Tobe Hooper (*1943)

Ever since his first film, the legendary TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974), Tobe Hooper has been a cult movie icon. As brilliant as this movie was, as forgettable, even trashy, were his later ones. Hooper's career was given a further boost when Steven Spielberg signed him on for POLTERGEIST (1982), one of the most chilling ghost stories of its time. Hooper switched genres for LIFEFORCE (1985), an effective science-fiction movie, and INVADERS FROM MARS (1986), before returning to his roots to make a sequel to T.C.M. Throughout the 1980s he also worked for television (series). In the 1990s and 2000s, he mostly made TV movies (though never really topped his 1979 hit SALEM'S LOT, a Stephen King adaptation) and directed some episodes for TV series. Hooper's career is fading out, it seems, and he almost definitely will never recapture the form displayed in his films of the 1970s.

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Filmography:

Eggshells (1969; dir, coscr, prod)
The Windsplitter (1971; act)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, dir, coscr, comus, coprod)
Death Trap (1976; dir, comus; aka Eaten Alive)
Salem's Lot (1979; dir; made for TV; based on the novel by Stephen King)
The Dark (1979; codir)
The Funhouse (1981; dir)
Poltergeist (1982; dir)
Fear - Angst (1984; act; made for TV)
Lifeforce (1985; dir)
Invaders from Mars (1986; dir)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986; dir, coscr, comus, coprod, act)
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990; based on the earlier films)
Spontaneous Combustion (1990; dir, sty, coscr)
I'm Dangerous Tonight (1990; dir; made for TV)
Sleepwalkers (1992; act)
Body Bags (1993; seq dir, act; made for TV)
Night Terrors (1993; dir)
The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1994/97; based on the earlier films)
The Mangler (1995; dir, coscr)
The Apartment Complex (1999; dir; made for TV)
Crocodile (2000; dir)
The American Nightmare (2000; doc; as interviewee)
Shadow Realm (2002; seq dir; made for TV)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003; coprod; remake of the 1974 original)
Toolbox Murders (2004; dir; remake of the 1978 original)
Mortuary (2005; dir)


© Ron Altman (last update 07/24/2006)