Marilyn Burns: Final Girl
Oct. 27th, 2025 01:41 pmPublic
And for anyone who's seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as I now have, I want to be clear: my subject line is accurate. I don't mean her character, Sally Hardesty, though she was indeed a proto-Final Girl. I mean the actress herself, Marilyn Burns.
In my recent post, I detailed three particularly nasty examples of her mistreatment while making the film, but these were far from the only ones. Among other things she was semi-accidentally hit on the head with a sledgehammer whose steel shaft hadn't been made safe, was hurt doing a six/seven-foot jump involving sugar glass that had hardened in the humid conditions (her limp near the end is genuine), smashed up both knees to be bleeding pretty badly after 17 takes of the gas station sequence (Tobe Hooper: "It was terrible, but it played very well"), was chased through dark woods with a live chainsaw (chain off, but rubber belt on), and – for just a second – was in a room with a Gunnar Hansen who literally wanted to kill her because the set conditions had driven him deluded and for that moment he thought he was Leatherface.
So, Final Girl? Let's have a look at the scorecard:
1) Moral superiority. Her safety was treated as rather a low priority by Tobe Hooper and his obsession with bloody "raw authenticity", leading to injury after injury. She was upset by neither him nor anyone else on set praising her performances. Yet in later years, while she was honest about what she'd faced, she never sounded vindictive or twisted, and she was willing to remain on good terms with Hooper, Hansen (except for a while after his knife deception was revealed) and the others. She didn't treat anyone else the way Hooper treated her. Box ticked.
2) Resourcefulness. Despite not being an experienced actress, she was able to produce a performance that is still talked about while frequently acting under extreme duress – exhaustion and overheating at best, active abuse and assault at worst. She did most of her own stunts, some of which were significantly more dangerous than those of many other actresses of the era and genre – sometimes even more reminiscent of the silent era. Box ticked.
3) Resilience. Are you kidding me? Let me remind you that she somehow made it through a shoot where, in the space of five weeks, she had been beaten to the point of unconsciousness, dripped with her own blood, assaulted with a knife, run from working chainsaws and done about 900 takes of every angle regardless of fatigue because of Tobe sodding Hooper's cavalier attitude to her safety and obsessive artistic perfectionism. Box ticked.
4) Survival. On this set, that didn't just mean getting through a tedious, tiring shoot. It literally meant what it says: survival. She could have died in several ways out there: if Hansen's delusion had lasted a little longer, if the steel-cored "broom" had caught her an unlucky blow on the temple, if the sledgehammer had been wielded a bit too hard, if she'd succumbed to the extreme heat of the dinner scene, if a chainsaw accident in the dark had severed an artery... Box ticked.
5) Overcoming her monster. The "monster" here is probably a combination of things. Tobe Hooper (yes, again), the generally appallingly unsafe set, and the brutal Texas heat. In post-production, Hooper deliberately drove her to emotional collapse for the eye close-up scene, despite being under nothing like the pressure he had been on set. The set involved genius stunts like one actor putting gunpowder on his hand and lighting a match. All this should have broken her. It didn't. Box ticked.
6) Bearing witness. Burns didn't retreat into a quiet life once TCM had finished filming. She chose to lean into her experience and engage with fans and journalists, guest at conventions, do Q&A sessions and interviews, and more besides. She was straightforward about how hard her experience had been, but she almost never crossed into bitterness or anger. Once she knew the truth about Hansen's lie, she was able to talk about it fully. Box ticked.
So there we are. A perfect full house. The whole point of the Final Girl is that she's supposed to be fictional, something impossible to recreate in real life. Yet Burns did it – and she did it without the predestined protection of the script that her fictional counterparts have. She faced moments when it was genuinely uncertain whether she would leave that movie set alive. Her treatment was unconscionable, and she should never have had to earn this title. But since she did:
And for anyone who's seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as I now have, I want to be clear: my subject line is accurate. I don't mean her character, Sally Hardesty, though she was indeed a proto-Final Girl. I mean the actress herself, Marilyn Burns.
In my recent post, I detailed three particularly nasty examples of her mistreatment while making the film, but these were far from the only ones. Among other things she was semi-accidentally hit on the head with a sledgehammer whose steel shaft hadn't been made safe, was hurt doing a six/seven-foot jump involving sugar glass that had hardened in the humid conditions (her limp near the end is genuine), smashed up both knees to be bleeding pretty badly after 17 takes of the gas station sequence (Tobe Hooper: "It was terrible, but it played very well"), was chased through dark woods with a live chainsaw (chain off, but rubber belt on), and – for just a second – was in a room with a Gunnar Hansen who literally wanted to kill her because the set conditions had driven him deluded and for that moment he thought he was Leatherface.
So, Final Girl? Let's have a look at the scorecard:
1) Moral superiority. Her safety was treated as rather a low priority by Tobe Hooper and his obsession with bloody "raw authenticity", leading to injury after injury. She was upset by neither him nor anyone else on set praising her performances. Yet in later years, while she was honest about what she'd faced, she never sounded vindictive or twisted, and she was willing to remain on good terms with Hooper, Hansen (except for a while after his knife deception was revealed) and the others. She didn't treat anyone else the way Hooper treated her. Box ticked.
2) Resourcefulness. Despite not being an experienced actress, she was able to produce a performance that is still talked about while frequently acting under extreme duress – exhaustion and overheating at best, active abuse and assault at worst. She did most of her own stunts, some of which were significantly more dangerous than those of many other actresses of the era and genre – sometimes even more reminiscent of the silent era. Box ticked.
3) Resilience. Are you kidding me? Let me remind you that she somehow made it through a shoot where, in the space of five weeks, she had been beaten to the point of unconsciousness, dripped with her own blood, assaulted with a knife, run from working chainsaws and done about 900 takes of every angle regardless of fatigue because of Tobe sodding Hooper's cavalier attitude to her safety and obsessive artistic perfectionism. Box ticked.
4) Survival. On this set, that didn't just mean getting through a tedious, tiring shoot. It literally meant what it says: survival. She could have died in several ways out there: if Hansen's delusion had lasted a little longer, if the steel-cored "broom" had caught her an unlucky blow on the temple, if the sledgehammer had been wielded a bit too hard, if she'd succumbed to the extreme heat of the dinner scene, if a chainsaw accident in the dark had severed an artery... Box ticked.
5) Overcoming her monster. The "monster" here is probably a combination of things. Tobe Hooper (yes, again), the generally appallingly unsafe set, and the brutal Texas heat. In post-production, Hooper deliberately drove her to emotional collapse for the eye close-up scene, despite being under nothing like the pressure he had been on set. The set involved genius stunts like one actor putting gunpowder on his hand and lighting a match. All this should have broken her. It didn't. Box ticked.
6) Bearing witness. Burns didn't retreat into a quiet life once TCM had finished filming. She chose to lean into her experience and engage with fans and journalists, guest at conventions, do Q&A sessions and interviews, and more besides. She was straightforward about how hard her experience had been, but she almost never crossed into bitterness or anger. Once she knew the truth about Hansen's lie, she was able to talk about it fully. Box ticked.
So there we are. A perfect full house. The whole point of the Final Girl is that she's supposed to be fictional, something impossible to recreate in real life. Yet Burns did it – and she did it without the predestined protection of the script that her fictional counterparts have. She faced moments when it was genuinely uncertain whether she would leave that movie set alive. Her treatment was unconscionable, and she should never have had to earn this title. But since she did:
Marilyn Burns. The real Final Girl.
Monday At The Movies.....
Oct. 27th, 2025 04:30 amThis Week's Movie Quote...
A. K.: On the evening of October 7, 1989 several hundred people got together for some evening exercise and marched for the right to go for walks without the Berlin Wall getting in their way.
Last Week's Movie Quote...
Elsie: [Marlene is crying hysterically] Is she sober?
Mr. Stringer: Yes she's sober! I've been with her all aftern... When... I... Uh... I saw her w... Yes, of course she's sober! Don't be stupid!
This comes from the 1990 version of the movie, "The Witches".
The Grand High Witch is played by Angelica Houston and Mr. Stringer is played by Rowan Atkinson, and the assistant to the Grand High Witch is played by Jane Horrocks who is famous, imho, for playing Bubbles on Absolutely Fabulous.
Those Who Knew or Guessed Correctly...
seaivy
christalin80
sidhe_uaine42
man_of_snows
meathiel
thoughtsbykat
sunshine_two
adminbear
gushgush
A. K.: On the evening of October 7, 1989 several hundred people got together for some evening exercise and marched for the right to go for walks without the Berlin Wall getting in their way.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3
Which Movie Does This Quote Come From?
View Answers
A Coffee In Berlin
0 (0.0%)
Die Welle
1 (33.3%)
Good Bye, Lenin!
1 (33.3%)
I Don't Have A Clue.....
1 (33.3%)
Last Week's Movie Quote...
Elsie: [Marlene is crying hysterically] Is she sober?
Mr. Stringer: Yes she's sober! I've been with her all aftern... When... I... Uh... I saw her w... Yes, of course she's sober! Don't be stupid!
This comes from the 1990 version of the movie, "The Witches".
The Grand High Witch is played by Angelica Houston and Mr. Stringer is played by Rowan Atkinson, and the assistant to the Grand High Witch is played by Jane Horrocks who is famous, imho, for playing Bubbles on Absolutely Fabulous.
Those Who Knew or Guessed Correctly...
Songs From The Movies.....
Oct. 27th, 2025 03:17 amThis week's song is "The Thrill is Gone" by the great B.B. King.
It was used in the 2007 movie, "The Ultimate Gift".
It was used in the 2007 movie, "The Ultimate Gift".
And now it's basically winter
Oct. 27th, 2025 12:17 amPublic

268/365: A gate and a field
Click for a larger, sharper image
The clocks have gone back, which means sunset is suddenly well before five and it's dark the whole way through after teatime. It is (briefly) a little bit lighter in the mornings, but I'm not really an early morning person when I can help it. The weather was mostly grey again, albeit with one or two breaks. Today's photo is me really scraping the barrel. Well, no, it's not that. I'm not sure I have a barrel. It's just a gate leading to a field by the interestingly named Snuff Mill Walk. I have absolutely no idea whether said road ever boasted an actual snuff mill; these days it's simply a mildly posh residential cul-de-sac.

268/365: A gate and a field
Click for a larger, sharper image
The clocks have gone back, which means sunset is suddenly well before five and it's dark the whole way through after teatime. It is (briefly) a little bit lighter in the mornings, but I'm not really an early morning person when I can help it. The weather was mostly grey again, albeit with one or two breaks. Today's photo is me really scraping the barrel. Well, no, it's not that. I'm not sure I have a barrel. It's just a gate leading to a field by the interestingly named Snuff Mill Walk. I have absolutely no idea whether said road ever boasted an actual snuff mill; these days it's simply a mildly posh residential cul-de-sac.
Comment Numbers.....
Oct. 25th, 2025 09:28 pmBetter Late Than Never.....
September
1.
mrdreamjeans 86
2.
seaivy 53
3.
christalin80 51
4.
thewayne DW 48
5.
kaishin108 34
6.
meathiel 33
7.
gwendraith 31
8. Livejournal 29
9.
deepseasiren 28
10.
hoobird 23
11.
howlin_wolf_66 20
12.
sidhe_uaine42 19
13.
chaquir 15
13.
pigshitpoet 15
15.
davesmusictank 11
16.
merlinwon 10
17.
man_of_snows 9
17.
adminbear 9
17.
matrixmann 9
20.
death_and_decay 7
21.
thoughtsbykat 6
21.
i 6
23.
fairy69version2 5
23.
halfmoon_mollie 5
23.
spikesgirl58 5
26.
thewayne LJ 4
26.
sunshine_two 4
26.
ravena_kade DW 4
26.
ron_broxted 4
30.
joseph_teller 3
30.
murakozi 3
30.
theirgrammy 3
30.
armiphlage 3
30.
ms_eclectic 3
30.
mouse13uk 3
30.
fervid_dryfire 3 BANNED
37.
cmcmck 2
37.
llumdelluna 2
37.
gushgush 2
37.
flipside43 2
37.
alton_lust 2
37.
melime2 2
43.
legalmoose DW 1
43.
legalmoose LJ 1
43.
sallymn 1
43.
ghost_light 1
43.
zippybeta 1
43.
herosubxp 1
43.
nursesparky 1
Likes 32
September
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Livejournal 29
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
13.
15.
16.
17.
17.
17.
20.
21.
21.
23.
23.
23.
26.
26.
26.
26.
30.
30.
30.
30.
30.
30.
30.
37.
37.
37.
37.
37.
37.
43.
43.
43.
43.
43.
43.
43.
Likes 32
(no subject)
Oct. 25th, 2025 06:10 pmI had a nice time with my friend earlier today at this thing they do every Saturday before Halloween in my neighborhood where they wear costumes and give out candy and stuff. It was raining so they didn't do the outdoor live music and some of the other stuff, I missed the free rub on tattoos, but we had fun.
Bug hotel
Oct. 26th, 2025 12:16 amPublic

267/365: Bug Hotel, Worcester
Click for a larger, sharper image
Another trip to Worcester today to have a nice afternoon with My Little Pony fandom friends, including one who hadn't managed to make it for several months and persevered despite being inconvenienced pretty badly by CrossCountry Trains. (This is not exactly rare.) We had a nice few hours, as we nearly always do, in spite of the lighting in the basement we use gradually failing through the weeks to the point where our side of the big table we sit at now has one working bulb! Today's photo is of the Bug Hotel near Worcester Library – appropriately known as the Hive – which is there to attract insects. Not much going on today that I could see, but then it is almost the end of October. Clocks going back tonight, which definitely heralds the end of the outdoor season for me if the rain hadn't already done it.

267/365: Bug Hotel, Worcester
Click for a larger, sharper image
Another trip to Worcester today to have a nice afternoon with My Little Pony fandom friends, including one who hadn't managed to make it for several months and persevered despite being inconvenienced pretty badly by CrossCountry Trains. (This is not exactly rare.) We had a nice few hours, as we nearly always do, in spite of the lighting in the basement we use gradually failing through the weeks to the point where our side of the big table we sit at now has one working bulb! Today's photo is of the Bug Hotel near Worcester Library – appropriately known as the Hive – which is there to attract insects. Not much going on today that I could see, but then it is almost the end of October. Clocks going back tonight, which definitely heralds the end of the outdoor season for me if the rain hadn't already done it.
Sad News.....
Oct. 25th, 2025 06:01 pmAww, we lost one of the great tv moms and a wonderful actress.....
June Lockhart, Lassie and Lost in Space Actress Who Was One of the Last Surviving Stars from Hollywood's Golden Age, Dies at 100
She was also known for movies like 'A Christmas Carol' and 'Meet Me in St. Louis'
By Victoria Edel and Nicholas Rice
https://people.com/june-lockhart-dead-lassie-and-lost-in-space-actress-dies-at-100-8621340?hid=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&did=20001102-20251025&utm_source=ppl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ppl-breaking-news_newsletter&utm_content=102525&lctg=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&lr_input=758ad690760192cf49795c3f52223721cac5324e3e862e41c5d4db73a4d43f32&campaign=15366907
June Lockhart, Lassie and Lost in Space Actress Who Was One of the Last Surviving Stars from Hollywood's Golden Age, Dies at 100
She was also known for movies like 'A Christmas Carol' and 'Meet Me in St. Louis'
By Victoria Edel and Nicholas Rice
https://people.com/june-lockhart-dead-lassie-and-lost-in-space-actress-dies-at-100-8621340?hid=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&did=20001102-20251025&utm_source=ppl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ppl-breaking-news_newsletter&utm_content=102525&lctg=7f1109a25d2362f31854399df255b82ba78f015e&lr_input=758ad690760192cf49795c3f52223721cac5324e3e862e41c5d4db73a4d43f32&campaign=15366907
Database maintenance
Oct. 25th, 2025 08:42 amGood morning, afternoon, and evening!
We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)
I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.
Ta for now!
In The News.....
Oct. 24th, 2025 08:06 pmI have been thinking about picking up some extra groceries and dropping them off at the local food bank in Rochester.
I went to their web site to check out there hours and see if they had suggestion lists.
So imagine my surprise when I read that they no long accept non perishable donations from the public.
They only accept "cash".
They say it costs too much for people to do food drives.
Excuse me, but if I am buying food and dropping it off at your door, what the bloody hell is that costing you? :o :o :o
I went to their web site to check out there hours and see if they had suggestion lists.
So imagine my surprise when I read that they no long accept non perishable donations from the public.
They only accept "cash".
They say it costs too much for people to do food drives.
Excuse me, but if I am buying food and dropping it off at your door, what the bloody hell is that costing you? :o :o :o
A much better day's weather
Oct. 24th, 2025 11:34 pmPublic

266/365: High Street, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Thank Frith it's stopped raining for a bit. It was actually not too bad at all today, albeit rather on the chilly side again. I didn't do anything even remotely interesting, so all you're getting is yet another photo from Bewdley. This is High Street from the eastern end, which is where the town centre is. Those fifteenth-century houses I showed you yesterday are out of shot, around the bend in the distance. The Talbot pub keeps trying to reinvent itself, but it never really works out. I've never so much as been inside myself!

266/365: High Street, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Thank Frith it's stopped raining for a bit. It was actually not too bad at all today, albeit rather on the chilly side again. I didn't do anything even remotely interesting, so all you're getting is yet another photo from Bewdley. This is High Street from the eastern end, which is where the town centre is. Those fifteenth-century houses I showed you yesterday are out of shot, around the bend in the distance. The Talbot pub keeps trying to reinvent itself, but it never really works out. I've never so much as been inside myself!
(no subject)
Oct. 24th, 2025 10:41 amWoken up at six in the morning by the goddamned fucking phone scammers. I needed sleep far more than usual because of everything that happened yesterday. I don't even pick up the phone that early. Interestingly enough they NEVER call my cell, only my home phone. My old home phone used to have a setting on it where the voice mail would take messages but the phone wouldn't ring which was perfect for when I wanted to sleep or was really busy or something. I was seriously considering having the home phone taken out and just using the cell but the way my apt bldg is wired the home computer goes through the phone lines. At least it's not like it was in the 90's where you couldn't use the phone and the computer at the same time.
I'm not going out today at all if I can avoid it, my leg is killing me. I didn't mention the facts that yesterday I had to stand up while waiting for a lot of buses because some of the benches at the bus stops had water all over them, or the fact that I had to walk up and down a lot of stairs while trying unsuccessfully to get ahold of the maintenance guys to fix my stove.
I'm not going out today at all if I can avoid it, my leg is killing me. I didn't mention the facts that yesterday I had to stand up while waiting for a lot of buses because some of the benches at the bus stops had water all over them, or the fact that I had to walk up and down a lot of stairs while trying unsuccessfully to get ahold of the maintenance guys to fix my stove.
The Texas Chain Saw Masssacre: Thoughts after watching
Oct. 24th, 2025 01:59 pmPublic
It turns out it was worse than I thought. Worse than I could ever have imagined. Regardless of the grace and humour Marilyn Burns herself showed in engaging with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, its personnel and its fans in later years, and regardless of the fact that she worked with director Tobe Hooper again on Eaten Alive, looked at objectively this particular movie's creation was an ethical catastrophe. Marilyn Burns suffered gross negligence, physical assault and psychological cruelty on that movie. And when you watch the film, the results of all three are right there on the screen. You are literally watching a young actress being abused on a film set. Let me give you the details – and these are nowhere near all the ethical failures that five-week shoot had, just three of the most severe. I'll first give a brief summary of each incident, following up with a longer paragraph including links and citations.
1. Gross negligence – Because a broomstick prop hadn't been checked for safety, Marilyn Burns was beaten so badly with it that she received multiple bruises and a black eye, and briefly fainted after cut was called.
2. Physical assault – When a tube containing prop blood failed, co-star Gunnar Hansen deliberately cut Burns' fingertip for real with a knife, then allowed another actor to suck the blooded finger without knowing the blood was real.
3. Psychological cruelty – In post-production, director Tobe Hooper called Burns to the editing suite under false pretences, then subjected her to hours of distress and discomfort to make her eyes look bad for a shot.
Now for the promised details of each incident:
1. Gross negligence
This one directly contributed to the worst injuries Burns received during production. As director Tobe Hooper notes in this 2015 interview with Flashback Files, for the scene where the Cook (Jim Siedow) attacks Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) with a broomstick, he'd asked for a safer prop "so as not to hurt Marilyn". So far, so good. But what he was given was a rubber stick with a steel rod inside – more dangerous than a real broom. As Siedow himself noted in 2000, the crew and even Burns herself, assuming the stick was a safe prop, encouraged him to hit her harder for realism, something he'd been reluctant to do. He "started having fun doing it and started really slugging her", they got through the takes... and then she "fainted dead away ... beaten up pretty badly". (She has a black eye at times in some of the following scenes. That black eye is not make-up.) So, an actress was beaten into – fortunately brief – unconsciousness because her director failed in his basic duties to a) know exactly what was going onto his set and b) keep his actors safe, and because a brave and committed actress was willing to endure pain beyond what she should ever have needed to.
2. Physical assault
When the kidnapped Sally is brought into the Sawyers' farmhouse, she's bound hand and foot on a chair and gagged with a rag secured by a rope. This being low-budget 1970s film-making, those restraints are real, not quick-release props: Burns noted in this Terror Trap interview that at one point she fell over and "I'm sitting there with my hands tied, my feet tied, the filthy gag in my mouth they just picked off the set (who knows where it had been)". Anyway, in this scene Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) cuts her finger with a knife so that Grandpa (John Dugan) can suck her blood. In his memoir Chain Saw Confidential, Hansen writes (pp122–23) that after the blood tube failed multiple times, he "decided to make sure it worked. I turned away from the others and quickly stripped the protective tape off the blade. [...] I would cut her for real. I wanted to be done with this shot, whatever the damage." He cut her fingertip, squeezed to get the blood to ooze, then pushed her finger into Dugan's mouth for him to suck. Dugan assumed it was stage blood, as did everyone but Hansen and Burns herself. Sally (and therefore Marilyn) was gagged and bound, so Burns could not effectively withdraw consent, and her screams – we all know that fingertip cuts hurt – were expected for the scene so were interpreted as acting. Hansen did not admit what he'd done to anyone for decades, so Burns repeatedly defended it as an accident – even some online sources continue to state this. So yes: if you watch that film and are impressed by how real the blood and screaming feel at that point... it's because they are real. You are, quite literally, watching a bound woman being injured with a knife, and having her blood drunk, without her consent or even prior knowledge.
3. Psychological cruelty
Again, the details of this incident come from Chain Saw Confidential (p128 this time), including contributions from Burns herself and from editor Larry Carroll. After principal photography had ended, Hooper asked Burns if she wanted to come to the editing office to "see what's going on", adding "I just want a few shots of your eyes". What actually happened was that she was kept there far longer – in her recollection, "it seemed like four or five hours", with the camera on them the whole time and her having to scream and cry repeatedly. She wasn't able to check her eyes as they got redder and debris built up, and nobody asked her if she was uncomfortable or suggested she "take a moment". Instead, she says, "They thought, 'This is getting better. Give her another couple hours and her eyes will really look crappy.'" When it was finally over, says Carroll, everybody left. Burns was left "devastated [...] there was nothing left." Carroll alone did stay with her, wanting to drive her home because of her condition. He ends by saying, "I think for Tobe, the performance that he wanted, about the only way that he knew how to get it out of her was basically torturing her, and he did. It was horrific." What came of all this were the extreme eye close-ups (not those of Burns' wider face) shown in the dinner party scene. Again, the result of what Hooper did is in the film you can watch today.
It turns out it was worse than I thought. Worse than I could ever have imagined. Regardless of the grace and humour Marilyn Burns herself showed in engaging with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, its personnel and its fans in later years, and regardless of the fact that she worked with director Tobe Hooper again on Eaten Alive, looked at objectively this particular movie's creation was an ethical catastrophe. Marilyn Burns suffered gross negligence, physical assault and psychological cruelty on that movie. And when you watch the film, the results of all three are right there on the screen. You are literally watching a young actress being abused on a film set. Let me give you the details – and these are nowhere near all the ethical failures that five-week shoot had, just three of the most severe. I'll first give a brief summary of each incident, following up with a longer paragraph including links and citations.
1. Gross negligence – Because a broomstick prop hadn't been checked for safety, Marilyn Burns was beaten so badly with it that she received multiple bruises and a black eye, and briefly fainted after cut was called.
2. Physical assault – When a tube containing prop blood failed, co-star Gunnar Hansen deliberately cut Burns' fingertip for real with a knife, then allowed another actor to suck the blooded finger without knowing the blood was real.
3. Psychological cruelty – In post-production, director Tobe Hooper called Burns to the editing suite under false pretences, then subjected her to hours of distress and discomfort to make her eyes look bad for a shot.
Now for the promised details of each incident:
1. Gross negligence
This one directly contributed to the worst injuries Burns received during production. As director Tobe Hooper notes in this 2015 interview with Flashback Files, for the scene where the Cook (Jim Siedow) attacks Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) with a broomstick, he'd asked for a safer prop "so as not to hurt Marilyn". So far, so good. But what he was given was a rubber stick with a steel rod inside – more dangerous than a real broom. As Siedow himself noted in 2000, the crew and even Burns herself, assuming the stick was a safe prop, encouraged him to hit her harder for realism, something he'd been reluctant to do. He "started having fun doing it and started really slugging her", they got through the takes... and then she "fainted dead away ... beaten up pretty badly". (She has a black eye at times in some of the following scenes. That black eye is not make-up.) So, an actress was beaten into – fortunately brief – unconsciousness because her director failed in his basic duties to a) know exactly what was going onto his set and b) keep his actors safe, and because a brave and committed actress was willing to endure pain beyond what she should ever have needed to.
2. Physical assault
When the kidnapped Sally is brought into the Sawyers' farmhouse, she's bound hand and foot on a chair and gagged with a rag secured by a rope. This being low-budget 1970s film-making, those restraints are real, not quick-release props: Burns noted in this Terror Trap interview that at one point she fell over and "I'm sitting there with my hands tied, my feet tied, the filthy gag in my mouth they just picked off the set (who knows where it had been)". Anyway, in this scene Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) cuts her finger with a knife so that Grandpa (John Dugan) can suck her blood. In his memoir Chain Saw Confidential, Hansen writes (pp122–23) that after the blood tube failed multiple times, he "decided to make sure it worked. I turned away from the others and quickly stripped the protective tape off the blade. [...] I would cut her for real. I wanted to be done with this shot, whatever the damage." He cut her fingertip, squeezed to get the blood to ooze, then pushed her finger into Dugan's mouth for him to suck. Dugan assumed it was stage blood, as did everyone but Hansen and Burns herself. Sally (and therefore Marilyn) was gagged and bound, so Burns could not effectively withdraw consent, and her screams – we all know that fingertip cuts hurt – were expected for the scene so were interpreted as acting. Hansen did not admit what he'd done to anyone for decades, so Burns repeatedly defended it as an accident – even some online sources continue to state this. So yes: if you watch that film and are impressed by how real the blood and screaming feel at that point... it's because they are real. You are, quite literally, watching a bound woman being injured with a knife, and having her blood drunk, without her consent or even prior knowledge.
3. Psychological cruelty
Again, the details of this incident come from Chain Saw Confidential (p128 this time), including contributions from Burns herself and from editor Larry Carroll. After principal photography had ended, Hooper asked Burns if she wanted to come to the editing office to "see what's going on", adding "I just want a few shots of your eyes". What actually happened was that she was kept there far longer – in her recollection, "it seemed like four or five hours", with the camera on them the whole time and her having to scream and cry repeatedly. She wasn't able to check her eyes as they got redder and debris built up, and nobody asked her if she was uncomfortable or suggested she "take a moment". Instead, she says, "They thought, 'This is getting better. Give her another couple hours and her eyes will really look crappy.'" When it was finally over, says Carroll, everybody left. Burns was left "devastated [...] there was nothing left." Carroll alone did stay with her, wanting to drive her home because of her condition. He ends by saying, "I think for Tobe, the performance that he wanted, about the only way that he knew how to get it out of her was basically torturing her, and he did. It was horrific." What came of all this were the extreme eye close-ups (not those of Burns' wider face) shown in the dinner party scene. Again, the result of what Hooper did is in the film you can watch today.
(no subject)
Oct. 23rd, 2025 08:54 pmHad some Lapsang Souchong this morning before I went out. I had a great breakfast of a crab and jack cheese omelet, grits and an orange ginger scone. One of the buses had the extra comfortable seats (the local buses usually don't have those). Had a gimongous bowl of hot chocolate at a cafe I hadn't been to before. Couldn't get the skull cakes, Nabolom didn't have them for some reason. Heard some live jazz over at the Berkeley cheese board collective, bought some of their pastries to make up for not being able to get the skull cakes. When I got home my stove was busted for some reason I can't even guess at and I needed to fix dinner but I couldn't find the maintenance guys so I wound up having to do it myself.
Ye olde houses...e
Oct. 23rd, 2025 10:50 pmPublic

265/365: Fifteenth century houses, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Not a lot for me to say tonight; I think the most interesting thing I did was to buy a small box of Ritz crackers... and then to eat the lot. Ahem. The weather wasn't exactly brilliant, but it's late October and the clocks go back this weekend, so I can't really be surprised that it's getting to be damp and chilly more now. Here's a not very interesting photo of some houses in High Street, Bewdley. These houses look like they're Georgian creations, but in fact only the frontages are. The one with the blue plaque in the centre of the picture has actually been there for about 600 years. The date on the plaque is 1419, but I don't think the exact year is known for sure, so "early fifteenth century" will do!

265/365: Fifteenth century houses, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
Not a lot for me to say tonight; I think the most interesting thing I did was to buy a small box of Ritz crackers... and then to eat the lot. Ahem. The weather wasn't exactly brilliant, but it's late October and the clocks go back this weekend, so I can't really be surprised that it's getting to be damp and chilly more now. Here's a not very interesting photo of some houses in High Street, Bewdley. These houses look like they're Georgian creations, but in fact only the frontages are. The one with the blue plaque in the centre of the picture has actually been there for about 600 years. The date on the plaque is 1419, but I don't think the exact year is known for sure, so "early fifteenth century" will do!
Civil War mural on Worcester pub
Oct. 22nd, 2025 11:47 pmPublic

264/365: Civil War mural, Worcester
Click for a larger, sharper image
I had to be in Worcester today for boring reasons, but I did at least have a little time to myself to go for a walk, so I wandered up past Fort Royal Park (site of part of the Battle of Worcester in 1651) and went as far as the Mount Pleasant pub, since it has this rather nice mural on the back that I don't think has been there all that long. My photo isn't that great, but getting an angle without parked cars in the way was tricky! The text "It is for aught I know a crowning mercy" was written by Oliver Cromwell to William Lenthall (Speaker of the Commons) after his victory in the battle. Worcester was a Royalist city, so it's not often you see Cromwellian wording around here! Still, I seriously doubt the landlord sees this as anything other than a nice bit of historical artwork. :)

264/365: Civil War mural, Worcester
Click for a larger, sharper image
I had to be in Worcester today for boring reasons, but I did at least have a little time to myself to go for a walk, so I wandered up past Fort Royal Park (site of part of the Battle of Worcester in 1651) and went as far as the Mount Pleasant pub, since it has this rather nice mural on the back that I don't think has been there all that long. My photo isn't that great, but getting an angle without parked cars in the way was tricky! The text "It is for aught I know a crowning mercy" was written by Oliver Cromwell to William Lenthall (Speaker of the Commons) after his victory in the battle. Worcester was a Royalist city, so it's not often you see Cromwellian wording around here! Still, I seriously doubt the landlord sees this as anything other than a nice bit of historical artwork. :)
