Despite being heavily touted as "inspired by a true story," both Tobe Hooper's original 1974 film and the 2003 Marcus Nispel remake are only lightly based on the real-life murderer Ed Gein, who is suspected to have taken several victims between 1954 and 1957.

Although the film is marketed as a true story, it does not depict actual events, and is instead (as with the film Psycho) inspired by notorious killer Ed Gein, who acted alone and did not use a chainsaw. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) is set 13 years after the events of the first film.

In this continuity, Leatherface's real name is Thomas Brown Hewitt; his mother Sloane dies giving birth to him in August 1939 at the Blair Meat Co., a slaughterhouse where she works, and her uncaring boss leaves the infant to die in a dumpster.

Due to the film's violent content, Hooper struggled to find a distributor, but it was eventually acquired by Louis Perano of Bryanston Distributing Company. ... The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was banned in several countries, and numerous theaters stopped showing the film in response to complaints about its violence.