THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Tobe Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" is one of the loopiest, demented horror sequels ever made - a nonstop avalanche of bloodcurling terror and black humor. There is never any respite from the chaos or the dementia - it goes on and on. Though it is not as gory as one might think, it is not everyone's cup of tea, not if you are in the mood for pleasant time-filler.
Part 2 takes place several years after the events of the first film. An opening sequence shows two college-age kids attacked by a chainsaw-wielding maniac on a pickup truck. They are killed in grisly fashion while talking to a disc jockey on the air. The next day, a former sheriff (Dennis Hopper) investigates the crime and wants to put a stop to the cannibal family that killed a relative of his in the past. The disc jockey, Stretch (Caroline Williams), decides to help the sheriff by airing the audio tape she made of the grisly crime, despite the conflicts with the FCC. The hope is that authorities will realize that the cannibal family must be captured and brought to justice. Naturally, after the tape is aired, a gangly, greasy-haired man named Chop Top (Bill Moseley) makes inquiries about the tape. Before you can say the buzz is back, the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface (Bill Johnson) and his family raise holy hell all over again. This includes the wicked father who runs a profitable chili business and the 130-year-old grandfather who seems to drink blood to stay alive. Gross? Yep, including Chop Top's constant scratching of the metal plate on his head with the use of a hanger that he...well, folks, I hate to gross you out.
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" is merely frenetic and cartoonish from start to finish, and Mr. Hooper doesn't know when to quit. The crazed family now live in an abandoned amusement park of sorts with a house built underground on several levels. So we see one room and passageway after another decorated with candles and cadavers. Miss Williams runs from one room to another, constantly screaming in the highest pitches imaginable - certainly topping Miss Marilyn Burns own screams from the original. And Mr. Hopper, pre-"Blue Velvet", finds their living quarters and starts to cut down the foundation with several chainsaws. So we see some bloodletting (though it is kept to a minimum), Leatherface making Miss Williams do the most disgusting acts imaginable, Chop Top screaming about Vietnam, a dueling chainsaw match, old gramps licking his lips with glee, a suicide involving a grenade in someone's butt, and so on.
For sheer sweat-inducing thrills and genuine claustrophobia, I still highly recommend the original "Chainsaw Massacre" (nobody has ever made a frightening, never-ending nightmare like it since, not even Hooper). For genuinely cartoonish mayhem and melodramatic thrills with its tongue firmly placed on its cheek, this highly over-the-top sequel is the one to see. Hooper still knows how to engineer a feverish, energetic horror film like no one else, and the abrupt ending with Williams dancing around with a chainsaw still makes me shiver. It's just that the pitch is set a little too high. Or perhaps the buzz on that chainsaw is just a tad too loud.
