INTERVIEW: Fede Álvarez Adds the "MASSACRE" into Netflix's 'TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE'

“It is a great set up for us to come in and have fun in a way because these things are, you know this is not a preachy drama. This is something you go crazy. You bring a chaotic story you make sure you confuse the shit out of everybody of what this is suppose to be about. You bring all the themes but you don’t give any straight answer about who is right who is wrong. You just show it as life is… because that’s where the true horror happens.”

- Fede Álvarez, Producer

It was his second feature film but director and producer Tobe Hooper who used his belief “that people were the monsters” as the key element to the classic ‘THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE‘. A family of cannibals was being introduced to the world in 1974. In a discussion with Interview Magazine about choosing a chainsaw for the iconic character Leatherface, Tobe said, “I’d been working on this idea of young people, college students, in isolation. We were going through a gasoline shortage in the country at the time. People had to queue up in their automobiles at gas stations, sometimes for miles. There was gas rationing. And I was hearing a lot of lies on television. Politically, the times were interesting; they were kind of amplified. So the idea came to me in the car of how to pull all of these elements together. It came really quickly—the whole configuration of the characters—and the loop, the way the story loops inside itself… You can’t get away, you can’t escape. You’ll jump through a plate-glass window several times and end up being right back in the spider’s web.” His reflection on the circler chain blades of a chainsaw.

Tobe passed away in 2017 but he had left a strong and proud legacy, especial in the horror genre. ‘THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE‘ went on to become one of the most influential films of all time. He also directed ‘Poltergeist‘ that was written and produced by Steven Spielberg. Tobe left a long list of cult classics like ‘Eaten Alive‘, ‘The Funhouse‘, ‘Lifeforce’, ‘Invaders from Mars‘, ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’ and many more. Including the TV series that scared me and many of my colleagues, ‘Salem’s Lot’. He truly was A MASTER OF HORROR.

In an interview with StudentFilmmakers Magazine, cinematographer Daniel Pearl, ASC said that Toby had called him, ‘I’m Tobe Hooper, and we never really met… I’m doing this film here, and I want Texans to shoot it. I reckon you’re the best cinematographer in the state of Texas, so I want to offer you this movie [‘THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE‘], will you shoot this film for me?‘ It is the same approach that the Uruguayan producer Fede Álvarez made when choosing Latin American director and Texas born David Blue Garcia for ‘TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE‘.

Fede Álvarez has become one of the most influential producer, writer and director in the industry. In 2009, Fede exploded onto the scene with a short film called ‘Ataque de Pánico!‘. Which quickly landed him with a deal with Ghost House Pictures, a production company run by Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi. Fede’s first feature became the remake of Evil Dead (2013). He followed with the hit ‘Don’t Breathe‘ which lead him to a sequel, ‘Don’t Breathe 2‘. Fede wrote and produced ‘Don’t Breathe 2’. The film became the first project of Fede Álvarez and Good Universe production company Bad Hombre. Also in the Bad Hombre catalogs is the new ‘TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE‘.

We at Latin Horror had chance to sit down with producer Fede Álvarez, director David Blue Garcia, and cinamatographer Ricardo Diaz. With Fede we chatted about watching horror movies growing up, hiring Latinos to make ‘TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE‘ and how the film is connected to RAMBO! Check out the Fede interview as well as David and Ricardo’s below.