While responsible for some of the most popular horror films of all time, the late Tobe Hooper remains an underrated talent. The director took the world by storm with the gritty and terrifying Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974, which led to his collaboration with Steven Spielberg on Poltergeist nearly a decade later.
By the mid-'80s and '90s, Hooper had been relegated to a director for hire on a number of low-budget horrors and television movies. Hooper continued to make movies until 2013 before ultimately passing away in 2017 at the age of 74.
10 Best - The Funhouse (1981) 5.9
A year prior to helming Poltergeist, Hooper made a terrifying trip to The Funhouse, during which some kind of deformed monster-manchild stalks and slashes a gaggle of unsuspecting teenagers.
Upon visiting a creepy carnival, Amy (Elizabeth Berridge) and her boyfriend Buzz (Cooper Huckabee) decide they should spend the night inside the fairgrounds with two of their friends. The fun and games turn to abject slaughter as a deformed killer in a Frankenstein mask turns their night of partying into a living hell!
9 Worst - Night Terrors (1993) 3.5
As Freddy Krueger in the legendary A Nightmare on Elm Street series, Robert Englund terrorized people's dreams. Alas, according to IMDb, such was not the case in Hooper's Night Terrors.
The film follows Genie (Zoe Trilling), a young woman who ventures to Egypt to visit her shady father, Paul Chevalier aka The Marquis De Sade (Englund). Upon arrival, Genie gets sucked into a sinister cult of sadomasochistic violence that proves nearly impossible to escape.
8 Best - Lifeforce (1985) 6.1
Following the release of Poltergeist, Hooper ventured to the cosmos to film the intergalactic vampires of Lifeforce. He also directed the video for Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself."
Adapted by Dan O'Bannon from the Colin Wilson novel, Lifeforce concerns an incursion of space-vampires in London, which begin infecting ordinary citizens at a rapid pace. One female vamp in particular, dubbed Space Girl (Mathilda May), subsumes the lifeforce of several members of a spacecraft before landing on Earth.
7 Worst - Crocodile (2000) 3.8
A low-point in Hooper's career came in 2000 with the direct-to-video release of Crocodile, a cheap creature feature partially filmed in Mexico.
In the simplest terms, the plot concerns a foursome of youngsters out to blow off some steam on a Southern California boat ride. What they encounter instead is an angry and aggressive man-eating crocodile. In a fight or flight response, the foursome uses their limited knowledge of the wild to survive by any means necessary.
6 Best - Salem's Lot (1979) 6.8
Although deemed by some as a two-episode miniseries, Salem's Lot is essentially a 3-hour TV movie. And while its collective IMDb-rating currently stands at 6.8, the first chapter boasts a 7.3 and the second a 7.5 mark, respectively.
Hooper adapts the Stephen King novel about a sleepy New England town overrun by a hostile vampiric takeover. David Soul stars as a novelist who teams with knowledgable horror fan Mark (Lance Kerwin) to quell the undead invasion led by Richard Straker (James Mason).
5 Worst - Mortuary (2005) 4.0
With less than $1 million earned at the international box-office, Hooper's Mortuary marked a massive commercial and critical failure for the once prominent horror voice.
Following the death of her husband, Leslie (Denise Crosby) moves her two children to live in an old mortuary, which she also plans to refurbish and turn into a business. Once there however, locals begin to suspect the parlor is built on once-sacred ground that is now haunted with unspeakable malevolence.
4 Best - Poltergeist (1982) 7.3
While many believe Steven Spielberg directed the majority of Poltergeist, Hooper remains credited for shepherding arguably the best and most terrifying haunted house horror film of all time.
The American nuclear Freeling family finds their idyllic suburban home tormented by a riveting skein of supernatural events. A medium makes contact with the other side, deducing that the Freeling house has been erected atop an ancient burial ground. The unrested spirits go after the soul of Carol Anne, the family's youngest child.
3 Worst - The Mangler (1995) 4.3
Two years after working with Robert Englund on Night Terrors, Hooper reunited with the horror screen legend for the adaptation of Stephen King's short story The Mangler.
Unfortunately, the result didn't fare much better. The plot revolves around a demonically possessed laundry machine that begins murdering those who come in close proximity. With an even paltrier 80 Metascore, neither critics nor casual horror fans found much to enjoy in The Mangler. Not even the pairing of Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) and Freddy Krueger (Englund) could redeem the film.
2 Best - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 7.5
According to IMDb and everywhere else, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is Hooper's finest hour and greatest contribution to the history of cinema. Despite being a practically bloodless film, the film continues to boast a reputation for being one of the most shockingly mortifying horror movies ever made.
Produced for a staggeringly low cost of $300,000, Massacre went on to earn north of $30 million in worldwide grosses. The story about a van-full of teens traveling across Texas during the summer heat turns shockingly grim when they pick up a bizarre hitchhiker. The hitcher leads the kids to his family farm, where Leatherface and his cannibalistic kin slaughter any and every interloper that dare step on their property.
1 Worst - Djinn (2013) 4.4
Hooper's final film was the 2013 release of Djinn, a Middle-Eastern horror yarn filmed in the United Arab Emirates. The familiar possession-piece concerns a young couple who returns home from vacation to find their abode haunted by a malefic presence.
More derivative yet, the couple soon discovers their home was built over a hallowed site where ancient sinister creatures dwell. The two lead characters in the film are named Khalid (meaning eternal) and Salama (meaning peace), the combination of which is precisely what we wish upon Hooper in the afterlife!
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