A vengeful lawman hunts down a family of
chainsaw-wielding killers with the help of a radio host. HORROR
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The Texas Chainsaw
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1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a landmark horror film and gave audiences an experience that shocked and horrified them and left them questioning if what they saw was real or not. Its influence cannot be understated and will always be one of the greatest horror movies of all time. How do you follow up with that? What is left to improve upon "the scariest movie ever made"? Tobe Hooper knew that, if he was going to make a sequel, it was going to have to be vastly different to its predecessor and so he ramped up the violence, the characters, and pitch-black humor that is present in the first film. Where the first film was restrained by a lack of money, experience, and time, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is all about excess and is definitely taking a cue from the decade of decadence that was the 80s and there was no other production company that exuded excess like Cannon Films.
Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were the founders/owners of Cannon Films, fans of Tobe Hooper's first film and wanted him to make something similar for them. When they were screened an early cut of the film, they were not pleased. "We want the monsters." was their response. They did not understand why the test audience was laughing because they sure weren't. This has been the legacy for some fans of the first film when they see this one, they don't get it. What Hooper wanted was this film to be distinctly different than his first film and he succeeds quite well and makes a dark, funny, gory follow-up to a film that never needed a sequel. Having said that, I am glad he decided to do it as he brings his cannibal clan out of the boonies and into the city to terrorize the yuppies who dominated pop culture in the 80s with their pastel polos, short shorts, mullets, and firebirds. In 1974, the Sawyer family were killing hippies and now they've set their sights on the next generation and hunt them down, kill them, feed their kids to them, and get trophies for their chili (just watch out for those hard-shell peppercorns). The theme of family is carried from the first film as we are introduced to the now legendary Chop-Top (played by Bill Moseley) and his shiny metal plate. Don't worry, the hitchhiker is back as well albeit in a much more ceremonial role as Chop-Top uses him as a puppet for most of the flick. The cook comes back played with gusto by the late Jim Siedow. He had one of my favorite lines from the first film ("Look what your brother did to the door! He ain't got no pride in his home.") and keeps that same energy as the now named Drayton Sawyer, the 'face' of the family as he has taken his cooking skills on the road with a food truck. Leatherface is played this time around by Bill Johnson and we see another side to Bubba as he develops a crush on Stretch (Caroline Williams) and we find out that he is a premature ejaculator when he gets some alone time with his lady friend when they first meet. There is a A LOT of chainsaws as phallus images in this flick, some subtle, others...not so much, you can't help but laugh at it though. The other character is the mad Ahab of this flick, Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper), who is the Uncle to Sally and Franklin from the first film. Since he found out about their deaths, he has made it his personal mission to find and kill this cannibal clan and has been hunting them all over Texas. Being that he is a Texas Ranger, Lefty uses it to his advantage in following the Sawyers over the years. I make the Ahab reference because he pursues them relentlessly and with no regard for his life as he knows that it will probably wind up killing him. That manic energy is channeled superbly by Hopper and continues to ramp up until we see him strapped with multiple chainsaws and descending into the depths of the Sawyers humble abode. Once here, the film continues to showcase an impressive and creative set design and the gloriously gory effects courtesy of Tom Savini. I did neglect to mention the opening scene kill which shows someone literally losing their head. You know you're in for a treat when Savini's name is in the credits. I always love watching this movie as it is always entertaining and the jokes land better than grandpa swinging his hammer. Seriously, who leaves it up to a 137-year-old bag of bones to kill someone? He ain't packing the punch he used to. Like I said, the dick jokes write themselves in this movie. This movie ratchets up the bat shit until the very end and when you're done, you are never the same. Ask anyone who has every survived a Texas Chainsaw Massacre...oh, that's right you can't, because they're all dead. Make sure to always check your chili and confirm that they are in fact peppercorns and not human teeth. THE SAW IS FAMILY! |
Back in 2016, I watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 for the first time and basically hated it. I considered it one of the worst movies I'd ever seen, and it actually pissed me off that I didn't like it. Between my horror fan friends and family, I'd heard for years that this was the only decent TCM sequel and a fun watch. Here we are years later, and I finally get it. I still have problems with it, and I disagree with some tonal and character decisions, but overall this film is a fun watch and a decent continuation of one of the most aggressive horror films of all time.
Fourteen years after the original film, the Sawyer family have gone on the road, turning their killing spree into an oddly successful food truck business. When a DJ named Stretch (Williams) accidentally records one of their murders, they go after her, while a vengeful former Texas Ranger (Hopper) hunts them down because they killed his brother's kids. While I still think it was weird to see Leatherface hump the air with his chainsaw, I do think it was a neat character choice to see him struggle with a moral quandary over whether he should kill Stretch. And honestly, you don't get any more badass than Leatherface fighting Dennis Hopper in a chainsaw duel to the death. When I first saw TCM 2, I hadn't seen a lot of films with this kind of tone. I also expected this film to look and feel like the first one, and you just can't do that. You need to have certain expectations going into this one. All the horror films I've seen since my first viewing have reinforced my horror fandom and given me so many more reference points for what this film was trying to do. It's not that bad after all, and it's important to watch films more than once to get the full experience and understanding that they may require.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is the definition of a fun movie. After the monster success of the original, everyone involved pretty much went their own way. Director Tobe Hooper would go on to direct other horror cult hits like Poltergeist and The Funhouse. It wasn’t long, though, before he decided to go back to the Sawyer clan. Hooper had constantly gone on about people not getting the black humor, so he decided to up that aspect considerably for this sequel. Unfortunately, it didn’t take with fans and critics upon initial release. Years have been kind to TCM 2, though, and it now enjoys a rather large cult following.
TCM 2 has the distinct privilege of being the only film in this franchise where you can tell this is a direct sequel to the original. No reset button. No skipping sequels. No prequel. A full-on continuation of the storyline and characters from the first film. In this franchise, that’s refreshing. With that comes returning characters in regards to the Sawyer clan. It’s awesome to see what Leatherface and the rest of the clan have been up to. Which, as to be expected, has been murdering and using the body parts for their famous chili. But there are also new characters. Which brings us to Caroline Williams, Dennis Hopper, and Bill Moseley. Williams is fantastic as Stretch, the main character of this installment. Hopper is his delightful self as Lefty, who is on a personal revenge mission against the Sawyers. And Moseley is perfection as new member, Chop Top. With the added humor also comes much more gore. Whereas the original film kept everything to the audience’s mind, this installment shows all the good stuff. This is an awesome sequel that has also earned its cult status. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 ups the gore and humor while also having some solid scary moments. It gave us horror icons Bill Moseley and Caroline Williams. And you can never deny the always reliable Dennis Hopper. Anyone who loves the original film and is looking to go back to Texas, you definitely should check this out. The saw is family. |