Motel Hell released October 18, 1980

Motel Hell is a 1980 horror comedy film directed by Kevin Connor and starring Rory Calhoun as farmer, butcher, and meat entrepreneur Vincent Smith. Often seen as a satire of modern horror films such as Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because of its low budget nature, the original intent was to make a serious horror film, with moments of disturbing wit and irony. The film’s score was composed by Lance Rubin.

Tagline: You might just die…laughing!

Trivia:

Future Cheers star John Ratzenberger appears briefly as a member of the punk rock group Ivan and the Terribles.

Co-star Monique St.Pierre was Playboy’s 1979 Playmate of the Year.

When Sheriff Smith asks Terri to the movies he says it is Monster _That Challenged the World, The (1957)_. Not only is this a real movie, but the scenes shown were actually from it.

Tobe Hooper was originally going to direct this movie for Universal Studios, but when the studio balked at the bizarre project, Hooper also departed.

The chainsaws images were inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

Actor ‘Paul Linke’ lost 25 pounds to play the lead. He was carrying the extra weight to play Grossman on “CHiPs” (1977).

The screenplay for this film was written years before it went into production. The film had a difficult time finding backing. In 1978 it was picked up by the Camp Hill Company and was shot and completed in 1980. In all it was nearly 10 years from the time the script was written to the final release of the film.

Universal Studios was originally approached with the film, but the studio disliked the film’s bizarre nature so it was rejected. United Artists ultimately picked it up for release.

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Filed under: Horror

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