Review of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) by Allan C — 15 Apr 2017

Disappointing sequel to the classic original film is still good, but nowhere as shocking or frightening as the original. This sequel catches up with the Sawyer family years later, now hold up in an abandoned amusement park.

The story goes through the story paces of the original, with the film's heroine having to endure seeing friends killed, a demented dinner scene, strange interactions with Leatherface, and an eventual escape.

The big difference between this film and the original is that writer/director Tope Hooper focuses a lot more on black comedy, which was certainly an element in the original, but it's much more in the fore than it was in the original film.

This sequel also features a tremendous amount of gore courtesy of special effects legend Tom Savini (that's either a good thing or a bad thing depending upon your perspective), which actually earned this film an X-Rating upon it's initial release.

Another added comic element is Dennis Hopper playing a crazed Texas Ranger who's hot on the heels of the Sawyer family and looking for revenge because he's related to wheelchair bound Franklin from the first film.

Bill Moseley is a real standout as Chop-Top and is probably the most memorable part of this film (and I'd forgotten that his line "Dog will hunt!" was sampled in a Primus song). Overall, this film is is pretty entertaining for horror fans, though nowhere as scary as the original film.