8.30.2011

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

VHS scan courtesy of VHSwasteland.com
1986
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Category: Horror

You know, for all the flack that Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 gets for having barely any blood or gore I'm still kinda shocked that nobody ever gives this entry any shit for a number of reasons because this one has so much more wrong with it than Part 3.

For me, this wasn't the sequel we all waited 12 years for. A satire of the original? I don't think so. Because that's all this is, a satire playing on the horror's of the original for laughs.

I tried really, really hard to enjoy it but I just couldn't get past the silliness of it all. I mean, look at that cover! It's a mock up of The Breakfast Club poster. That should have been our first clue. TCM2 is not scary, even in the slightest and I don't think it ever tries to be. And one of the biggest things that bugged me the entire time is that unless you watch this thing with subtitles, you can't understand a single damn word that comes out of Chop-Top and The Cook's mouths. It's almost like they ad-libbed most of there dialogue with as many four letter words and a slew of ones I'd never even heard of as they could think of in that very moment and a lot of it is completely unintelligible. I honestly couldn't understand most of it, but that's just me.

The film certainly looks nice and director Tobe Hooper's visual talents are on full display here, as is Tom Savini's incredible makeup work. But unfortunately that doesn't save this thing from kinda dull, not scary and just plain weird in some parts. Now, it does have it's moments for sure, like when Stretch has to wear the face of her co-worker when she sneaks into there compound and Leatherface discovers her, forcing her to wear his face mask. Then he wakes up missing his face after we all thought he was dead! That was kinda cool and really awesome makeup work from Savini. Another is when Leatherface and Chop-Top show up at the radio station to kill Stretch and Leatherface has cornered Stretch after crashing through a wall and ends up becoming sexually aroused with his chainsaw between her legs. Kinda weird, but cool.
The first sequence where Leatherface and the gang are in that blue pickup truck and chase the car of yuppies on the bridge while driving backwards was probably the best sequence in the film. Really well staged, shot and executed right down to the yuppies head getting sawed in half. Just awesome work from everyone involved.
As much as I love Bill Moseley, I think he overdid his role here and just came off as a silly characature of the original character (the hitchhiker) from the first film. Dennis Hopper adds a little bit of cred to the film by playing a Lieutenant form another county hot on the trail of the Sawyer gang as he believes they killed his nephew (the guy in the wheelchair from the first film). He's also pretty damn weird in here, but I can't fault him (though he's proven he can play crazy many times) as the script doesn't take any of these characters seriously at all. Like I said, it's a satire that's aimed at trying to make you laugh and for me, I just thought that was the wrong way to go.
I can't remember too much about the time when this first came out as I was only 10, but I remember the trailer really making this thing look crazy scary and exactly what the type of film we had been waiting 12 years for. The trailer seemed to promise on those expectations but totally did a 180 on us. People give TCM3 shit for not being bloody or gory, but with the exception of maybe 3 scenes, neither does this one. At least part 3, which has nothing to do with the storyline of 1 or 2, had an atmosphere of dread and suspense to it.

I hadn't seen this entry in a really long time and was hoping that my memories of it were somehow off with the passing of time and that it was actually much better than what I remember it being. Sad to say that isn't the case. I love me some Tobe Hooper and Tom Savini, but here it just seemed like there talents were wasted in this Chainsaw entry that played more for laughs than scares. It's not gory, scary or even entertaining the way a Chainsaw movie should be. I know I'll probably get flack for this, but I have to admit that I enjoyed the TCM remake from 2003 and even more so, the TCM:The Beginning sequel from 2006 so much more than this one. But hey, at least it's not as bad as Return of the Living Dead II. What an atrocity.

3 comments:

  1. That has got to be the worst shocking film i have ever watched i wasted 2 hours of my life when i could of been watching paint dry. The acting was shit and the blood was shit. The women is getting knifed in the back and she just gets up what a load of shit thanks for making me waste my time


    SHOCKING FILM !!!!!!!!!

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  2. Well as you can tell from my take on it, I didn't like it either. So I'm with you on that one. The acting was horrid and the only real standout for me was Tom Savini's makeup effects.

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  3. I'm going to have to stick to my guns. Warts and all (including the annoying score), this film is 100% unique. Even though the Motel Hell/Mother's Day influence is apparent, it still manages to be it's own film. It's clear that Hooper, like Carpenter after him, pretty much disdains sequels and wanted to do something different or risky with the characters. TCM 2 belongs in the company of ROTLD (a kind of semi-sequel to NOTLD), Phantasm 2, Evil Dead 2, Howling 2 (it's not all good company) and, yes, Gremlins 2 as sequels which reinvent the wheel with a good dose of comedy spoofery. It is also, you may notice, the only TCM film that isn't just a remake of the first. Even the new film, Leatherface 3D (now Texas Chainsaw 3D I believe) which allegedly takes place either before this one, or in a new continuity following the first film, is just another remake/sequel, like Part 3 and 4 and the remakes proper.

    I'll always have the first one but this one is great too.

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