The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) Cannon/Horror RT: 101 minutes No MPAA Rating (graphic bloody violence and gore, disturbing gruesome images, intense scenes of terror, language) Director: Tobe Hooper Screenplay: L.M. Kit Carson Music: Tobe Hooper and Jerry Lambert and Tobe Hooper Cinematography: Richard Kooris Release date: August 22, 1986 (US) Cast: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley, Bill Johnson, Ken Evert, Lou Perry. Box Office: $8M (US)
Rating: ***
The tagline on the poster for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 reads, “After a decade of silence …. The Buzzz is back!” The Sawyer family motto is “The saw is family.” This is no tea party, fellow gorehounds. It’s more like an undiscovered circle of Hell.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is the last mainstream movie I can recall being released with a “No One Under 17 Admitted” policy instead of an official MPAA rating. By this time, I was old enough to see such films without grief from the parental units or theater staff. The only problem is it didn’t open in any theaters in my neck of the woods. It would have taken at least 45 minutes to get to the closest theater showing it which would have entailed trying to get a ride from my father who obviously wasn’t a member of the target audience. Since I didn’t want to make him sit through it with me, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to wait until the home video release to feast my eyes on Leatherface’s latest murder spree.
It finally came out the following February and I can’t say that it had me jumping out of my seat. It’s a crazy ass movie, no doubt, with its fair share of weirdness and depraved behavior. It’s also gorier than its 1974 predecessor, but like the original it isn’t as bloody as the title would seem to suggest. I was hoping for more of a bloodbath, especially with the super-restrictive age policy. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 doesn’t quite qualify for that distinction. I own the “Gruesome Edition” DVD which features a few deleted scenes including one in which the Sawyer clan makes quick work of a rowdy group of rioting sports fans. Even though the picture quality is poor, I can still tell that it would have been the movie’s coolest scene. I cannot understand why it wasn’t left in. It’s an excellent display of the masterful work of makeup artist extraordinaire Tom Savini. That, my friend, is one of the greatest cinematic crimes of the 20th century. I say this while remembering first degree felonies like Ishtar and Yentl.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 opens with a bang as Leatherface dispatches two annoying yuppie d-bags who make the mistake of crossing his family’s path on a deserted stretch of Texas highway. They’ve just graduated from high school and look like they stepped right off the set of the latest John Hughes comedy. Perhaps the studio should have considered subtitling this movie “Pretty in Puke”? On the DVD commentary, writer Carson says he was poking fun at Hughes’ films with these two victims and with the poster art which looks eerily similar to The Breakfast Club.
With the absence of the sports fans scene, this opening sequence becomes the best part of the movie as Leatherface saws the driver’s head in half. The incident is caught on audio tape by local radio DJ Stretch Brock (Williams, Stepfather II). The boys were harassing her on the phone right before the attack. Former Texas Ranger Lefty Enright (Hopper, Blue Velvet) arrives on the scene and immediately proves to the local police it wasn’t a car accident. He’s spent the last 13 years attempting to track down the people responsible for the disappearances of his niece Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother Franklin (remember them from the first movie?). He convinces the local paper to print a short piece about his investigation. It catches the attention of Stretch who brings him the tape. He initially dismisses her, but shows up at the radio station later asking her to play the tape every hour during one of her nightly broadcasts.
It catches the attention of Drayton Sawyer (Siedow), now a successful businessman with an award-winning secret chili recipe. When asked about it, he replies, “No secret, it’s the meat. Don’t skimp on the meat. I’ve got a real good eye for prime meat. Runs in the family.” Upon concluding her show, Stretch encounters Chop Top (Moseley) waiting for her in the lobby. Remember the hitchhiker from the first movie? This is his twin brother. He wears a Sonny Bono toupee to conceal the metal plate in his head (an injury from the Vietnam War). He also does something with a wire hanger that makes Joan Crawford’s use appear perfectly normal.
Needless to say, he scares the hell out of Stretch. She tries to make him leave. It turns out he didn’t come alone. Leatherface (Johnson) emerges from the darkness and the chase is on. Stretch manages to avoid being killed, but her sound engineer L.G. (Perry, The Blues Brothers) isn’t as lucky. Chop Top beats him to a bloody pulp with a hammer and the boys take him with them when they finally leave. How sweet, fresh meat.
Long story short, Stretch follows them to their home situated under an abandoned carnival ground. Lefty follows her to the Sawyer home. He used her as bait to bring the killers out into the open. Armed with three chainsaws, Lefty sets out to obtain justice for his missing loved ones. This is when The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 takes a wrong turn. It becomes redundant as Stretch finds herself trapped in this place looking for a way out before somebody discovers her.
On the upside, Hopper delivers a great hammy performance. He gets to deliver lines like, “It’s the devil’s playground!” and “I’m the Lord of the Harvest!” The scene where he goes shopping for chainsaws is the kind of thing you’ll only see in a cannibalistic redneck horror flick like this. I kept thinking of the “My Schwartz is bigger than yours!” scene from Spaceballs.
I’ll say this much for Hooper (director of the original movie), he has a wickedly warped sense of humor. At times, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 plays like a dark comedy of manners and errors. It doesn’t have the same claustrophobic atmosphere that defined The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; hence, it’s not as effective horror movie. It’s really more like a funhouse owned and operated by the escaped inmates of an insane asylum. The only problem is it gets redundant in the second half. It’s especially disappointing considering the awesome set-up.
Still, the actors appear to be having a great time with the movie. Siedow also gets some choice dialogue like. “It’s a dog eat dog world and from where I sit there just ain’t enough damn dogs.” and, after getting cut with the chainsaw in a certain part of the body, “The small businessman …. always, always, always gets it in the ass.” Grandpa makes another appearance in the sequel, looking only slightly closer to death than he did thirteen years earlier. Williams makes a great Scream Queen here. She’s feisty, but also knows how to act suitably terrified as she realizes she’s more than just a mere guest at the family dinner.
I wish the filmmakers had done more with the chili subplot. The very idea of people enjoying cannibalistic cuisine makes for great dark comedy. I wish there was more blood, guts and gore. A movie like this requires something on the scale of Grand Guignol. I like that the Sawyers’ sense of interior décor hasn’t changed over the years. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a pretty good movie that could have been great. It excels in the weirdness department, but falls short in a few other crucial areas. I wouldn’t call it a complete failure though. It’s more of an underachiever.
