Movie Review: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
To say this movie is strange would be an understatement. Just look at the poster. It’s a comedy poster, parodying The Breakfast Club. And it’s sort of a comedy movie, but it’s not really parodying anything specifically.
Perhaps most shockingly, this movie is directed by Tobe Hooper — the same man that directed the first Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s so shocking because the films are so different. This movie doesn’t attempt any kind of subtle realism in its scares, and instead is way over the top. Supposedly, Tobe Hooper believed his original film had some dark humor in it, but nobody was able to see it, so he decided to make a dark comedy.
The movie opens with two obnoxious characters getting killed by Leatherface, holding the corpse of his brother (the hitch-hiker from the original) while they’re on the phone with a radio DJ. It’s so excessive, and not particularly scary.
We then meet Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper), whose niece and nephew were in the original film, and who’s since been on a vendetta against all chainsaw-wielding killers.
The DJ from the phone call, Stretch (Caroline Williams), shows up to present Lefty with a tape, but he dismisses it. She then reports on a Texas/Oklahoma chili competition, which Drayton Sawyer (Jim Siedow) wins, declaring it’s because of how great the meat he uses is.
Lefty eventually comes around to the idea of the tape, and insists that Stretch play it on her show, and she does. Drayton gets a phone call from one of his brothers saying that it’s on the radio.
When the radio station closes up, Chop Top Sawyer (Bill Moseley), shows up. I hate this character. He’s so over the top, and he’s not funny. I guess he’s a Vietnam veteran, and he’s got a metal plate in his head that he keeps poking and scratching with a coat hanger that he puts to a lighter every now and then.
Leatherface (Bill Johnson), every now and then called Bubba, shows up, and chases after Stretch with his chainsaw. She locks herself in a cooler, and her colleague, L.G. (Lou Perryman) comes over. Chop Top hits him a number of times with a hammer as Leatherface eventually breaks into the cooler.
She tries to calm him down by saying he’s good or something, and he kind of dry humps her with his chainsaw.
It’s a really uncomfortable scene. But anyways, Leatherface doesn’t kill her because he likes her, and he lies to his brother by saying he did. Well, he doesn’t talk. But his grunt responses certainly implied that.
Stretch follows their truck to an abandoned amusement park, and she finds Lefty, who admits that he used her as bait. Lefty is carrying with him three chainsaws — one big one, and two smaller ones in holsters by his hips.
Stretch falls through some kind of trap door and ends up underground, and Lefty goes through the unguarded entrance to the underground lair. He starts cutting through all the support barriers, screaming like a crazy person.
Leatherface starts skinning L.G., and when he sees Stretch, he puts L.G.’s face over hers as a way to I guess hide her maybe. Leatherface doesn’t want to kill her, but he ties her up, and then after he leaves, it turns out L.G. is still alive. He stays alive long enough to both show off the great Tom Savini makeup, and to free Stretch, who takes off.
She overhears Drayton and Chop Top treating Leatherface like shit, and they’re complaining about someone sabotaging their dwelling, but also don’t really do anything to look at who’s doing what. They eventually see Stretch sneaking away, and Leatherface chases after her. All the Draytons (except for Grandpa) gather around her, and they joke about how she’s Leatherface’s girlfriend and all that stuff.
They take her to dinner, and wheel in Grandpa, who’s supposed to kill her with a hammer but he can’t really hold it because he’s 137 years old. Lefty bursts in, cuts Drayton in the ass with his chainsaw, and then fights Leatherface. I never thought a chainsaw sword fight could be so dull, quite frankly.
Drayton has some attempt at humor while he’s by himself, and then he decides to take a grenade from off of his dead brother’s corpse, and detonates it.
Meanwhile, Stretch has escaped, but she’s still being chased by Chop Top. It’s implied that everyone else dies in the explosion, but it’s not very clear. Stretch finds a shrine to Grandma Sawyer, and takes the chainsaw from her corpse, and kills Chop Top with it. She then — very out of place, I might add — does sort of like a chainsaw dance like Leatherface did in the first one.
This movie’s not very good. I guess I see why some people like it because it’s so excessive and ridiculous, but really that’s why I didn’t like it. I don’t even want to compare it to the original because it’s a completely different movie, but on its own terms, it doesn’t really succeed. As a comedy, it’s not very funny. There are a few kind of funny lines towards the end by Drayton, but that’s about it. I guess I appreciate Dennis Hopper’s performance, because he’s so over the top. So is everyone else, but less enjoyably so. This movie’s very loud, and just has lots of characters yelling and screaming. Chop Top in particular is grating.
I’d also like to add that the guy playing Leatherface is bad. I’m not going to say anything ridiculous like no one but Gunnar Hansen can play that character, but Bill Johnson just plays it like a big buffoon. He’s doing his little chainsaw dance constantly, and isn’t either menacing or funny.
Rating: 4/10
