Review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) by Ewc O — 28 Feb 2016

Though The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) was decent at best, the intense efforts to censor The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 left me compelled to see what violence was on offer this time around.

Within the opening credits, within the instant I saw the names Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus appear, I knew what I was in for. Being a production produced by Cannon Films, the company that dominated the 1980's craze of low-budget cult classic films often riddled with violence, there is a generic contract that promises The Texas Chainsaw Massacre will offer both low-budget violence and 80's fun. The former is an absolutely necessary element for the success of the film, but the latter leaves The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 at risk of becoming too campy.

In the 12 years since the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, times have changed significantly. Tobe Hooper's original film has become a classic and he has gone on to direct other films of great success such as Poltergeist (1982). As a result, this time he is able to work with a larger budget and a recognized actor as its central star. However, times have also changed. The decade has changed to the 1980's and the slasher genre has gone on to become massively successful, rendering the context of this production far different than its predecessor. A common criticism of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is the fact that it takes a massive departure from its predecessor in an effort to live up to different standards of horror. Rather than making the effort to create a genuine horror film, Tobe Hooper directs this film into territory of a far less serious nature where there is greater obsession over black comedy violence than genuine thrills. In the positive sense, this means that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 makes an attempt not to replicate its predecessor and tread old yet it also means that fan expectations will not be catered to. Frankly, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 has to be judged partially as a sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and as a Cannon Film. Cannon Films specialize in guilty pleasures made out of violence and occasionally nudity. There is none of the latter this time, but there is no shortage of the former. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre used blood and gore sparingly while making a genuine attempt to build an intense atmosphere with unpredictability yet The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 simply throws sadistic violence at viewers to the point of procuring both thrills and laughs.

While the start of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 moves along at a fast pace, it begins to take a downturn relatively soon. The first major sign of this is 30 minutes into the story when Chop Top arrives at DJ Vanita "Stretch" Brock's radio station to antagonise her with nonsensical rambling until Leatherface emerges from the darkness. Until Leatherface shows up, Chop Top's repetitive psychosis in a Southern accent is little more than a distraction from the lack of a story surrounding the film. Leatherface arrives, destroying the studio and thrusting his chainsaw around as a clear phallic symbol in a moment of psychosexual craze. This entire scene goes on for about 15 minutes and constitutes a third of the entire viewing experience thus far, but after it all I couldn't help but ask myself "What the hell was the point of all that?". This pace ends up being maintained for the rest of the film, largely so that it can stretch the limitations of its simplistic story to feature-length running time. This entire scene is a strange period of dark comedy without all that much blood to offer and is really the down point of the film. However, as it pushes closer to its climax, the film makes a steady improvement.

Since Cannon Films is known for producing the action vehicles of stars like Chuck Norris, it plays with this trope in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 by making its hero a sheriff who weilds chainsaws like a machine gun. Unfortunately, this proves to be misleading because he spends the majority of his time simply slicing up scenery while shouting. Within the final few minutes of the film Lt. Boude "Lefty" Enright finally battles the enemies with his weapons, but it ultimately ends up being a gimmick too short on screen time to justify misleading viewers. However, the climax of the film turns out to be an endless array of the greatest violence that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 has to offer. The scenery gives an intense setting to the production, the lighting creates an psychedelic colour scheme and the blood is proudly relentless. Viewers who know the standard for 80's exploitation horror can rejoice at the sights in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 if they do not obsess over the story. Though I found the narrative simplicities and pacing to be frustrating, I found enjoyment in the passionate violence of the visuals.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is far more obsessed with style-over-substance, forsaking tension building and narrative to be an exercise in gore. Cannon Films rarely maintain intelligent stories. Dedicated to making predictable genre flicks, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 ends up being a film which offers no mystery. It's about 19 minutes into the film where the story procures its first suspect even though the characters and viewer are expected not to notice the fact that one scene puts so much emphasis on Drayton Sawyer's confidence in his chilli recipe through emphasizing the quality of the meat. The only reason such a scene would be present in a story where sadistic cannibals are the antagonist would be due to his involvement with them somehow, particularly when he starts making mention to his family. But then again, this is heavily hinted at by the original theatrical release poster of the film so there really isn't all that much in disguise. Mystery is not a key feature in the tale, but it doesn't exactly matter all that often. Since the characters of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 are aware of the incidents of the preceding film rather than walking into an unsuspecting trap, the story ends up as more of a game of cat and mouse. The addition of this and the black comedy makes the film a sequel very much in tune with the recent Australian horror film Wolf Creek 2 (2013), seemingly a minor influence on that production. Ultimately, although it is very much a rather generic exploitation piece The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 maintains enough of its predecessor's concepts to be a valid sequel while succeeding as a standalone horror film.

There is also a certain extent of flair that the cast of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 bring in.

Dennis Hopper delivers a solid leading effort. From the year before his massive career comeback with Blue Velvet (1987) and an Academy Award nominated performance in Hoosiers (1987), Cannon Films pounced on the opportunity to put Dennis Hopper in the lead role. They didn't give him much of a character, but his natural talent for commanding the confident intensity of his role leads to him taking a memorable stand as the chainsaw-wielding protagonist of his tale. His role is reliant very much on formula more than his distinctive traits, but he has enough intense strength to capture the insanity of the story.

Caroline Williams also makes a strong addition to the cast. Portraying the most generic character of the story, Caroline Williams is a damsel in distress who is left to scream to shout until her character's spirit is killed. She manages to do it with a real sense of fear, but she turns it all around towards the end. Having made as much noise as she can, DJ Vanita "Stretch" Brock attempts to escape her captivity with what little spirit she has left. In a violent final climax, she turns it into aggressive insanity and throws it at the villains of the film, accumulating the film's final image where she waves a chainsaw above her head while screaming loudly in a clear mimicry of how Leatherface did at the end of the first film. Caroline Williams captures the fearful stereotype of her role with ease and converges with the insanity of the narrative in the film's climax, giving her an effective start on a well-deserved career as a scream queen.

Bill Moseley is quite an oddball cast member. His first major scene is the aforementioned extended period of slow, nonsensical rambling where he conveys the psychotic nature of his character. He captures a role very similar to Michael Keaton's iconic performance in Beetlejuice (1988), preceding him by two years. His dark effort cries out for insanity and self-aware ridiculousness which anchors him as a heavy source of the film's black comedy. A notable sign of this is the fact that Bill Moseley's depiction of Chop-Top's PTSD to his experiences in the Vietnam War consist entirely of him shouting "'Nam flashback! 'Nam flashback!". His performance revolves entirely around creating an awkard and twisted character, and he achieves that for better and for worse.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 lacks the genuine atmosphere building, originality and mystery of its predecessor, but with Tobe Hooper directing and Cannon Films producing it manages to carry the same concepts from its predecessor into gleefully violent 80's exploitation enough to make it a valid sequel which doesn't tread old ground.