Back in the day when Tobe lived in Austin and was working on Eggshells, I knew several of the people who worked on the film, both on camera and behind the scenes. The house Tobe used to shoot the film was located on F Street and the working title was F Street Blues. At the end of the film is a series of stop-action shots of one of the downstairs rooms as it is being painted - a kind of living mural which turns black on-screen. Very avant-garde for the time. Horror is not my genre and I had always hoped Tobe would go on to create more films like Eggshells - even asked him once when he was going to make a film I could watch. In a strange twist of fate, the man I subsequently married was living in that room when I met him in 1975 and the walls and ceiling were still black!
13 Reviews
Interesting movie with lots of friends
bill-jacobs12 February 2009
I roomed with Kim Henkle in an old house off San Gabriel and 23 1/2 st. We shared a bedroom in the back. He got me in the wedding scene as an extra. It was filmed at Wooldridge Park. Friends David and Amy Spaw (then married, now divorced) were in the movie as was Allen Danziger and Ron Perryman (I think). The movie is hazy, I don't recall much other than the bathtub scene with Amy and the wedding scene. Myself, David and Amy, as well as Kim and Ron Perryman (now deceased) all owned 40 acres of land together in Colorado for awhile (along with several other people) - a place to escape to in case the Revolution came. I didn't know Tobe Hooper other than as an acquaintance. Kim and Tobe went on to TCM fame, Ron was active as a character actor, Amy went into jewelry-making, and David took over management of Spaw Construction. The Revolution never came!
Eggshells
BandSAboutMovies12 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Tobe Hooper's first movie, which he co-wrote with Kim Henkel, is a story about a weird house in Texas, which is definitely a theme Hooper would come back to, but this one has a strange presence in the basement that starts influencing the hippies who have decided to live there.
Until the 2009 South by Southwest Festival, this movie was thought lost. What people saw was aJean-Luc Godard-influenced film that those in Austin in 1969 said was, well, Austin in 1969. It's also a shambling, shaggy narrative where time doesn't matter, where you take a long tour of the city, where things go fast, go slow, go weird, go introspective. Two couples, one established, one new, have to navigate a tumultuous time.
People take baths. Have psychedelic love scenes. Drive cars into fields, attack them, blow them up. Balloons appear in the woods. A man swordfights himself. It's just what you'd expect from a movie made in 1969 that doesn't want to be a Hollywood tale of hippies but one made by and for.
It starts with a woman coming to Texas on the back of a truck, wishing for big dreams. His next film would end with a woman leaving Texas on the back of a truck, escaping from a nightmare.
Until the 2009 South by Southwest Festival, this movie was thought lost. What people saw was aJean-Luc Godard-influenced film that those in Austin in 1969 said was, well, Austin in 1969. It's also a shambling, shaggy narrative where time doesn't matter, where you take a long tour of the city, where things go fast, go slow, go weird, go introspective. Two couples, one established, one new, have to navigate a tumultuous time.
People take baths. Have psychedelic love scenes. Drive cars into fields, attack them, blow them up. Balloons appear in the woods. A man swordfights himself. It's just what you'd expect from a movie made in 1969 that doesn't want to be a Hollywood tale of hippies but one made by and for.
It starts with a woman coming to Texas on the back of a truck, wishing for big dreams. His next film would end with a woman leaving Texas on the back of a truck, escaping from a nightmare.
Two people saw it, I guess
iteration328 July 2006
The other comment says much of what I would have said had I got here first, but I saw Eggshells at the Texas Theater, an "art house" on Guadalupe Street (the "Drag") in Austin across from the UT campus. I wish I could remember for certain when it was, but my best guess is that it was sometime between 1969 and 1971. (Since I was at UT from 1969 to 1976, I suppose that I could have seen it after Chainsaw Massacre came out in 1974, but I have a pretty good reason for thinking that's not right.)
Eggshells wasn't very good, frankly, but I saw the hippie bus with the dome around town several times before and after I saw the movie. After TCM came out I was pleased that I accidentally got to see Hooper's first effort.
One correction: I don't think that the wedding scene was on the Texas State Capitol grounds. I'm pretty sure that it was shot in Wooldridge Park on Guadalupe Street between West 10th and West 9th Streets across the street from the Travis County Courthouse. Perhaps the wedding was at the capitol and I've forgotten it, but if so then some other scene was shot at Wooldridge, since there's an easily-recognizable gazebo in Wooldridge that can be seen in the film.
Eggshells wasn't very good, frankly, but I saw the hippie bus with the dome around town several times before and after I saw the movie. After TCM came out I was pleased that I accidentally got to see Hooper's first effort.
One correction: I don't think that the wedding scene was on the Texas State Capitol grounds. I'm pretty sure that it was shot in Wooldridge Park on Guadalupe Street between West 10th and West 9th Streets across the street from the Travis County Courthouse. Perhaps the wedding was at the capitol and I've forgotten it, but if so then some other scene was shot at Wooldridge, since there's an easily-recognizable gazebo in Wooldridge that can be seen in the film.
For surrealists only
bazmitch233 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Blu Ray. I can see why this film didn't get a good release. Not many people wanted to go see a very weird film where weird things happen for no reason.
The film opens with a girl sitting on the back of a pick up as it takes her down the road. Then we cut to her sitting in the park picking at a pimple. And then she's back on the pick up again. She arrives at the town and we see a montage of people protesting and people walking up and down the street. This goes on for 8 minutes and it's like "Okay. Can we move on, please?"
We then cut to the main setting which is a house. We see a paper airplane flying outside the house, it hits the wall and bursts into flames. Why? It's never explained.
Then we have our main characters. The girl in the beginning? Not one of them. We have dialogue scenes where the camera is WAY too close on their faces. Tobe Hooper wanted a documentary feel.
We then cut to more surrealism such as a 5 minute montage of people walking up and down the stairs, a scene where a boy is sword fighting with himself in the basement (the editing is really cool and very clever in that scene), we have scenes where the couples are in the baths talking about...... nothing, a sex scene which is all blurry and all done in quick edits (and the actors have horrid tan lines, ugh.), a scene where a boy follows this girl he fancies into the forest and there's balloons everywhere. He meets up with the girl and she goes with him, despite not knowing who this boy is. And a scene where a man steals his friends' car, drives it out to a field, gets naked, sets a car on fire and it explodes...... all for no reason.
Near the end, one of the couples gets married and we have a montage of the car's POV (which was blown up earlier) driving down the street and into the road all sped up. This scene reminds me of The Naked Gun for some reason.
The film ends with the characters going into the forest building a weird alien like machine, they sit on chairs underneath hairdryers like in a salon. They pull bin bags out of the hairdryers and pull the bags over themselves, the machine connected to the hair dryers sucks them all up and we see blood coming out from the kitchen sink tap of the machine.
Yeah.
If you're one these people who love weird films where things happen for no reason and are never explained why, you'll love this film. Much like Ralph Bakshi's earlier films.
There are creative scenes like the sword fight and the scene where a couple are painting the wall and we cut to them in the bathroom, the man turns on the water and we cut back to the room and the walls fill up with paint combined with the sound of the water. That was really clever. Plus some nice stop motion animation of the stars and rainbow being added on the wall too.
Other than that, Eggshells just isn't my cup of tea. I enjoyed Tobe Hooper's next feature even better.
The film opens with a girl sitting on the back of a pick up as it takes her down the road. Then we cut to her sitting in the park picking at a pimple. And then she's back on the pick up again. She arrives at the town and we see a montage of people protesting and people walking up and down the street. This goes on for 8 minutes and it's like "Okay. Can we move on, please?"
We then cut to the main setting which is a house. We see a paper airplane flying outside the house, it hits the wall and bursts into flames. Why? It's never explained.
Then we have our main characters. The girl in the beginning? Not one of them. We have dialogue scenes where the camera is WAY too close on their faces. Tobe Hooper wanted a documentary feel.
We then cut to more surrealism such as a 5 minute montage of people walking up and down the stairs, a scene where a boy is sword fighting with himself in the basement (the editing is really cool and very clever in that scene), we have scenes where the couples are in the baths talking about...... nothing, a sex scene which is all blurry and all done in quick edits (and the actors have horrid tan lines, ugh.), a scene where a boy follows this girl he fancies into the forest and there's balloons everywhere. He meets up with the girl and she goes with him, despite not knowing who this boy is. And a scene where a man steals his friends' car, drives it out to a field, gets naked, sets a car on fire and it explodes...... all for no reason.
Near the end, one of the couples gets married and we have a montage of the car's POV (which was blown up earlier) driving down the street and into the road all sped up. This scene reminds me of The Naked Gun for some reason.
The film ends with the characters going into the forest building a weird alien like machine, they sit on chairs underneath hairdryers like in a salon. They pull bin bags out of the hairdryers and pull the bags over themselves, the machine connected to the hair dryers sucks them all up and we see blood coming out from the kitchen sink tap of the machine.
Yeah.
If you're one these people who love weird films where things happen for no reason and are never explained why, you'll love this film. Much like Ralph Bakshi's earlier films.
There are creative scenes like the sword fight and the scene where a couple are painting the wall and we cut to them in the bathroom, the man turns on the water and we cut back to the room and the walls fill up with paint combined with the sound of the water. That was really clever. Plus some nice stop motion animation of the stars and rainbow being added on the wall too.
Other than that, Eggshells just isn't my cup of tea. I enjoyed Tobe Hooper's next feature even better.
Hooper's Hippie Trip
Michael_Elliott29 August 2017
Eggshells (1969)
** (out of 4)
Normally I start my reviews off with a brief description of the plot but that's not really needed here because there isn't one. Basically you've got a couples sitting around and talking about various deep topics including war and haunted houses.
EGGSHELLS was Tobe Hooper's first feature film and it's easy to see why it has been forgotten. Usually whenever director's make a name for themselves their early works come back into play but that never happened with EGGSHELLS and it pretty much remained a mystery until here recently when it got a re-release. The film isn't awful. The film certainly isn't great. It's just pretty much in the middle without anything overly interesting in it outside of the film's the director would make after it.
This is one of those films where there's no plot but instead hippies are sitting around talking about "deep" stuff that no one but stoned hippies would find deep. Most of the conversations had here are pretty boring and none of them are interesting enough to really grab your attention and hold it throughout the running time. Just take a look at the discussion of haunted houses and you'll see how silly it actually is and how pointless it is.
The film really drags at spots and especially the final ten-minutes of the movie. I'm going to guess Hooper was trying to deliver some sort of weird acid trip but that doesn't happen and instead of being entertained the viewer will be looking at his watch. EGGSHELLS is technically well-made and it features some nice performances but that's not enough to keep you glued into the film.
** (out of 4)
Normally I start my reviews off with a brief description of the plot but that's not really needed here because there isn't one. Basically you've got a couples sitting around and talking about various deep topics including war and haunted houses.
EGGSHELLS was Tobe Hooper's first feature film and it's easy to see why it has been forgotten. Usually whenever director's make a name for themselves their early works come back into play but that never happened with EGGSHELLS and it pretty much remained a mystery until here recently when it got a re-release. The film isn't awful. The film certainly isn't great. It's just pretty much in the middle without anything overly interesting in it outside of the film's the director would make after it.
This is one of those films where there's no plot but instead hippies are sitting around talking about "deep" stuff that no one but stoned hippies would find deep. Most of the conversations had here are pretty boring and none of them are interesting enough to really grab your attention and hold it throughout the running time. Just take a look at the discussion of haunted houses and you'll see how silly it actually is and how pointless it is.
The film really drags at spots and especially the final ten-minutes of the movie. I'm going to guess Hooper was trying to deliver some sort of weird acid trip but that doesn't happen and instead of being entertained the viewer will be looking at his watch. EGGSHELLS is technically well-made and it features some nice performances but that's not enough to keep you glued into the film.
Tree hugging hippy snooze-fest
thedeadlyspawn7928 August 2010
I recently saw this at London's Frightfest, and it may well be the dullest film I have ever had the misfortune to view there. From one rambling, pointless conversation to the next, nothing of interest happens, apart from a guy having a sword-fight with himself. There may be some who would say that if you didn't like it, you probably didn't understand it, like it's the "emperors new movie", or something. These hypothetical people can get lost. I can't imagine that fully comprehending the film would make it any less dull. I didn't want to understand the presence in the basement, I just wanted it to do something. The film is really only of interest to Tobe Hooper fans, and people who like artsy sixties movies. By the way, I did ask Tobe Hooper what the meaning behind the title was, and he said it just meant "a very delicate situation".
I Guess Nobody Else Saw It
bababear21 April 2006
When THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE came out I was eagerly looking forward to it because the director had made EGGSHELLS. My wife and I saw EGGSHELLS when we were living in Houston. I'd get off work at 10 at night, we'd go eat Mexican food, and then go to a midnight movie at the Alabama, Tower, or River Oaks theatres inside the loop. They were sponsored by KLOL 101.1 FM and the admission price was $1.01. As you can tell, this was before we had children. In fact, my wife was probably pregnant with our first (born July of 1974) when we saw this. We'd sit in the front row of the balcony because she was most comfortable with her feet propped up on the rail.
I only saw EGGSHELLS that one time, but it's stuck with me all these years. The plot is a little fuzzy to me, but I remember the title because one of the films themes was that our fellow humans are so fragile that we would handle them as if they were made of eggshells.
Although there were supernatural elements to it, this was nowhere near a horror movie. It was closer in mood to THE GRADUATE or YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW in that it was a coming of age story about young adults.
It was about undergraduates at the University of Texas in Austin. One character comes from a small town and this is her introduction to life in the big city. Several students share a large old house near the University (in a neighborhood I've always enjoyed driving through) and they discover that the house is haunted.
Beyond that plot details get fuzzy, although I do remember that there was a 'hippie wedding' that took place on the lawn of the capitol building.
It gets a ten because although it didn't have anybody famous in it (for years it wasn't even listed on the IMDb and I wondered if I'd imagined it, and I don't know if even Hooper has a print of it any more) and wasn't a techno marvel I could tell that it was made with a lot of love. Hooper was thrilled to have a camera at his disposal and use it to tell his story.
If this ever comes out on DVD I'll be first in line.
I only saw EGGSHELLS that one time, but it's stuck with me all these years. The plot is a little fuzzy to me, but I remember the title because one of the films themes was that our fellow humans are so fragile that we would handle them as if they were made of eggshells.
Although there were supernatural elements to it, this was nowhere near a horror movie. It was closer in mood to THE GRADUATE or YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW in that it was a coming of age story about young adults.
It was about undergraduates at the University of Texas in Austin. One character comes from a small town and this is her introduction to life in the big city. Several students share a large old house near the University (in a neighborhood I've always enjoyed driving through) and they discover that the house is haunted.
Beyond that plot details get fuzzy, although I do remember that there was a 'hippie wedding' that took place on the lawn of the capitol building.
It gets a ten because although it didn't have anybody famous in it (for years it wasn't even listed on the IMDb and I wondered if I'd imagined it, and I don't know if even Hooper has a print of it any more) and wasn't a techno marvel I could tell that it was made with a lot of love. Hooper was thrilled to have a camera at his disposal and use it to tell his story.
If this ever comes out on DVD I'll be first in line.
A film by Tobe Hooper
kosmasp3 November 2010
My summary line will be something of an inside joke that only people who have watched the movie at the Frightfest in London earlier this year (2010) will understand. Those who went ahead and watched it of course. And stayed until the end. Because this is very experimental. Very different too.
And yes if you like it, you will state that this is good because it isn't like any Hollywood movie (well it's not supposed to be). And yes it has it's scenes (though the staircase montage gets a bit annoying after a bit). And also yes to the fact, that this is not really a horror movie. It is more a sci-fi movie than a horror movie. Just in case you expected that, from the man who brought you Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original that is).
If you are into experimental movies with (almost) no story at all, than this might be for you. Ignore my rating (and all the others who said it's not good). I'm not gonna tell you, how to feel about the weird things you (probably) are about to see.
And yes if you like it, you will state that this is good because it isn't like any Hollywood movie (well it's not supposed to be). And yes it has it's scenes (though the staircase montage gets a bit annoying after a bit). And also yes to the fact, that this is not really a horror movie. It is more a sci-fi movie than a horror movie. Just in case you expected that, from the man who brought you Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original that is).
If you are into experimental movies with (almost) no story at all, than this might be for you. Ignore my rating (and all the others who said it's not good). I'm not gonna tell you, how to feel about the weird things you (probably) are about to see.
always wondered about this one
pola-78 November 2006
this film was a classic hippie film ..........i saw it in Florida at the midnight surf movie theaters. totally unique---- and i have been wondering about it for more than thirty years.
hard to believe this director went on the the chainsaw thing............almost impossible to imagine since the love message of the late 60's was so central to eggshells.
hopefully someone will know how to get a copy.
it's is very satisfying to know that someone else out there remembers this great piece of film and that i just didn't imagine the whole thing.
peace and twang, cg
hard to believe this director went on the the chainsaw thing............almost impossible to imagine since the love message of the late 60's was so central to eggshells.
hopefully someone will know how to get a copy.
it's is very satisfying to know that someone else out there remembers this great piece of film and that i just didn't imagine the whole thing.
peace and twang, cg
Interesting Taste of Late Sixties Austin
jstubblefield-217 October 2005
I saw this film in Austin, Texas, where it was shot, back in the hippie days when I was in college. I just want to comment that I remember being impressed because it was "different" from the Hollywood movies I'd grown up seeing. It was the first movie I saw that struck me as somebody having fun making the movie, rather than whether or not the movie itself was good. I hesitate to comment much on the movie because it has been about 35 years since I saw it. But I can say that many times over the years it has popped back into my mind and I've thought "Hey, I'd like to see that one again." I don't remember anything about the plot. In fact, I'm pretty sure there is not much, if any, plot in the usual sense. What I do remember vividly is a great sequence of a paper airplane sailing through the air the way anybody who has ever folded and thrown one would LIKE for it to fly!
From what i know about it, it seems interesting
super_beatle_inc15 January 2008
My dad went to film school in Austin, Texas in fact he was a freshman the year after Tobe Hooper graduated. He told me that as part of a class he had to watch 'Eggshells.' What he liked most about it was that it showed the power of editing, just simple cuts and that was all it needed. There was one scene in particular, of a man having a sword fight with himself he would swing the sword, and BAM! cut he would appear on the other side ready to parry, the scene probably took hours to choreograph but for the primitive effects it was truly remarkable.
I would love to try to find a copy of it somewhere, i may just have to go to Austin to get it.
I would love to try to find a copy of it somewhere, i may just have to go to Austin to get it.
One Addition to Wedding Scene
pjl4272 June 2010
The Wedding was performed in the Park by Rabbi Clyde T. "Mickey" Sills. As a student, I remember him giving a sermon about the wedding scene at the Hillel. He was a wonderful story teller and was one of the 16 Rabbis arrested in 1964 with Martin Luther King In St Augustine, Florida for Swimming in a pool with blacks. The sheriff poured acid into the pool.
In any event, he gave a wonderful sermon in about 1969 about performing a wedding next to the Courthouse which must have also housed the jail. As I recall, it was about creating a joyful and solemn occasion in the park under the Wedding Canopy (Huppah) while the prisoners were entertaining themselves heckling the wedding.
Woolridge Park is located between W 9th Street and W 10th Street on the West Side of Guadalupe St. The Travis County Courthouse address is 1000 Guadalupe Street. The current "high rise" county jail is adjacent to the county courthouse. The address is 509 W. 11th. I believe that it moved there after the movie was filmed.
Rabbi Sills now leads a Congregation in Oregon.
In any event, he gave a wonderful sermon in about 1969 about performing a wedding next to the Courthouse which must have also housed the jail. As I recall, it was about creating a joyful and solemn occasion in the park under the Wedding Canopy (Huppah) while the prisoners were entertaining themselves heckling the wedding.
Woolridge Park is located between W 9th Street and W 10th Street on the West Side of Guadalupe St. The Travis County Courthouse address is 1000 Guadalupe Street. The current "high rise" county jail is adjacent to the county courthouse. The address is 509 W. 11th. I believe that it moved there after the movie was filmed.
Rabbi Sills now leads a Congregation in Oregon.
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