The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 title

Tag Line : After years of silence the "Buzz" is back.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 As this film was not originally released in the UK when it first came out in the early 80's, when I finally managed to get hold of an American import, I was eagerly looking forward to viewing it.

I knew very little about the film, only that it was by original director Tobe Hooper, the make-up effects were by gore maestro Tom Savini and that it starred the legendary actor Dennis Hopper. With a cast and crew ensemble of this calibre, I thought that this would have be a great movie. So you can therefore imagine my utter disappointment at what a complete load of rubbish it turned out to be.

Dennis Hopper stars as Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright, a Texas Ranger who's has been chasing after the family of cannibals over the past 13 years, as it turns out that Sally Hardesty (the sole survivor from part 1) was Lefty's niece and he is determined to hunt them down no matter what. It seems that the chainsaw wielding family has since moved to Dallas and set up business as a mobile catering company . No prizes for guessing what meat they use for making the chilli.

Radio D.J. Vanitia "stretch" Block (Caroline Williams), receives a telephone request from a couple of young lads, just shortly before they are attacked by Leatherface and his brother Chop Top and their deaths inadvertently go out live on air.

Lefty manages to get young Vanitia to help him expose the chainsaw killers, by having her repeatedly play the tape of the killings on air over and over, hoping that they will come after her. Unfortunately they do and she is taken back to their hideout, where they chop up the victims for their mobile grill. Lefty then seizes his opportunity and arming himself with a set of chainsaws, goes inside to rescue her and confront Leatherface and Co.

The scenes that follow provide the most memorable moments in the movie, as Lefty (Hopper) and Leatherface (Bill Johnson) cross swords (or chainsaws as in this case) in a chainsaw duel to the death..

This film had a lot of promise, but is let down by the fact that director Tobe Hooper decided to make this as a comedy, rather than a serious horror film. This detracts TERRIBLY from the atmosphere of the first and I was extremely disappointed with the end result. There are a few genuinely good scene's, such as where Leatherface is standing on the back of a pickup truck, which is reversing at high speed along side a speeding Mercedes as he has a go at the lads travelling in it, although this sequence is so far fetched it defies feasibility.

There's also an absolute "Howler" were Lefty (Hopper) chainsaws the cook (Jim Siedow) in the backside, causing him to remark "OOOOWW why's it always the small businessman who gets it in the ass?" but even these scene's alone are not enough to save the film from my critical damnation!

Overall marks : 5/10

Other Information.

I should have known better what to expect, considering the film was made by the now defunct Cannon pictures group who during their brief existence produced some of THE most tackiest, lacklustre films in motion picture history (one remembers Death Wish 4, Exterminator 2, and the appalling America 3000).
The film was not submitted to the BBFC for a cinema release when it first came out in the early 80's, mainly because the original film was still banned at the time. Also because the then head of the BBFC James Ferman had viewed it at a special film society screening, and remarked that "if he were to pass it he would insist on cutting at least 20 minutes out of it".
Gunner Hansen was apparently approached for the role of Leatherface again, but declined because of the pay, so the part went instead to actor Bill Johnson. The only original actor to reprise his role from the first is Jim Siedow who plays The Cook, or Drayton Sawyer as he's called (his character was listed in the credits of the first film as the "old man").
The character Chop Top (Bill Mosely), Leatherface's younger brother, is supposed to be the twin brother of "The Hitchiker" from part 1. He was supposed to have been in Vietnam during the first movie.
The picture of the family "group shot", used on the original US video sleeve, was a parody of the promotional group shot for the movie "The Breakfast Club".
The US laserdisc and special edition tape contains additional unused scenes, these include the families catering truck getting attacked by rioting football fans outside the Dallas cowboys stadium, only to get turned into mincemeat by Leatherface and Co. There's also additional scene's where Dennis Hopper is following the family to there hideout and we hear the cook complaining about the revenue they've lost after having to leave the football stadium in a hurry. There's also an alternate take of Stretch hiding in the meat room.
The film was finally submitted to the BBFC for a UK video release in 2001, after the new management had liberalised the classification guidelines, and after Bravo TV had rather cheekily shown an edited version of the film a few months previously (without incident). To a lot of peoples surprise, the new censors had few qualms about passing it uncut.