Comedy/Horror
1 hour and 41 minutes
Rated: X
Written by: L. M. Kit Carson
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Produced by: Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan, and Tobe Hooper
Cast:
Dennis Hopper
Caroline Williams
Bill Moseley
Bill Johnson
After a decade of silence... The buzzz is back!
The 1980s became a prominent decade in the history of the horror genre mainly because it was the decade that dismantled exploitation cinema. Prior to the 1980s, exploitation and horror often leaked into one another, a perfect example of this is Tobe Hooper's original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from 1974. But by the end of the 1970s, young Hollywood filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas began blending the exciting elements of exploitation films into their large-budget Hollywood mainstream blockbusters (Jaws and Star Wars are really nothing more than big budgeted versions of Roger Corman's films).
Because of this new blending of exploitation to mainstream, horror films of the 1980s saw a wonderful new exploitable element given to them: gore. Not that gore hadn't been around prior to this - but for the most part it was really only present in those lesser seen exploitation flicks. By the 1980s, studios like New Line and Canon were cranking out gore-fests like A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Evil Dead, Hellraiser, Demons, Day of the Dead, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. These splatter-fest films brought the joy of ultra-gory horror films to the mainstream fold for new found audience members to enjoy, and will forever remain important in the discussion of horror cinema.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is an interesting film mainly for what it tries to accomplish. Whether it was successful in accomplishing its goals remains completely debatable and both arguments could be made coherently. To decide whether one actually enjoyed this schlock sequel or found it to be an unbearable entry to the Leatherface saga, one first has to understand what was going on and why this film was made.
For starters - this is the only Texas Chainsaw sequel, prequel, or remake to date to be directed by Tobe Hooper, the visionary auteur who gave audiences the original fright fest that was 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. You would think that this could give Texas 2 some credit over its followers. And with the landing of cult stars Dennis Hopper as a derranged Texas Ranger hellbent on revenge, and Bill Moseley as Leatherface's lunatic brother Chop-Top, all tied together with the special effects work of Tom Savini, one of the greatest masters of practical effects, what could go wrong?
Well, unfortunately, a lot goes wrong. For starters, the script is a mess. The film moves so fast that there isn't enough time to breathe. While this fast-paced formula works well for most splatter films - including the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre - it doesn't work for Texas 2 mainly because Texas 2 more than anything else tries to be a comedy. Feeling he wouldn't be able to match the level of shock and horror that the first film generated in audiences, Hooper (either foolishly or heroically depending on your take of the film) decided to go for campy, comedic elements within this sequel. What's unfortunate about this is that the comedy, as dark as it is, takes away from the shock value that needs to be present within this film. With gore effects cranked up all the way to eleven by Savini, it's disappointing that by the end of the film they hardly remain memorable in one's mind. If comedy had been toned back, and horror really emphasized, Texas 2 could have been almost as good as Texas 1 ... key word there is "almost".
The actors handle their roles well enough, but unfortunately most of them treat the movie like a comedy too (most likely they were told to do so by Hooper). This has them camping it up in scenes that really ought to be generating fear. This is especially prevalent in the scene between Caroline Williams and Bill Moseley. Moseley is a creepy looking guy, in her office after hours, who won't leave. She should be terrified and the audience should be terrified. And yet what follows is a rather buffoonish exchange of dialogue that undoubtedly has most people who see this film shaking their heads. The saving grace of this film is the presence of Dennis Hopper. Hopper puts forth a performance so serious in this film that it's enough to have me believe he saw the movie for what it should've been: a gut-wrenching, splatterfest, horror flick. Watching him is really the only thing of entertainment value within this film. Unfortunately, Hopper is given very little screen time, and his deranged, yet lovable, Texas Ranger character is hard to sympathize with once his moment of revenge comes. More screen time would have allowed Hopper's character to show the audience just how personal stopping these crimes are to him. This is touched upon when Hopper finds the corpse of his nephew, but again the sequence is much too brief.
Overall the film feels campy and expensive, mainly because it was campy and it was expensive. Even Tom Savini's gore effects at times look like second rate Halloween store props. Texas 2 may be on the list for Savini's worst gore effects of all time. They're not bad, mind you, they're just not what you'd expect from the man who gave us the blood and guts of Dawn of the Dead. This campy and expensive atmosphere is a dramatic turn away from the gritty, cheap and harrowing atmosphere of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and fans of the original will no doubt at first be completely upset by it all.
While it was a valiant effort to bring back a phenomenon by a more than capable filmmaker, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is an unfortunate, campy, schlockfest mess that in the end produced more laughs (intended and unintended) than scares.
4.5/10
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