Classic TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) Returning To Theatres This Summer

Fans of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre will be happy to hear that a newly restored version of the film is coming to theatres this summer, especially after last year's Texas Chainsaw 3D recieved mixed reactions.  This is, of course, in celebration of the 1974 film's 40th Anniversary.



From the sound of things, this transfer isn't in vein. The film will be restored with a 4K transfer, which is an estimated four times the resolution of the 2K that is more often used in movie theatres. Having taken five months to complete, the restoration occured with an ARRISCAN Film Scanner at NOLO Digital Film in Chicago. Boris Seagraves, a NOLO engineer, had the following to say: "This film probably needed the most restoration of any project we’ve done."



Interestingly, this is the ONLY re-release of the movie to re-visit the roll of film that was actually used in theatres forty years ago. Seagraves spoke a few details, "There were hundreds, if not thousands, of instances where you’d find a splice mark cooked into the middle of a frame. Some frames would have close to two hundred dirt events on them. We also spent a lot of time stabilizing the image. When doing a digital scan of a conformed 16mm print with a splice at every cut, it can be tough to achieve the high standards we all aspire to in the era of digital cinema. What might have passed as acceptable in the 70′s looks jarring now. So we worked hard to smooth out the tremors that almost inevitably occur when scanning this type of film element. There were tears in the film that we had to digitally rebuild from adjacent frames. There were tens of thousands of things we were dealing with."



The man who oversaw the project, Todd Wieneke, added, "I’ve seen the film literally frame-by-frame and I’m still hearing and seeing things I never noticed before…it just adds a whole different level." The restoration colourist, Michael Matusek, expressed his excitment on the project, "This 4K scan delivers such an intense reality that it feels like you’re really seeing through the film to the actual world behind it.”



Let's not forget the man who brought the original to life, director Tobe Hooper. Hooper gave his opinion on the project and don't expect anything less than a positive reaction: “I haven’t seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on the big screen for many, many years. This 40th anniversary restoration is absolutely the best the film has ever looked. The color and clarity is spectacular, displaying visual details in the film that were never before perceptible. The newly remastered 7.1 soundtrack breathes new life and energy into the film. I am very much looking forward to audiences experiencing this film as they never have before.”



Personally, I'd say this is something to be enthusiastic about. The film will be re-released on June 20, 2014. We can expect the world premiere on SXSW, March 10th at 9:30pm at the Topfer Theatre.