Iconic Horror Movie Made Japanese People Afraid To Go To Texas, According To Director

With the current state of the US, most people around the world are scared to visit, but it was one iconic horror movie that made the Japanese afraid to visit Texas in particular.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a hit across the world. It featured in cinemas across the globe, horrifying people with its violence and gore. It was responsible for a change in the entire genre.

Not A Planned Viewing: For Takashi Miike, the famed film director, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was certainly not what he was expecting. Initially, he revealed in the Chain Reactions documentary, that he planned to see City Lights by Charlie Chaplin. However, it was sold out, so he instead went to another movie.

• That film happened to be one of the most gory and horrifying movies of the time. “I went into it by chance, with a good disposition since I’d originally planned on watching City Lights. Then, the movie started. It was an old theater. Shochikuza in Osaka. There were pillars in the theater. It was perfect for horror,” he said.

The movie was a hit across Japan, but it certainly didn’t do much for the name of Texas in the eyes of the Japanese. They believed the state was a dangerous and horrifying one.

• “I had never experienced a film like that. In Japan, at the time, because of that film, everyone thought Texas was a dangerous place. How can I put it? A desolate landscape.”

Everything Is Scarier in Texas

Although the Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn’t exactly a fair representation of the state, it’s still scary for the Japanese. Japan has seen only 0.2 homicides per 10,000 people in their country. Whereas Texas sits 35 times higher at 7.

However, despite people killing each other all over the place in Texas, the Japanese shouldn’t have worried too much about Leatherface making an appearance. Some weird stuff goes on there, but I have yet to hear about a chainsaw-wielding lunatic.

It’s one of the most famous horror films of a generation, but it doesn’t do many favors for the state of Texas. It gave the Japanese the heebie jeebies for years.