‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Returns to Theaters With First Look at Hand-Animated Reimagining

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Dark Sky Films and Fathom Entertainment are bringing Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre back to theaters tomorrow, August 18, 2026, for the annual Texas Chain Saw Day celebration, and this year’s event comes loaded with several theatrical exclusives.

Dark Sky Films and Exurbia Films have unveiled the first official still from their forthcoming hand-animated, rotoscoped reimagining of Hooper’s 1974 horror landmark. The ambitious project remains in production with a planned 2027 debut.

Audiences attending Texas Chain Saw Day screenings will get an even deeper look at the project through an exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette exploring the rotoscoping process, along with additional hand-animated footage unavailable outside participating theaters.

The project transforms the original film frame by frame through traditional rotoscope animation. Artists trace Hooper’s live-action footage entirely by hand, preserving the original performances and atmosphere while creating a radically different visual presentation. According to the production, artificial intelligence plays no role in the animation process.

Paul Beck, the Austin-based multimedia artist whose credits include Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, serves as Animation Director and Art Director. The team also includes Lead Animator Max Peake, Lead Animator and Special FX Artist Nate Bayless, and Background Artist Jeremy Martinez.

Texas Chain Saw Day will also include a new four-minute theatrical-only audio experience created by Dread Central, Be Afraid Media, and the horror podcast Creepy. Narrated by Creepy creator Jon Grilz and several of the podcast’s narrators, the piece recounts the fictional events of August 18, 1974, setting the stage for the horror that follows.

Fans in Los Angeles and Austin will receive additional programming following their screenings. Legendary Texas Chain Saw Massacre cinematographer Daniel Pearl will participate in a live Q&A at Regal LA Live! in Los Angeles, while original cast members Teri McMinn and Allen Danziger will appear for a Q&A at AMC Barton Creek in Austin.

Presented by Dark Sky Films and Fathom Entertainment, Texas Chain Saw Day returns The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to theaters nationwide in a new 4K presentation for one night only on August 18, 2026.

The date holds a special place in the film’s mythology: Hooper’s opening narration famously places the massacre on August 18, 1973, a fictional date that has since become permanently welded to one of horror cinema’s most influential films.

Tickets are available through participating theaters and Fathom Entertainment.