| Ben Jarman |
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre plays in glorious 35mm at the Trylon Cinema on Friday, October 3 to Sunday, October 5. For tickets, showtimes, and other series information, visit trylon.org.
Last week I learned about the fate of the original house from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It appears the house was cut into several pieces in the 90s and transported to a town 60 miles away. The house is now a restaurant in Kingsland, TX. This revelation is hard to stomach, considering the importance of the house in cinema history.
Do you remember following Pam into the house? The camera is low and behind her back on a bright summer day, blue skies accompanied by fluffy white clouds. The closer she walks to the house, the more it engulfs the screen, leaving an uneasy feeling despite how innocent it looks. There is only a low hum for music paired with the sound of footsteps in the grass, a generator, and a happy bird or two singing. We know what is waiting for her there, but we don’t know when it will strike.
Other cinematic horror houses come to mind, but most look scary from the outset. This goes for the famous houses in Psycho, The Amityville Horror, and The Evil Dead. Looking at the clean white siding flanked by green trees builds pressure because everyone knows Pam’s boyfriend is being ravaged inside. Director Tobe Hooper is championed for this tactic with Bright Lights Film Journal explaining, “Because we don’t see much, we’re forced to wonder—and forced to question our own fascination with what we see and don’t see.” The Texas Chainsaw Massacre swells with horror that you don’t always see, which is arguably worse than explicitly seeing the terror.
Which brings up an obsession: looking for houses that remind me of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. That’s sick, so why do it? It can’t be helped; ever since I first saw the film as a child, I have been intrigued by similar houses I see when on road trips. The day is beautiful and I am in the middle of the countryside and there is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. What horrible secrets hide inside? Good thing I am not going in and I have a working car.
The true story of Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, the basis for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, has added to my obsession with this house. Gein notoriously murdered several people and turned their bodies into furniture and clothing. Burned into my brain, solo road trips from Milwaukee to Minneapolis produced haunting daydreams when passing farmhouses. Does that house have a room with bones and feathers covering the floor? How about a kitchen with meat hooks? What about a barely living patriarch in a wheelchair at the top of the steps?
What follows are some examples of homes for sale in Wisconsin that look like the house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I can see myself driving by, wondering if I am safe. As a disclaimer and to protect the identity of the owners, direct links to the real properties will not be available. Farms have been exploited due to the visceral nature of the film, and no homeowner should be judged because of the way their house looks. If you are curious, though, you can purchase these houses to see what is going on behind the front door.
Here is a home going for $375,000. On the outside, the house looks unassuming. There is white siding, a porch, and a large front window that pops outward from the foundation, making it almost a match for the house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It also appears as though the house is isolated, surrounded by farm fields. Unfortunately, the inside is all redone, making it hard for me to place furniture made of bones. On the other hand, this home is just a short drive south of Plainfield, WI. Plainfield is the town in which Ed Gein committed his atrocities.
This room is in a house for the reasonable price of $185,000. The house is two stories tall, secluded in the countryside, and covered in that innocent white siding, but the architecture is not a match for the house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It does have an eerie appeal because of the dirt driveway and supporting facilities such as the outhouse and barns. In particular, the extra buildings on the property play with my imagination; nothing is going on in the house, but what about the other places? The thing I like the most about the house is this room on the second floor that seems unchanged since it was built. The lime-green paint is chipping, there is a linoleum floor with a strange pattern on it, and the ceiling has a curious angle. To top it off, the photograph of this room has a slightly open door with only darkness to follow.
I think this next house is really beautiful. Besides having a similar architectural style to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre house, it is more of a Victorian-style house with a turret and wrap-around porch. The interior is also lovely, with finished wood floors and a fireplace. The thing that really catches my eye here is the entryway, a perfect match with the entryway of the house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There is a long hallway to a giant door, bordered by a winding staircase to the right. This is the door through which we first see Leatherface startlingly capture his first victim. The audience follows Kirk onto the intimidating property, walking over the porch and into the entryway, only to reach the end when Leatherface appears from around the corner. Everyone knows something bad is going to happen just by that buildup, but nobody knows when.
This last house is only $40,000, and the drywall is torn down, there are holes in the walls, paint is peeling, and windows are boarded up. I can imagine Leatherface inside, but what really bothers me is the fact that I don’t know what happened that led to the state of this house. Who are the previous owners? The description of the home notes a rental housing shortage in the town and describes the house as a “perfect opportunity to expand your portfolio.” I don’t claim to know real estate at all, but the true horror here is not what lurks behind the shadows, but what is happening with housing injustice.
Did any of these houses interest you? If not, surely the house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is at least a curiosity. It is one of those “houses that are a character too,” carrying many of the unseen scare tactics in the film. Remember the room covered in bones, the dining room, and the kitchen. Think about the long hall in the entryway. I didn’t even cover the surrounding lot with the suspicious generator humming away. When you see other houses like this one, what is going on inside? Don’t be afraid, because maybe a friend lives there. Or maybe someday, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house will be on sale again, and someone from Minnesota can chop it into several pieces and bring it to the Twin Cities.
Edited by Finn Odum