What do you get when you mix a cannabalistic family, a nymphet radio dj, a revenge-minded Texas Ranger, a chili cook-off, the red-river shootout (a.k.a the annual Texas-Oklahoma college football game), the backwoods Sawyer family, a chainsaw, and buckets of blood and gore? A helluva great time!
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is the sequel to the cult classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) directed by the great Tobe Hooper. Hooper reprises his seat in the directors chair for this sequel which borders more on "dark comedy" than "shock horror". The story begins with our favorite, chainsaw weilding maniac cleaving a couple of liquored up frat boys on their way to the festivities of the big OU/TU football game. The splatter-fest is aired and recorded live on a local late-night radio station as the victims had called into the show to heckle the host just before the grisly slaying, a petite country-girl called "stretch", played by Caroline Williams (don't worry, you've never heard of her). Stretch takes the tape of the murder to a Texas Ranger played by Dennis Hopper (who appears incredibly out of place and uncomfortable in this film), in town investigating the crime and who seems to think that the murder is related to the events of the original film some 12 years earlier and is out for revenge against the Sawyer's who have apparently been on the run the entire time. Leatherface and his even nuttier metal-plate headed brother, "chop top" catch wind of the fact that the slaying was captured live on radio and set out to "shush" our lovely little DJ permanently. She turns out to be more than they bargained for as she escapes.
What follows is a twisted story light on logic and heavy on comical gore and mayhem as Stretch ventures into the tunnel's below a closed amusement park where the cannabalistic Sawyer family live. The tunnels are lined with dried out corpeses and freshly mutilated bodies. Stretch uses her looks to charm the child-minded Leatherface and he helps hide her as she tries to survive the horror she had thrust herself into.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is just pure fun. It doesn't fit into any particular category of horror. It's not funny or light-hearted enough to be considered a dark comedy, and it's not gory enought o be considered a splatter-film and not serious or smart enough to be considered pure horror. What it does is harken back to the old days of curling up in the front seat of your car at the drive-in with a tub of popcron and a huge cola watching a goofy, unbelieveable horror flick with hillariously sick and twisted murders and situations wrapped around an absurdly illogical story.
In short, it's just a fun flick. By the way, keep an eye out for John Bloom in a cameo appearance in this film. If you don't know him by that name then you probably know him by the name of his alter-ego, our favorite late-night horror host - Joe Bob Briggs!
3 out of 5 stars - "Check it out!"
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