How important is the Lone Star State to a horror movie? There’s the Texas-born talent behind and in front of the camera, from performers like Bill Paxton and Matthew McConaughey, to directors Bryan Bertino and Robert Rodriguez. There are popular, persistent elements: religion gone sour, daylight scares, and the mix of urban and rural areas. There’s even the inclusion of popular dishes, chili and BBQ, into the story. The following nine entries are ranked on what it pulls from using the state as a setting.
9. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
Mandy (Amber Heard) catches everyone’s attention when she returns to high school after summer break. This causes her to grow closer to the popular kids, leaving behind her old friend Emmet (Michael Welch). The cool kids decide to go on a weekend trip, heading out into the seclusion only a ranch house could offer. Everyone seems to be the best of the best in the high school hierarchy, but it’s all fake. Insecurities run rampant. If only that’s all they had to deal with. When a killer invades the ranch, their weekend won’t end with many survivors.
This is a mean-spirited slasher with a stylish flair. Cover songs (“Sister Golden Hair”) create a melancholy tone. A massive water tower looms over the group of high schoolers as they take a break from their trip. The high school to the ranch are all locations found in Texas; the filming taking place in Austin and Bastrop. There’s a loving influence from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), particularly in the finale. Daylight exposes dried blood on those left standing, until one more savage act.
8. X (2022)
An entourage of porn actors and crew take to the road to head to an out-of-the-way cabin to be used as a set. It has all that they need: a bedroom and a farm. What they and actress Maxine (Mia Goth) don’t realize is the elderly couple renting it out to them, have an agenda of their own. A van’s headlights turn red from spilled blood. Pretty soon there isn’t a spotless area on the land.
What is also a crucial aspect to the story is the constant stream of extreme Christianity. It’s revealed to be part of Maxine’s background, no doubt a component to the sexual repression of Pearl, and is left on the TV of the central farmhouse. Filming took place in New Zealand, a stand-in for rural Texas, but it makes sense. Away from the city, the actors find themselves in an isolated area full of sexual repression and the extreme sermons of a televangelist. This won’t be the last time the morals of faith are questioned.
7. Manos: Hands of Fate (1966)
A family on a road trip takes a wrong turn, ending up in the wrong place. A search for the Valley Lodge gets them lost in the desert. Deciding to take a break for the night, the family of three stop at a house in the middle of nowhere. The drunk and staggering Torgo (John Reynolds) warns them they can’t stay. The family do anyway. Inside, is a painting of the foreboding Master (Tom Neyman). Not long after, they encounter a sex-crazed cult. The family really should have listened to Torgo.
Cheers to director Hal P. Warren, playing the family’s father, who made a very weird, flawed movie. Of other strange movies on this list, this might just be the strangest. The filming around El Paso does make the setting authentically Texan. If only the landscape got a focus. The Master and his cult of wives steals the show when they finally get introduced.
6. The Dark and the Wicked (2020)
A brother and sister return to their family’s farm as their father weakens due to an illness. Their mother isn’t in any better shape. She wants them all to leave, frightened of a presence in the home. Vivid nightmares cause more worry to the siblings, Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.). They don’t agree on what is happening, despite a supernatural entity slowly revealing itself. The movie is all about grief and how suffocating it can be.
Director Bryan Bertino uses his own family’s farm in Texas for the main location. The one-floor home doesn’t leave much room to escape. A rustic windmill looms over the property. At night, the deep shadows in the farm on the land could be where the malevolent presence hides. Bertino taints the safety of the setting.
5. Frailty (2001)
Two young brothers, Fenton (Matt O’Leary) and Adam (Jeremy Sumpter), live with their father in a warm household. Their father, known only as Dad (Bill Paxton), makes sure they have dinner together every night and helps with homework. One summer night changes the whole dynamic. He tells the boys he saw an angel and is to be one of God’s warriors. He will be given weapons and a list to track down everyday citizens who are demons. Or so Dad says. Fenton’s concerns for his young brother are realized when his father brings home the first “demon.”
In this twisty movie, religious fanaticism rears its ugly head. The unsettling tone to the God’s Hand killings come from the uncertainty in Paxton’s character. Others that preach with such severe devotion are made to appear as untrustworthy, such as Maxine’s father in X. But can this loving father be one of them? Even when the killings begin, Fenton is just as confused. Alongside Paxton, its cast includes other Texas-born actors Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe. Unlike other movies of faith turned violent, this one questions who is right and wrong even beyond its ending.
4. The Devil’s Rejects (2005)
“All right, let’s get this freak show on the road!” Welcome to Ruggsville, the fictitious Texas town home to the sadistic Firefly family. After the grisly events of the first movie, House of 1,000 Corpses, Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), Captain Spalding (Sid Haig), and Otis (Bill Moseley) are on the run from Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe). The law man is looking for his own justice. On his hunt for the remaining Firefly family members, the sheriff plans to be just as brutal as they were to their victims. Leaving the neon-glow carnival lair of the first movie, this sequel turns into a road movie from hell.
Being a Rob Zombie movie, there shouldn’t be much surprise in how violent scenes get. Going back into the world of the Firefly clan, he doesn’t stick to the same old. Wydell is an imposing figure all by himself. This is a horror western. “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd plays in the end, as the murderous outlaws drive full speed into a shoot ‘em up finale. Like other movies to come on this list, the sunny desert location hides nothing. When a victim escapes, wearing the skinned face of another, it’s all shown in daylight.
3. Grindhouse (2007)
In this outrageous double feature, two different kinds of monsters are unleashed. In Death Proof, Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) drives around, searching for women to lure into his specialized car. Once you get into the passenger seat, it’s a certified death trap. In Planet Terror, a bioweapon leaks, turning the infected into grotesque zombies. Part of the survivors who try to make it out include go-go dancer Cherry (Rose McGowan) who gets a machine gun prosthetic for an amputated leg, and Dr. Dakota (Marley Shelton), armed with a syringe launcher.
The Quentin Tarantino directed Death Proof is full of love for Austin. The city’s own Texas Chili Parlor works as a major set piece. A dialogue-heavy scene between a group of friends happens at the popular spot. All the while Stuntman Mike sits nearby, lurking, preparing for his lethal night drive. With Planet Terror, director Robert Rodriguez lovingly includes his own element of Texan food with The Bone Shack, an in-movie spot with a wonderful BBQ recipe.
2. The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) & (2014)
These two films loosely base their plots on the Moonlight Murders that went unsolved in Texarkana. In the original, the Phantom Killer picks off victims, starting off with a pair at lover’s lane. Captain Morales (Ben Johnson) and Deputy Ramsey (Andrew Prine) lead an investigation, getting so close to catching the culprit but not close enough. In the 2014 meta-sequel, a drive-in screening of the ‘70s movie brings the comeback of the Phantom Killer. Jami (Addison Timlin) gets away, but just barely. Her boyfriend is not so lucky. More chilling is the question: has the killer returned or is this a copycat?
Filmed in true locations in Texarkana, both films have a distinct element, compared to many of the other movies on this list. It turns the town’s unsolved crimes into its own mythology. Set in a town on the border of Texas and Arkansas, it’s also one of those rare “based on a true story” horror movies that inches closer to reality. But still not everything is correct. Among the more accurate elements is that the mysterious killer really was never caught, fueling the town’s urban legend.
1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Sally (Marilyn Burns) and her friends do nothing wrong when they drive to take a look at her grandfather’s vandalized grave. The trip hits a bizarre note when they pick up a violent hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), hinting at something worse to come. When the friends discover a house, they’re attacked by its inhabitants. One by one, they face the cannibal Sawyer family, consisting of the silent but fast Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). Director Tobe Hooper didn’t need much help to create the atmosphere in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It made for a miserable shoot but works to keep a grittiness in the footage.
Filmed around sunny Austin, the setting looks sweltering and desolate. And that’s because it was. It gives the need to shower and clean off any gunk. It’s a backwoods tale of terror, one of the most well-known movies dealing with the Lone Star State. Influencing X, Mandy, and Devil’s Rejects, Hooper’s movie is a horror classic. Daylight makes everything more dangerous. What’s not so scary, are the major filming locations turned into eateries. The gas station Sally finds no help at, is now We Slaughter Barbeque and the Sawyer family home is now the Grand Central Cafe.