Horror fans got their first real look this week at one of the more unusual reimaginings in the genre’s history: a fully hand-drawn, rotoscoped animated version of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 Dark Sky Films and Exurbia Films have unveiled the first still from the project, along with the announcement that an exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette will be shown in theaters next Tuesday. footage Dark Horizons reports comes from a team tracing the original film frame by frame.
The project is led by Animation Director and Art Director Paul Beck, an Austin-based multimedia artist whose credits include Richard Linklater’s rotoscoped features “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly,” along with “Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood.” Lead Animator Max Peake, Lead Animator and Special FX artist Nate Bayless, and Background Artist Jeremy Martinez round out the core creative team, a lineup Dread Central detailed in its own coverage of the first-look reveal.
The production has been notably deliberate about one point: no artificial intelligence is involved anywhere in the process. Every frame is being hand-illustrated by artists tracing the original 1974 footage, a distinction Bloody Disgusting emphasized as central to how the studios are marketing the project. Beck framed the approach as a matter of honoring the source material rather than reinventing it. “The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a masterpiece that changed cinema forever,” he said in comments carried by ComicBook.com.
Rotoscoping itself dates back more than a century, invented by animator Max Fleischer in 1915 and used in early Disney features like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” later resurfacing in films like Ralph Bakshi’s “The Lord of the Rings,” “Heavy Metal” and “Fire and Ice,” according to a technique breakdown from UPI. Its more recent association with Linklater’s work gives Beck’s involvement here a direct creative lineage, rather than a studio simply chasing a visual gimmick.
Fans hoping for more than a single still will get their chance August 18, when the original “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” returns to theaters nationwide in a new 4K restoration for the annual “Texas Chain Saw Day,” now officially recognized as a holiday by the National Day Archives. Special screenings in Los Angeles and Austin will include appearances from the original film’s cinematographer, Daniel Pearl, and cast members Teri McMinn and Allen Danziger, ScreenCrush notes. Attendees nationwide will also get an exclusive preview of newly completed rotoscoped footage, offering the clearest look yet at the animated version while it remains in production.
The animated feature is targeting a 2027 release, joining a live-action film and television series both separately in development as the “Chain Saw” franchise approaches its 53rd anniversary, according to details compiled by HorrorFuel.com and Nerdbot in their coverage of the announcement.
