On his 73rd birthday, we look at 7 underrated Tobe Hooper horror movies that need more love
Today is January 25th, 2017 and while the world we live in gets weirder and weirder, we didn’t want the birthday of groundbreaking director and horror movie icon Tobe Hooper to go unnoticed. Hooper celebrates his 73rd year above ground and he’s spent more than half of that time cobbling together strange cinema and amassing a global following of fans and colleagues alike.
Ask even a casual fright film fan what the greatest horror movie of all time is and many of them will rightly cite Hooper’s 1973 soul-shredder The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. That film, along with a handful of other genre films of the era like Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist and The Last House on the Left, changed the way we watch horror and altered our expectations of just how raw and dark cinema could go. But while TCM is unarguably Hooper’s crowning cultural contribution, he’s made so many amazing movies that have become classics; films like 1979’s blood-curdling Stephen King miniseries Salem’s Lot, 1982’s Steven Spielberg-produced ghost story Poltergeist, and even well-respected slashers like 2004’s Toolbox Murders.
RELATED: Tobe Hooper Remembers Making Lifeforce
Still, there are a handful of movies that Hooper has made that are rarely discussed and when they are, they are not remembered fondly. We would argue however that Hooper, with his dry Texas wit and appreciation of larger-than-life characters and situations are alive and well in all of his work. We also think that even those so called “bad” or forgotten movies have value and some are just as masterful as his best horror work.
So here, in honor of Hooper’s day of birth, we have pulled 7 of our favorite “Hidden Hooper” gems that need more respect or at least another look. Though he now toils in the peripheral of the genre, there’s no one quite like Tobe Hooper. An artisan who probably thinks he’s just a hack… because he’s humble like that. And that just makes us love him more.
Have a look at our little list and – say it with us – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOBE!
Tobe Hooper
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Eaten Alive (1976)
Though not nearly as important as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I like Eaten Alive much more. A lurid, leering, mean and ugly swamp shocker with a show-stopping Neville Brand performance and an early, hilariously skeezy turn by future-Freddy Robert Englund. Reported production problems behind the scenes only add to the disjointed, hallucinatory feel of the film, which also sports a glut of cult movie icons in the cast (William Finlay, Carolyn Jones et al). Eaten Alive makes TCM look like Downton Abbey.
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Lifeforce (1985)
Thankfully, Hooper's mega-budgeted Cannon Pictures sci-fi/horror masterwork is considerably more appreciated today but upon release, no one knew what to make of it. An adaptation of Colin Wilson's The Space Vampires, Lifeforce features Mathilda May as nude, humanoid alien vampire who is brought to earth and drains all she encounters, turning them into zombies. Big effects, killer music and great performances from a primarily British cast bump up against Hooper's madcap, likely substance-enhanced sensibility. An epic adult fantasy film that just looks better as it ages.
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Invaders From Mars (1986)
Part of Hooper's 3 picture deal with Cannon (that also included The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Part 2 and Lifeforce), Invaders From Mars is a joy of a film that critics hated upon release. The remake of the classic American sci-fi bauble, if Hooper's film has any flaw it's that it becomes a freak show in the last reel, with a mess of army folk and monsters and slime. But if you're a die-hard Hooper junkie, you know that losing control, or at least surrendering to lunacy, is what makes his movies so special. Karen Black, Louise Fletcher and James Karen all shine in this wild, charming and beautifully made dark fantasy adventure.
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Tobe Hooper's Night Terrors (1993)
Nobody likes this late-out-of-the-gate Golan/Globus production, a bid to marry Hooper's brand of horror to the softcore adult films that flew off videostore shelves in the '90s. Does it work? On its own terms yes. Is it good? Probably not, but who cares! Its dirty, lurid and never boring and it features Robert Englund in a weird framing device as the Marquis De Sade! The film's plot sees a pretty girl wandering around Egypt while her archeologist dad dabbles with a weird religious sect. In between these wanderings, there is much sexual sadism, lesbian sex and female nudity and a disorienting tone that makes the movie feel more like a Jess Franco film than a Tobe Hooper movie. Maybe this is Tobe Hooper at his lowest and maybe that's why I find it so fascinating and deem it such an important film in his cannon.
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The Mangler (1995)
Hooper's wild eye hooks up with legendary exploitation producer/writer Harry Alan Towers and the pen of Stephen King for this insane adaptation of King's short story. Robert Englund goes entertainingly over the edge as the malevolent owner of a laundrymat whose "mangler" press is actually a flesh-eating demon. Sure, it's ludicrous but would you want it any other way? A fevered blast from start to end that spawned a pair of mundane sequels. Hooper's sense of humor and loose cannon sensibility is alive and well in this grotty gem.
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Crocodile (2000)
Another Hooper opus that many cite as his worst, Crocodile's only real drawbacks are a pedestrian cast and a CGI reptile monster that looked terrible in 2000 and now looks far worse. But with Crocodile, Hooper feels fully engaged. What starts as a typical young people on vacation romp turns weird once the beast shows up. Not quite as mental as Eaten Alive, of course, there ares still so many traces of Hooper's eccentricities here. But you feel like the dozen producers and other folks behind the scenes kept trying to water down that wild mind of his. But Crocodile is most certainly worth another look!
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Mortuary (2002)
This one was much-anticipated for Hooper fans and universally derided upon its eventual release. But there's so much to like here, especially the titular location which is beautifully designed and often rather nightmarish, with the fluids of decades of dead things left to congeal and fester all over the joint. Unfortunately, Hooper plays some of the shocks for laughs, undermining the creepy story of a monstrous thing in the neaby well and a zombie fungus and devaluing a good Denise (Pet Semetary) performance. Still, not nearly as bad as some say and there's plenty of Hooper's sly wit and love of grand guignol here.
