Background
Henkel was born in Virginia and grew up in several small towns in South Texas.
director screenwriter film producer
Henkel was born in Virginia and grew up in several small towns in South Texas.
He started at the University of Texas at Austin in 1964 majoring in English and graduated in 1969.
Henkel and Hooper co-wrote the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre screenplay. Henkel both wrote and directed a sequel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. He also wrote and co-produced the Eagle Pennell classic Last Night at the Alamo (1983) as well as the adaptation for Hooper"s Eaten Alive (1977).
Henkel returned to the horror genre in 2010 with another tale of cannibals titled Butcher Boys (2011), which was co-directed by two of his former film students Duane Graves and Justin Meeks.
Henkel had previously worked with the pair as a producer on their debut feature The Wild Manitoba of the Navidad. He has been a lecturer in screenwriting at Rice University, and is currently producing the horror film Foundation Footage 3D.