Review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) by Ice R — 17 Oct 2009

This one of the films on my top 10 most underrated films.

TCM2 is often outclassed and outshined by it's bigger, meaner brother. But, this film still holds it's own.

While it's not nearly as scary as the original, it is just as entertaining. and I think going into this one Tobe Hooper knew he really wasn't going to be able to make this one as scary or original as the first one. So I believe he took a different approach for a different film. TCM2 is one of those sequels that knows it's not going to live up to the first, So it makes itself something "new".

Bill Moseley puts one of his best and most outstanding performances in his entire career. As "Chop-Top" Moseley is wild out of control, and just plain sadistic which is where his acting style works best. And his role was so impressive that originally the next film in the series was not going to be another TCM, it was going to be called All American Massacre, and it would follow the "Chop-Top" character after the events of the second film. Personally I think this would have made for a much more entertaining film than "Leatherface" which became the third installment in the TCM franchise. Although the film "All American Massacre" was never made, you can still see low-budget bootleg trailers on you-tube and elsewhere on the internet.

And while Moseley was putting on one of his best performances, Dennis Hopper was putting on one of his weirdest. Hopper runs around the film like a mad man, referring to himself as the "lord of the harvest" and singing "bringing in the sheep" while kicking down walls and cutting things up with duel chainsaws. Hopper isn't even in the same movie as the other characters, it's like he is in his own short film, doing whatever he wants. He doesn't even interact with any of the other main characters until about the last ten minutes or so. And all of these wild antics build up to one of my favorite conclusions in cinema.

If you are willing to suspend your disbelief, and give this film a chance. You will find the experience well worth it. this film delivers in every aspect of the word.

If you want a Horror film, watch the original. But if you want to go on a wild and memorable journey into madness this is the best bus you could step on.

Pick up TCM2, and go for a ride in the carpool of crazy.