The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was inspired by a crowded department store

Pioneering horror filmmaker Tobe Hooper, who died on Saturday, on the source of his inspiration for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:

It came to him, he said, in the hardware department of a Sears-like store during a busy Christmas season, with his low tolerance for crowds as a catalyst.

I was kind of freaking, just wanted to get out of there, get out of the crowd, he said in the documentary. And so I found myself in front of a chain-saw display in the hardware department, and thats where the idea came from Well, if I pick this damn thing up and start it, theyll part like the Red Sea and I can get out of here.

"Tobe Hooper, Director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Dies at 74" (New York Times)