The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Is Getting a Hand-Drawn Animated Reimagining

Leatherface is getting a completely unexpected new look. Our friends at Bloody Disgusting report that Dark Sky Films and Fathom Events have announced that audiences attending this year’s Texas Chain Saw Day theatrical screenings will get the first glimpse at a brand-new version of Tobe Hooper’s legendary 1974 horror classic, one that transforms the film into a hand-drawn animated experience created entirely by artists.

The original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre returns to theatres nationwide for a one-night-only event on August 18 – the perfect date, since the events of the film take place on August 18, 1973. Alongside the 4K-restored classic, screenings will include an exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette showcasing the creation of the animated reimagining, which has been created without artificial intelligence, relying on the painstaking process of rotoscoping, an animation technique where artists trace live-action footage frame by frame to create a new visual interpretation.

Animation Director and Art Director Paul Beck, whose previous work includes A Scanner Darkly and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, is leading the project.

According to the announcement, every frame of the reimagined Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been illustrated by hand, with artists preserving the performances, atmosphere, and intensity of Hooper’s original film while presenting it through an entirely new artistic style.

“The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a masterpiece that changed cinema forever,” Beck said. “Our goal is to honor its legacy by reimagining it through the timeless art of hand-drawn rotoscoping, giving audiences a completely new way to experience a film they thought they already knew.”

The full animated version is expected to arrive sometime in 2027, but horror fans will get their first look exclusively in theaters during the August 18 Texas Chain Saw Day event.

Fifty-three years ago, director Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew spent a blisteringly hot Texas summer working to bring us one of the greatest horror films ever made, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Directed by Hooper from a script he wrote with Kim Henkel, the film has the following synopsis:

When Sally hears that her grandfather’s grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin, set out with their friends to investigate. After a detour to their family’s old farmhouse, they discover a group of crazed, murderous outcasts living next door. As the group is attacked one by one by the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, who wears a mask of human skin, the survivors must do everything they can to escape.

The horror classic stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Allen Danziger, William Vail, Teri McMinn, Gunnar Hansen, Edwin Neal, and Jim Siedow.

Are you interested in seeing this hand-drawn, animated version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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