BY MARK CERULLI
Deep in the heart of Texas
there’s a nondescript gas station on the side of a sleepy road… You can’t buy gas there. They don’t sell lottery tickets, and the
closest neighbors are a herd of cows. But this gas station has a unique place in horror film history as a key
setting of director Tobe Hooper’s iconic 1974 film, The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre.
The station was in serious
disrepair when it caught the eye of Texas Chainsaw Massacre mega-fan Roy Rose who “fell in love with the movie
since I was ten years old.†Why? “It’s the most realistic horror movie there
is, nothing else is even close,†Roy explains. He then set about living his dream - approaching the station’s original
owner to buy it. A few years (and many
phone calls later) his persistence paid off – the station was his. “I told my
wife and my kids, ‘Let’s go! We’re moving to Texas…’†Roy chuckles.
Tall and bearded, the Ohio
businessman shrugs off the two years of hard work it took to bring the station
back from its sorry state. He stocked it with a vast array of horror masks and
figures, plus rows of licensed Chainsaw-centric t-shirts you can’t find
anywhere else. A stickler for details,
he tracked down the same outdoor chairs and even the same type of front door
seen in the movie, finding them on Craigslist, then shipping them to Texas for
a princely sum.
But Roy’s vision included
much more than just creating an out-of-the-way horror boutique. First, he added… barbeque from a huge, custom-made
smoker. “Oh, we got the best barbeque,â€
Roy says confidently. This Cinema Retro scribe can truthfully say that the gas station’s
smoked brisket was tender and juicy and their sausage was delicious – not too
spicy, with a satisfying snap. Roy’s Gas Station Chili also hit the spot,
served with plenty of white bread to sop it up with.
Roy also turned the gas station
into a tourist destination by building cozy one-room cabins that can be rented
for one night or longer. Once a year he
screens his favorite film at the compound (“I always pay the licensing fee,†he
points out) and holds a horror convention where surviving cast members sign
autographs and mingle with fans. “Fans come to the gas station, meet the stars
and we also have live music.â€
On the day of my visit, original
TCM actor Allen Danziger (Jerry, the
van’s driver) arrived to discuss his merchandising plans (get ready for “Chainsaw
Jerry’s Beef Jerkyâ€). After chowing down
on a smoked sausage sandwich, the former Bronx native was ready to talk about
making the historic film. “For me it was a lark, I wasn’t an actor,†Allen
explained. He just happened to have worked on director Tobe Hooper’s first
film, Eggshells (“It was a psychedelic, hippy dippy kind of thingâ€) so
he was a shoo-in for a part in Chainsaw.
Fortunately for Allen, he didn’t
have to spend much time inside the actual Chainsaw house. “People were puking
and getting sick after a take, it was awful,†he recalled. Remember all those dead animals on the walls
and dangling from the ceilings? They
weren’t rubber props, they were REAL dead animals – roadkill! “Occasionally
I would get a whiff of Gunnar (Hansen) and that was enough.†(Hansen was the
6’4†Icelandic-born actor who played the murderous Leatherface in the film.) “Gunnar
and I became real good friends,†Allen said, adding, “He was very bright with a
good sense of humor…†Sadly, Hansen
passed away in 2015 at age 68.
After filming ended, Allen visited
the director in the editing room. “Tobe showed me some scenes and asked what he
could do to improve them. I jokingly said ‘Have the seats facing away from the
screen.’†That did NOT go over well with the prickly filmmaker. “I didn’t see
any more rushes.†But once the film was
edited and retitled – from Headcheese to the more familiar The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, Allen was sold on it.
When asked what he wanted
fans to remember about the game-changing movie, Allen said, “That a group of
young people gave their all…†He did
mention that promised shares in the film’s profits never materialized - but
such is showbiz. (TCM grossed over
$30 million on a $140K budget.)
After his two Tobe Hooper
roles, Allen landed a small part in Willie Nelson’s Honeysuckle Rose and
then his acting career hit the skids. “I
had a rapid rise and a meteoric fall,†Allen laughs, explaining that he went
into social work and had his own entertainment company. Now 77, Danziger
credits the film’s intense realism to its long-lasting success. “None of us
were known but there was the believability that this all could happen. I mean,
it’s Texas.â€
Look for Roy’s Cult Classic
Convention in Bastrop, Texas in February, 2021, headlining Bill Moseley (Chop
Top in TCM 2), Caroline Williams (TCM 2), Camille Keaton (I Spit on
Your Grave), Joe Don Baker (Walking Tall) and others TBD. Check Roy’s creepy empire by clicking here.
HOW TO GET THERE
The
Gas Station is located in Bastrop, Texas, about 30 minutes outside Austin. Car Rental
or Uber/Lyft are your best options in terms of getting there. If you opt
for a ride sharing service, offer to buy the driver a plate of BBQ while you
shop for your Chainsaw treasures as it might be quite a wait to get a ride back
into town!