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In celebration of the film's 40th anniversary, the restored version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be getting a release in theaters this summer, with a brand new 4K transfer (about four times the size of today's more commonly used 2K resolution).
According to the release, this is the only transfer of the 1973 horror classic to go back to the original 16mm A/B rolls -- the actual film that rolled through the cameras! Commissioned by MPI/Dark Sky Films, the project was handled at NOLO Digital Film in Chicago and took five months of 40-hour workweeks to complete the color grading and restoration.
Said NOLO engineer Boris Seagraves, "This film probably needed the most restoration of any project we've done... There were hundreds, if not thousands, of instances where you'd find a splice mark cooked into the middle of a frame. Some frames would have close to two hundred dirt events on them. We also spent a lot of time stabilizing the image. When doing a digital scan of a conformed 16mm print with a splice at every cut, it can be tough to achieve the high standards we all aspire to in the era of digital cinema. What might have passed as acceptable in the 70's looks jarring now. So we worked hard to smooth out the tremors that almost inevitably occur when scanning this type of film element."
Meanwhile, Texas Chainsaw's director Tobe Hooper, who also helped score the film and did the sound design, was deeply involved with the audio restoration. "I haven't seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on the big screen for many, many years," he said. "This 40th anniversary restoration is absolutely the best the film has ever looked."
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's world premiere will take place at SXSW on Monday, March 10 at 9:30pm at the Topfer Theatre. Details on the wide summer release will be announced in the coming months.
According to the release, this is the only transfer of the 1973 horror classic to go back to the original 16mm A/B rolls -- the actual film that rolled through the cameras! Commissioned by MPI/Dark Sky Films, the project was handled at NOLO Digital Film in Chicago and took five months of 40-hour workweeks to complete the color grading and restoration.
Said NOLO engineer Boris Seagraves, "This film probably needed the most restoration of any project we've done... There were hundreds, if not thousands, of instances where you'd find a splice mark cooked into the middle of a frame. Some frames would have close to two hundred dirt events on them. We also spent a lot of time stabilizing the image. When doing a digital scan of a conformed 16mm print with a splice at every cut, it can be tough to achieve the high standards we all aspire to in the era of digital cinema. What might have passed as acceptable in the 70's looks jarring now. So we worked hard to smooth out the tremors that almost inevitably occur when scanning this type of film element."
Meanwhile, Texas Chainsaw's director Tobe Hooper, who also helped score the film and did the sound design, was deeply involved with the audio restoration. "I haven't seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on the big screen for many, many years," he said. "This 40th anniversary restoration is absolutely the best the film has ever looked."
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's world premiere will take place at SXSW on Monday, March 10 at 9:30pm at the Topfer Theatre. Details on the wide summer release will be announced in the coming months.
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