Primal scream

>> Jim Siedow waxes nostalgic about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

By MATTHEW HAYS

Seventy-nine-year-old Jim Siedow sounds like a sweet and gentle old grandpa type, on the phone from his Houston, Texas home. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising--he's an actor, after all--but his performance in the now-legendary 1974 slasher horror The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was just so danged believable.

Siedow played the grand old patriarch of a group of ultravicious, bloodthirsty killers who live in rural Texas and prey upon a group of innocent teenagers, murdering most of them. When the film premiered on the drive-in circuit, it caused an international furore and was banned in numerous states, provinces and countries (France and Britain among them). In a post-Michael Myers/Jason/Freddy world, much of its gore now seems tame, but at the time, Massacre set a new standard for onscreen bloodletting.

"Director Tobe Hooper approached me after seeing me in another film," Siedow recalls of his landing the pivotal role. "I was simply interested in being in any movie at all. They needed a union actor. So I became the 'old man.' I thought it would be good class-B drive-in movie. I had never done a film like that before. I had no idea it would become what it did--heavens no!"

Siedow, still speaking with a Texas twang, confirms some of the lore surrounding the making of Massacre. "When we were shooting that scene around the dinner table, where we're taunting that poor girl, that took 28 hours to shoot. We were filming in the Texas heat. The food on the table was getting rotten. People were stepping outside for a bit, throwing up, and then coming back in to keep on going. There were hot lights inside skeletons too and the bone started to burn. That made a real peculiar smell and that made us sick too."

Siedow reports that he didn't actually do a lot of research into cannibalism in preparation for his role. The toughest challenge as an actor came when the script called for him to beat leading lady Marilyn Burns. "I had to beat her up with a broomstick. I asked for a rubber one, but they said it wouldn't look real enough. I didn't want to hit her, but Marilyn said 'let's get it over with--please, hit me.' After a while, I started to get into it. When the scene was done, Marilyn fainted."

Siedow was the only member of the original cast to return for the first sequel, which starred Dennis Hopper. Referring to it as "the money one, 'cause I got paid better," Siedow says he's still surprised by the series' resilient popularity (there have been four Massacre films to date). Does Siedow, now retired aside from the occasional cameo, enjoy travelling on the horror film fest circuit? "Hell yeah, you make a lot of money doin' it!"

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre screens throughout the month at the Cinéma du Parc.