Question about Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Hey Everyone,
Is the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre based on a true story. I heard that it was, and I got on the internet and did a search. But i still need a second opinion! Is it, or is it not? E-mail me at [email protected]

signed
Untouchable

[Chucky]

No, the movie is only based on true events, it isn't a true story.

[avenger00soul]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, along with 20 other movies, is very loosely based on the life of murderer and cannibal Ed Gein.

[Amelie]

There's a made-for-cable movie about Ed Gein called "In the Light of the Moon". I caught it on HBO or Showtime one night. It's slow-moving at parts and doesn't have any real scary bits, but it does tell Gein's story decently. It spends some time on his background, focusing on his weirdly dependent relationship with his psychotic mother. I think there was speculation (I forget if it was ever proven) that Gein killed his own brother, but I can't remember if that turned out to be true or not. In the movie, they show him to be his brother's murderer.

Like avenger00soul said, Gein was the basis for a whole slew of horror characters, including Norman Bates and James 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb from "Silence of the Lambs".

[avenger00soul]

There's also a movie aptly entitled Ed Gein (which I believe is the alternate title to In the Light of the Moon) and a cooler older one called Deranged that tackle the same subject matter.

[Ash]

If you do a Google search for "Ed Gein" you'll find a lot of info. Also, here is a good story about it from Crime Library:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gein/geinmain.htm

Here is a picture of him, from another website:

[scare_queen]

so what's the actual difference between 'based on a true story' or it being a 'true story'?

[Vampyra]

Well, one thing that is different from what happened for real in Ed's case and what the movie shows is..Ed tend to kill women around his mother age(at least that is what I understood from the stuff I've read on him,I could be wrong but this is the way I understood it) which would put the women in their 40''s or 50's. But, in the movie they show killings of teeny boppers..Plus he lived by himself and was a private person in the movie there is a family crew there.. And before he started killing ppl he started as a grave digger..collecting gender parts off of ladies and skin,lips, ect.....

[Ritualistic]

Originally posted by scare_queen
so what's the actual difference between 'based on a true story' or it being a 'true story'?

Like what Avenger said it is basically "based on true events.. " some of the stuff in each of these movies really happend in real life. Like making stuff from human bones, making masks out of human flesh, being obssessed with your mother, etc... something being a true story is totally different from something being based on true events.. :D

[Sick_As_Fuck]

I think in the trailer for the original Texas Chainsaw it reads "based on true events", but in the trailer for the new Texas Chainsaw it reads "based on a true story". I wonder what's the difference?