The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
★★½ — The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Twelve years on from one of the most influential horror films ever made, Tobe Hooper returned to the world of Leatherface and the Sawyer family with something that nobody, quite reasonably, expected. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre had arrived in 1974 as a low-budget gut-punch, shot on 16mm with a rawness that made it feel less like fiction and more like something unearthed from a crime scene. Its reputation had only grown in the intervening years, banned in several countries and passed around on dodgy VHS copies like contraband. A sequel, then, carried an enormous weight of expectation, and very little goodwill from the kind of horror fans who treat the original as something close to sacred.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, released in 1986 and produced by The Cannon Group under the Golan-Globus banner (a studio not especially known for its restraint), took that weight and cheerfully threw it out of the window. Hooper, working here with a proper studio budget and a screenplay by L. M. Kit Carson, made a conscious decision to lean into dark comedy rather than attempt to replicate what had made the first film so effective. The result is a film set in the world of Texas radio and underground cook-off competitions, in which a late-night DJ finds herself drawn into the orbit of the cannibal family, while a former Texas Marshal, consumed by obsession, hunts them from the shadows. The production design, courtesy of Cary White, and the special effects work by Tom Savini are among the most talked-about elements of the film, giving it a lurid, almost theatrical visual identity that sits a long way from the dusty, sun-bleached horror of its predecessor.
The cast is a curious and rather entertaining mix. Dennis Hopper, an actor who always seemed to operate at his own unique frequency, takes on the role of the obsessed lawman, and if you have enjoyed his work in films like True Romance or Land of the Dead, you will have a reasonable sense of what he brings to a role that demands commitment and a certain gleeful abandon. Caroline Williams carries the film as the DJ at the centre of the chaos, a performance that required her to sustain extended sequences of extreme physical and emotional intensity. Returning from the original is Jim Siedow as the patriarch Drayton Sawyer, while Bill Johnson steps into the role of Leatherface. Perhaps the most talked-about new addition, though, is Bill Moseley as Chop-Top, a character introduced here for the first time, whose erratic, unsettling energy became something of a cult touchstone in its own right.
As mad as a box of wasps. If The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was raw, nerve-shredding terror, its sequel is… well, something else entirely. Gone is the oppressive, documentary-style horror of the original and in its place, we get a chaotic, cartoonishly violent horror-comedy that dials everything up to eleven. To be fair, there’s some charm in the sheer madness of it all. Dennis Hopper dual-wielding chainsaws like some sort of deranged vigilante is certainly a sight to behold, and Bill Moseley’s performance as Chop-Top is pure unhinged brilliance. But the shift in tone is jarring and incongruent where the first film was nightmare fuel, this one feels like a fever dream after watching too much Looney Tunes. There’s fun to be had, but it’s a long way from the grim icon that came before it. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a strange beast. One that you either embrace for its over-the-top weirdness or reject for completely missing the terrifying simplicity of the original. I fall somewhere in the middle.
I suspect this is one of those films that rewards going in with adjusted expectations rather than a direct comparison to what came before. Taken on its own peculiar terms, there is genuine craft buried under the chaos, and Moseley's performance alone makes it worth a watch for anyone with a taste for the wilder edges of 1980s horror, something I have found myself returning to when looking at films like Re-Animator. The Cannon Group pedigree probably tells you everything you need to know about the register it operates in. Loud, messy, not entirely sure of itself, but never, ever dull. Sometimes that is enough. Just about.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 1986 | Watched: 2005-02-02
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More from Tobe Hooper: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
More with Dennis Hopper: Land of the Dead (2005) · True Romance (1993)
More from the 1980s: Nightmare City (1980) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Style Wars (1983) · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
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