Massacre à la tronçonneuse 2

A late night radio host hears some prank callers being killed over the phone, she offers to help Lieutenant 'Lefty' Enright (Dennis Hopper) track down what he believes to be the same people responsible for chainsaw killings in Texas. He however uses her as bait and she is taken by the Chop Top and the gang. He then has to try and save her before she becomes dinner. After the intensity of the original, that was probably impossible to top, Hooper decided to go with a comic leaning this time, some of it works some of it doesn't, but by the end i was just about persuaded it was fun. Hopper is naturally OTT, he doesn't quite sleepwalk through the film like others have stated, but he also doesn't really excel either. Caroline Williams constant screaming is more than slightly irksome and her playful musings with an impotent Leatherface are just silly, but its Bill Moseley you'll remember most from this film, he's a hoot.

Loud, noisy, obnoxious, irritating, and psychotic. That's how I'd describe this movie. It was headache inducing, mind boggling, and brain scrambling. Did there have to be so much yelling, screaming, and overall inanity? The massacre family--dad, brother, and Leatherface--were in constant incoherence. The main victim--let's talk about the main victim really quick. Why did she even pursue the massacre family to their digs? What was she going to do anyway? This is not like it was the days of cell phones where she could follow and call the authorities. At best she finds their hideout and informs the police later. At worst, she's their dinner. The risk was not worth the reward. And Dennis Hopper's character, what was his deal? He went after the massacre family armed with chainsaws!?! This is Texas man. Bring a gun. Heck, bring three. This movie was yelling, screaming, and bad decisions. Sounds like a frat party except bloodier.

Caroline Williams was so great in such a bizarre horror film and a few years ago I got a autograph of Bill Mosley plus a photo which I'm very happy about. Wildly entertaining despite its wackiness, there's so much to relish and not that bad to me -- the bad stuff is overruled! The music is so mind bogglingly great and the ending is so morbidly good!

TCM 1 is to TCM 2 what Alien is to Aliens. Nuanced tension building is replaced with "more is more" theatrics. This may have inherently less artistic merit, but it does follow through on an intention that's impossible to ignore. In a way, maybe this always should have been the tone, as no one ever expected subtlety from a movie called Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It gets to the point quickly then proceeds with a relentless bludgeoning of blood and gore. Not achieving the comedic brilliance found in the excesses of the Evil Dead franchise, but thankfully not succumbing to the trappings of self serious torture *. Also fun to realize how much Rob Zombie's 1000 Corpses movies were just as much an homage to TCM as his Halloween movies were to the John Carpenter originals.