Five students on a Texas roadtrip get stranded and seek help—and are soon at the mercy of a slaughtering, cannibal-inclusive family. The real-life crimes perpetrated by Ed Gein partially inspired Hooper and co-screenwriter Kim Henkel’s tense and mordant slay ride; lensed on location in the as-scripted summer heat, the movie elicited cold sweat from terrified moviegoers whose word-of-mouth made it the decade’s biggest indie horror hit until Halloween.