[ScoJo]

This year is taking a serious bite out of horror, motherfucker.

Rest in peace Mr Hooper.

These are the films of his films which I truly love, and re-watch endlessly:

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Eaten Alive (1976)
Salem's Lot (1979)
The Funhouse (1981)
Poltergeist (1982)
Lifeforce (1985)
Invaders from Mars (1986)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

That's a pretty damn good 12 year run, with a pair of stone cold masterpiece book-ends.

[deafmetal]

Scott, well said, and that list up there speaks for itself. It has been a brutal run of bad news lately for horror directors.

[Mateo Sanboval]

Can't add much to this thread, but I'll say that for Poltergeist alone Mr Hooper has earned my eternal gratitude. A film that I watched atbthe beginning and will remember until the end.

[Hatter313]

I was going to create this yesterday, but time got away from me. I knew one of us would get to it :)

His movies have always been a part of my life, even before I ever knew who he was. Some highlights:

Invaders From Mars was early nightmare fuel for me, as it was with a lot of kids.

I remember watching Salem's Lot with my mother when i was a kid, it was on Sci Fi one afternoon. I don't know if i even knew who Stephen King was yet but this was at the very least one of my earliest introductions into his world. and still ranks among my favorite King adaptations.

I came late to TCM and TCM 2, but both are masterpieces of different kinds.

And finally, even though the water is a bit muddy as far as creative input and direction between him and Spielberg, Poltergeist is a movie that I will always associate with my family, sitting around and watching it when i was a kid and beyond, i've watched it countless times, and to me the mixing of styles between these two directors is what makes it such a perfect film. its a family horror film made by real horror people.

Dog will Hunt!

[deafmetal]

@Hatter - Great stories!

I'll share a personal story about the one that touched me the most... Poltergeist. It was the only Tobe Hooper film I actually saw at a young age back in the 80's. This flick was legendary even back then, and I was only six years old when it was released in theaters. There was no chance of my parents letting me watch the film, but I started hearing about it from grade school friends. One of these friends was over for dinner with his parents one night, and there was a huge midwest thunderstorm raging outside with nearly-continuous thunder and lightning. Toward the end of evening, my friend and I were up in my bedroom watching the storm through an open window, and he regaled me with horrifying descriptions of the film. It is probably the best "ghost story" moment I had in my entire childhood, and it made me absolutely terrified of the film without even seeing it. "Murderous clown hiding under the bed", horrible. "Evil tree branches break through your window", awful, and there was a large tree right outside my window, and worst of all "a guy tears off his own face in a mirror"... ho-ly shit. I don't think I slept that night.

Fast forward a year or two, I was seven or eight years old, and the stars aligned... which means it was on broadcast TV and my parents were not home. That was a viewing I will never forget.

[ScoJo]

Guys.....great memories, thanks for sharing.

Definitely a talent who wasn't able to shine in the last few decades, for whatever reasons, but the legacy is unbelievable really. I mean, all kidding aside - how many of us rank TCM as quite possibly THE most terrifying, brutal, unforgettable movie of all time? I've had long conversations with friends over the years trying to pin down just what the fuck it is about that movie which makes it so upsettingly visceral and shattering, yet still you want to revisit it for the thrills n chills. I genuinely believe it defies our attempts at dissection, and is just 100-fucking-percent it's own beast.

My own memory: never did meet TH, but was very fortunate to be managing an art house cinema back in the mid-to-late 90s when both Gunnar and David Hess came and presented TCM and LHOTL, with a post film Q+A. This was a mindblowing double bill, just as a screening, but to then have both stars give incredibly articulate, intelligent perspectives on their respective films and how they fit within the socio-political landscape of the USA in the late-60s/early 70s...incredible stuff.

(At a tangent slightly, I believe I already talked on an old episode of the DFC about how Hess then tried to chat up one of our shell-shocked young cinema ushers - who may have been a scoosh under-age, allegedly - which caused great mirth amongst our staff. I mean, "dude, she just watched you rampaging as Krug ferrchrissakes!")

[deafmetal]

how many of us rank TCM as quite possibly THE most terrifying, brutal, unforgettable movie of all time?

Scott, absolutely, especially with all three of those adjectives together. That double-screening sounds quite intense. What an experience that must have been. Also, that Hess story is a gem.

[static14]

Aside from TCM being a legit masterpeice of a movie I have an unhealthy love for both invaders From Mars and Lifeforce. I have watched those two countless times since i was a kid.

[Mateo Sanboval]

Salems Lot, Poltergeist, and Lifeforce are easily my favorite Hooper pieces and I revisit them often. They are all such different films. Check out that list in Scott's first post. That breadth of style this man brought to "niche" and "genre" pictures. Look around; that's not easy to do.

[Hatter313]

I was talking before with some friends, hooper did not get the credit he deserved. Of all the big horror directors of his era, only carpenter was that consistently good, and no one had such a seemingly wide range of stuff. To your point @mateo, such differing styles is unparalleled. Even the difference between TCM and TCM 2 is stunning when you think of them as the same director.

One of the friends I was talking to is a big admirer of the toolbox murders remake he did a few years back, which I will now have to check out.