Over at Blastr, I interviewed legendary director Tobe Hooper.

Back in his native Austin, Texas, for a special dual screening of his original 1974 movie and the just-released Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D at the popular Alamo Drafthouse, Hooper lauded the new incarnation. “Producer Carl Mazzocone has been working on it for about three years, studying why the original film works, by breaking conventions, not doing it as the Hollywood version.” Unlike many of the previous Chainsaw attempts, this iteration, which serves as a direct sequel to the first, managed to remain true to the original concept and characters. Plus, according to Hooper, the “extraordinarily good 3D” actually turned him into a fan. “It’s so different than the 1950s kind of 3D. This has such depth.”

“One of the reasons I got into films was this terrible movie Goodbye Charlie. Tony Curtis gets changed into a dog.” Hooper further explains, “There was one moment that I kinda left my body. It’s hard to explain, but I was mesmerized. It was just one strange moment. Why in the hell did I feel that? If I could take those two seconds and extend that. Have an audience interact in such a way that they will kind of go into that world. If there was a way I could make that last like five minutes, 10 minutes, or even most of the film. I’m still working on that. Though I have pulled it off a couple of times.”

Hooper disagrees with the assessment of some that violent movies are the root cause of recent atrocities such as the Newtown shootings. “Videogames, perhaps. I was into videogames for a while. And things that look like a person do become targets. And their head explodes. I just don’t think a horror movie is gonna draw any copycats. Certainly not someone running around with a chainsaw. Unless it’s a gag.”

Check out the entire conversation over at Blastr.