Round Rock, a suburb of Austin, is one of the fastest growing communities in America! It has great homes at great prices but………. to movie buffs it will always be famous as the location where ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ was filmed. This was originally marketed falsely as a true story, but was actually loosely based on the life and crimes of Ed Gein. Gein was also the inspiration for many other movie monsters as well as Leatherface and NOT a nice man!
Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed in Round Rock for a tiny sum of money and went on to become one of the most profitable movies in the history of American film. A sequel to the movie helped launch the careers of fledgling Austin actors Mathew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger. The Original movie is still one of the nastiest pieces of movie making ever presented to the public, in spite of a relative lack of physical gore. Not for the squeamish–however horror movie buffs still visit Round Rock on slightly deranged pilgrimages…..
Richard Linklater also filmed his slacker manifesto ‘Dazed and Confused in Austin in 1993. He launched a few careers there, and a whole new style of movie making. Sloppy as a semi-art form!
On a related note, The Coen Brothers first movie ‘Blood Simple’ was also shot in Austin. If you haven’t seen this movie it is a little gem/masterpiece and WELL worth finding. When the Brothers decided to make a ‘Directors Cut’ of the film they did something unique– instead of making it longer and addend scenes and director’s precious bloat, They actually cut it down and made it a few minutes shorter. Now Those are true directors!
On a lesser note, let’s not forget that the Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie reality show ‘The Simple Life’ was also shot in Austin. Well you can’t win ’em all!
Lone Star Journal 