Resurrecting the Grindhouse: How Dolly Used 16mm Film to Capture the Spirit of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
In an era where horror movies are often polished to a pristine, digital sheen, director Rod Blackhurst’s 2026 indie slasher Dolly chose to drag audiences back into the dirt. A brutal, unapologetic homage to 1970s exploitation cinema, the film has made waves for its suffocating atmosphere and a hulking, porcelain-masked killer who feels like the spiritual successor to Leatherface. But Dolly doesn’t just feel like a vintage slasher—it looks exactly like one. To replicate the iconic, grimy aesthetic of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Blackhurst and cinematographer Justin Derry ditched modern digital rigs in favor of shooting entirely on 16mm film. Here is how they used vintage analog methods to resurrect the ultimate grindhouse look. The Power of the 16mm Format To understand why Dolly looks so uniquely terrifying, you have to look at the medium […]