Retrospective Film Review

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) • 35 Years Later

A radio host is victimized by the cannibal family as a former Texas Marshall hunts them.

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has not stopped. It haunts Texas. It seems to have no end.” You could switch that title for any other slasher and those last words would still hold meaning. By 1986, there had been sequels to Friday the 13th (1980), Halloween (1978), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), which were all, for the most part, consistent franchises. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) had preceded all those properties and stood alone from the other slashers as a truly unique experience in authentic insanity. Only the prototype slasher Norman Bates from Psycho (1960) came before ‘Leatherface’, and the studios were already daring enough to greenlight Psycho II (1983) sans Alfred Hitchcock. It seemed inevitable a return trip to Texas would occur. Luckily, the original maestro Tobe Hooper would return, but his audacious one-upmanship against Leatherface’s newfound contemporaries proved to be too crazy for some.