The most glaring critique of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is that it’s not only beneath the caliber of the first film, but the very kind of horror movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre exposed as mainstream garbage. While Tobe Hooper’s original was a terrifying low-fi grindhouse masterpiece, the follow-up, even at its best, is goofy and campy. The sets – which are actually really cool – look like movie sets. This feels like a Hollywood horror movie, albeit a weird and unsettling one, whereas the original felt utterly…well, original.
TCM 2 gets off to an awful start. Opening with some terribly broad scenes involving a ridiculous pair of partying college students, the first act is inexcusably stupid and unfunny. Worse, by aiming for dumb jokes, it sets a tone that the rest of the movie can never transcend. We’re also introduced to our rather forgettable main characters, late-night DJ “Stretch” (Caroline Williams, who is good here and possesses an incredible scream) and Dennis Hopper as a vengeful ex-Texas Ranger (not as fun as it sounds).
And, while TCM 2 is certainly intentionally campy, it does eventually create some great comedic-horror set pieces. In one, Leatherface and the utterly outrageous Chop-Top (a great, cackling Bill Moseley sporting an exposed metal plate in his head) terrorize Stretch and her assistant during their graveyard shift at the station. From that point on, the film is a unique piece of gory ‘80s horror. Most of the attempts at humor are still grating and annoying (Jim Siedow is unbearable as the family’s fast-talking patriarchal figure), but a finale set at the cannibal clan’s underground compound is suspenseful and ambitiously filmed. Viewed apart from the groundbreaking original, this is reasonably entertaining fare.
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