A closer look

Shooting a masterpiece of folk horror on a shoestring budget means you can't afford fake skeletons. Director Tobe Hooper furnished the infamous Sawyer family house with genuine animal carcasses and bone furniture acquired from a local slaughterhouse. Combined with the brutal 115-degree Texas summer heat and unwashed costumes, the suffocating stench became so authentically putrid that actors regularly ran outside to vomit between takes.