary?
Alexandre O. Philippe: As always, there’s a mystery about it. It’s research, it’s serendipity, it’s following some threads. Ultimately, I wanted to have five people who would be compelling and passionate about the film and have a genuine connection to it.
The film is really about memory and exploring how watching it on a particular format completely changes or colors your view of the film itself. Watching it on 35mm or Australian VHS is an entirely different experience. When we release CHAIN REACTIONS on disc, it’ll be a three Blu-ray box set. We’re going to have eight distinct transfers of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as bonus features, including all of the versions that you’ve seen excerpts of in CHAIN REACTIONS. It’s going to be a really special release.
What were some of the most surprising things you learned in making this documentary?
Alexandre O. Philippe: Anytime you get to pick the brain of people like Takashi Miike, Patton Oswalt, Karyn Kusama, etc., you’re going to get to view this film that you’ve seen a gazillion times and feel you know really well in a completely different light. That’s the beauty of it. There’s a great joy in what I do because I get to re-experience those films. All of a sudden, they open a new interpretation, a new way of seeing it, and then it makes me want to go back and see it again through their eyes.
I think the essence of what I do is trying to get into the mind’s eye of the people that I invite to participate in my films. It will never get old because I could have made a hundred chapters, I could make a series on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and keep inviting new people. I guarantee you every single one will be completely singular and unique.
Lastly, what do you hope people take away from watching this?
Alexandre O. Philippe: I think I really want people to come out of this realizing that there’s no such thing as a definitive way of watching a film. We live in an era where the 4K UHD transfer is often referred to as the definitive restoration, and this is the way people tend to watch a film. It’s beautiful. It’s gorgeous. It needs to live and exist. But there are a million other ways in which you can experience that film, and especially a movie like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
About a month ago, I attended the Melbourne Film Festival, and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas was also there. We showed the film on Australian VHS on the big screen, and holy cow, that was unbelievable. It was a packed house of about 350 people, some of them watching it for the first time. I really sort of envied them. It was mesmerizing. There’s just something about watching that Australian VHS with its yellow hue and those night scenes, where it’s pitch dark and you see the VHS static; it's like watching a completely different film.
What I want people to take out of CHAIN REACTIONS is that when you love a film, you should seek it out in different ways. Go and see if you can find some alternative cuts or formats, and see how that affects your impression of it.
CHAIN REACTIONS will expand into theaters nationwide on September 26th.
