THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986)

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has not stopped. It haunts Texas. It seems to have no end.” You could switch that title for any other slasher, and those last words would still hold meaning. By 1986, Friday the 13th (1980), Halloween (1978), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) were all films primed to spawn blockbuster franchises. Even the prototype Norman Bates came back for more with Psycho II (1983) sans Alfred Hitchcock. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) tore into that foundational text like a rabid dog; Norman was based on Ed Gein, but ‘Leatherface’ was Ed Gein if he had crawled back up from Hell.

Tobe Hooper had directed eight films since TCSM put him on the map, and he was still haunted. Having signed a generous three-picture deal with Cannon Films, he’d just finished Invaders From Mars (1986) and decided it was time for a family reunion. The other boon Cannon offered was full creative control. TCSM was already a trip to Hell; now TCM2 was Hell with a budget.

Hooper did reunite with co-writer Kim Henkel for their ambitious pitch of “Beyond the Valley of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, featuring an entire town of cannibals alongside Leatherface, and a returning Sally and Hitchhiker. Despite the studio asking for a follow-up to one of the most unbridled horrors in cinema, they immediately baulked at such a grand concept. The eventual film, written by L.M Kit Carson, they accepted wasn’t far off in absurdity.

With an opening crawl, echoing the original’s prologue, one might be lulled into a sense of familiarity… then two rowdy teenagers sporting holographic glasses and blasting Oingo Boingo are firing a gun at ‘Remember the Alamo’ signs. Gone are the hippy-dippy Scooby-Doo gang of the 1970s. The peace signs and flowers of that era worked effectively as they stumbled head-first into the Manson family nightmare. Only a decade later, and we’re right in the midst of surviving Reaganomics; it’s a new massacre for a new world.

TCSM almost feels naive in its sweet innocence, wandering into the apocalyptic fringes of society. But Hooper was showcasing the societal rot from shifting politics; there was most certainly a satirical edge to be interpreted. But subtlety does little against an unrelenting and worsening barrage, and so the message needs to be screamed loud and clear.

What better way to start than those pumped-up yuppies calling the local disc jockey Vanita ‘Stretch’ Brock (Caroline Williams) just as they piss off the wrong passing truck. We’re actually situated to cheer on the corpse-wearing, chainsaw-wielding maniac who promptly shreds their car and heads. The first film slipped in the recurring glimpses of a world falling apart on the car radio. Here, our protagonist is the radio DJ, the voice of this little slice of Texas; how obvious can it be that Hooper has something to declare on the air?

All of this massacre is broadcast live on air, which prompts Stretch to visit Lt. ‘Lefty’ Enright (Dennis Hopper), who’s been nursing a grudge ever since he was the uncle to Sally and Franklin, who underwent the ordeal with Leatherface’s family 13 years ago.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 offers an entirely different tone, one which should have been apparent from the one-sheet poster of the Sawyer family parodying The Breakfast Club (1985). More than a narrative change of pace, it seems a conscious reversal that audiences not only survived Massacre but enjoyed their trip; now the roadside attractions are invading your reality.

The once isolationist backwoods family have become local celebrities. Jim Siedow is the only returning star as the wonderfully deranged Drayton Sawyer, whose humble gas station barbecue joint is now winning the Texas/Oklahoma Chilli Cook-Off! Even as the hosts are pulling out what looks to be a human tooth from his awarded meat… Hooper once again suggesting that these monsters being celebrated and awarded are all but confessing to their crimes with where their “prime meat” comes from; it’s the brain-dead public you want to bash in the head with a hammer to wake them up.

The Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) had been thoroughly crushed by a truck, so his ‘Nam-veteran brother Chop Top (Bill Moseley) takes his place. A twitchy ghoul in a Sonny Bono wig covering an exposed metal plate which he scrapes at with a heated coat-hanger. Moseley got the bonkers role after Hooper loved his impassioned performance in the parody short The Texas Chainsaw Manicure.

Much like the first film, these two siblings contest over who has the most memorable dialogue. Chop Top clinches it with “lick my plate, you dog dick!” But out of all the family, the growling behemoth Leatherface undergoes the most fascinating and bewildering character growth. Finally defined as a human being in his developing, yet stunted, maturity, even if it’s on par with a 14-year-old. Gunnar Hansen portrayed him with a broken psyche in the original, adopting alternate personalities with each face worn, while Hooper never lingered too long for audiences to comprehend a method behind the madness. Sadly, Hansen wouldn’t return, after being offered next to nothing in payment, but his two replacements do an admirable job.

Bill Johnson was hired first and brings a much brighter and comical light behind the once-dead eyes. Leatherface was confused as to why so many strangers were in his house in the first film; this time, there’s a constant curiosity about him meeting the beautiful Stretch that stirs something within. The other actor would be stuntman Bob Elmore, originally hired for one day for a single stunt but got the call the next day that poor Johnson could barely lift the genuine 75lb chainsaw. And so, after a while, Johnson ended up fighting for more screen time, as there aren’t many times you can get Leatherface away from his saw!

Both of them perform different dances with Stretch as Leatherface faces these adolescent awakenings. Teasing her inner thigh with his chainsaw, Hooper is responding to the emerging feminist critique of slashers that the male killer’s tool is often representing a more phallic tool. Every failed rev of his saw becomes a winking nod that this boy is still learning how to get his tool to perform for the ladies. When he finally gets to sticking it in an ice bath of sodas which spray all over a screaming Stretch, special effects legend Tom Savini says it best on the commentary: “He’s coming!!”

Beyond the juvenile boner comedy, there is some genuine character work at play with Leatherface. In a traumatic case of nature versus nurture, these strange new urges are running contrary to everything he knows; “the saw is family” and killing is the only way he earns love from his siblings. This new powerful emotion is asking him not to kill, and it’s downright wrong!

Responding to all this disturbing behaviour, Caroline Williams gives an volatile performance distinct from Marilyn Burns’ continuous terror. There are potentially more screams in this one film than in all the other slashers listed earlier, but you don’t mess with this Texan belle. There’s flight or fight, and she picks bite and claw and even chainsaw when challenging the good ol’ boys.

There are several quieter moments hidden between the riotous bombardment to the senses. Stretch comforts her dying friend LG (Lou Perryman), all while unwillingly wearing his sliced-off face. Lefty pauses the action to mourn over the skeletal remains of his nephew, still sitting in his wheelchair. But damn, that lights a fire in his heart, and he brings the vengeance…

The less said about Hopper’s performance, the purer the initial experience will be. If you have not seen this film yet: duelling chainsaws. In fact, perhaps even before I had seen anything from TCSM, I had seen this incredible balletic carnage on the earliest days of YouTube. By the time the third act starts, there isn’t a line of dialogue in Dennis Hopper’s script that isn’t all capitals. Still, he shows a pang of guilt for seeing Stretch involved in this; shades of any socio-political anguish, the self-sacrificial nature of mentally hardening yourself for the unavoidable culture war. You have to be tougher; you can’t show weakness; the enemy has no such emotion. We’ll never know if Leatherface felt regret when he chose his side.

There have been mixed talks on whether an actor with his prestige felt a horror sequel was beneath him; the quote floats around that this was the ‘most embarrassing moment in his career’, which he happily wrote in autographs. Then there’s the anecdote where, celebrating his 50th birthday on set, he cut the cake with a real chainsaw. What is known is that Hopper was recovering from a potential derailment in his life from substance abuse, and TCM2 and Blue Velvet (1986) were two films that saved him. In both, he channels that frightening inner turmoil, but by all accounts, he was a professional and a gentleman with all involved.

If TCSM is an undistilled rollercoaster of emotions, then TCM2 is an exploration into why people go on rollercoasters. Like Lefty assures Stretch, “They thrive on fear… I ain’t got no fear left”. Hooper overtly addresses violence in entertainment and our natural curiosity. The family have abandoned their modest farmhouse in favour of Texas Battle Land – a dilapidated theme park celebrating US warfare of the past.

Chop Top badgers Drayton with his dreams of “NAM LAND!” The cook gets frustrated whenever his daft siblings bring trouble into their home; he’s happy getting rich off the blood of the people and has the cheek to complain, “The small businessman always, always, always gets it in the ass!” as Lefty takes that literally with a saw. Most ironic in this indulgence of depravity is when Lefty saws through the support beams of their lair, threatening to “BRING IT ALL DOWN!!” when this endeavour would pave the way for franchising, with sequels still in production right now. It seems to have no end.

Well, all that mayhem nearly risked it all. The gore effects by Tom Savini and Co. are, as expected, quite incredible and stand up to scrutiny as Hooper pulls in extreme close-ups in restored Blu-ray quality. This resulted in them facing an X-rating, and they chose to go unrated, which allowed just a little more wriggle room in promoting it in any capacity. In fact, one of the only ways people knew about a brand new Chainsaw Massacre was the Breakfast Club parody billboard, which probably raised questions that it was all one big joke.

Editing by Alain Jakubowicz couldn’t save it, and the real reason several scenes were excised was more to keep the runtime tight, as they argued audiences would lose engagement with horror for any longer than 90-minutes. Two notable sequences lost, but saved in this release, are the sports fan massacre that sends limbs flying in every direction, and a cameo from critic Joe Bob Briggs, who rates his own death “three stars, that’s saw-fu!”

A credit to the edit: you wouldn’t realise the film was cut down through production, as Cannon were collapsing as a company and took back a million dollars from the budget to prop themselves up a little longer. Cast and crew have stated they had no idea quite how farcical this sequel was, as Carson was typewriting new script pages on the day to make up for lost money.

The eventual budget they had to work with was $4.5M, a sizeable increase from the original, made for less than a million. Unfortunately, the lack of promotion and polarising tone only mustered a gross of $8M, a paltry step down from the $30M profit with the first film. Initially derided for ignoring the original’s vérité style and minimal bloodshed, Hooper confused contemporary audiences with his experimentation.

One thing that carried over was Drayton’s speechifying about Grandpa’s shame with the meat industry, something that brings an entirely new message this time around. The cold, mechanical automation of the industry could easily be related to the money-sucking franchising of horror properties that began with authentic talents like John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Hooper. Having been scrutinised by the public, who insisted the mainstream Poltergeist (1982) must have been directed by Steven Spielberg, Hooper could have quit just like Grandpa and let someone else grind his vision down into a pale imitation. Instead, Hooper picked up that hammer and showed the world he could still deliver a killing blow.

USA | 1986 | 101 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH

Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Special Features:

• 4K restoration from the original negative.
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation.
• Original lossless stereo 2.0 audio.
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Disc 1—The Film:

• Commentary with director Tobe Hooper moderated by David Gregory. Hooper is prompted in conversation by Gregory and offers many great examples of raising the camp satire of the sequel. One notable anecdote is that Chop-Top is constantly scratching at his metal plate because the coat-hanger can actually touch his brain and get him off, which Hooper calls “effectively a sex toy”.
• Commentary with stars Bill Moseley, Caroline Williams and special effects legend Tom Savini moderated by Michael Felsher. Versus the composed commentary from Hooper, this many people can’t help but talk over each other throughout but it’s quite enjoyable they all have such fun wanting to chime in. Less informative but entertaining.
• Commentary with director of photography Richard Kooris, production designer Cary White, script supervisor Laura Kooris and property master Michael Sullivan The quietest of the three commentaries and with the bounty of special features, not many new tidbits are uncovered here. But still important crew members reminiscing about their work is pleasant.

Disc 2—Bonus Features:

• Are We Not Both the Living Dead?, a NEW visual essay by Scout Tafoya (14m) Tayofa spearheads the comparative debate of TCSM and TCM2 by painting a vivid picture of how America had changed between films. Peaceful hippies had gone from counterculture to mainstream anti-war sentiments and Reaganomics fought back hard. By that metric, the subtle allegories of the first were now considered quaint and the message needed to be loud and brash to match 1980s sensibilities. Tayofa peppers this commentary with colourful examples such as the Nixonian Drayton using a Vietnam vet as his puppet who has learnt nothing from his experiences, versus the counter-culture figure of Dennis Hopper.
• You’ve Got Good Taste: Cannibal Camp and Perverse Parody, NEW visual essay by Miranda Corcoran (24m) “One can be frivolous about the serious, one can be serious about the frivolous.” Corcoran breaks down the differences and similarities of the two films as well with a leaning on ‘camp’. TCM2 is a joyous expression, not a cynical criticism, and in that way it reflects the family themselves, who relish pure anarchy. Corcoran also examines the farcical ramblings of Drayton and how the family had to evolve as Reaganomics took the fight to the “lazy, degenerate, and irresponsible”.
• Stretch Lives! 2022 interview with Caroline Williams (31m) Williams covers the gamut in her experiences, as a born-and-bred Texan girl taking a wild chance in her audition; screaming and barricading the room as there was very little dialogue. She praises her co-workers, particularly Tom Savini and the SFX team she met before even getting the script, and Bill Johnson who was a dream to choreograph all their up-close-and-personal chainsaw action with. She also takes opportunities to shout out Joe Bob Briggs and his deleted scenes, and falling in love with the horror convention circuit.
• Serving Tom, 2022 interview with makeup effects artist Gabe Bartalos (20m) Bartalos talks about his enthusiasm going into the sequel and how everyone involved was excited but a little cautious since the script was being rewritten on the day. Nobody knew how wild Hooper was intending to make it. Bartolas mourns the deleted sports fan massacre and ponders why Hooper cut it down as they all cheered on the anti-yuppie Leatherface.
• Texas Blood Bath, 2022 interview with makeup FX artist Barton Mixon (18m) Mixon remembers the filming conditions of the first still carried the tradition of being unbearable. Shooting in sheet metal sets in Texas heat was exhausting and heat is not a friend of make-up effects. Like Bartalos, Mixon is a great resource of names for other workers and their work, painting a canvas of the ’80s horror scene and how connected it all was.
• Remember the Alamo, 2022 interview with actor Kirk Sisco (14m) I didn’t mention this character in my retrospective, but even Sisco expresses surprise at being a “day player actor” asked for an interview years later. In particular, Sisco remembers his screentime opposite Hopper very fondly. He also reveals they were considering extending his role for a death scene before Cannon stripped the budget back.
• Die Yuppie Scum, 2022 interview with actor Barry Kinyon (13m) Kinyon auditioned, got the part, and got head cast by Savini in one day for his role as the Mercedes-driving yuppie who gets his head sawed open. He commended Hooper as a “general” who would still listen to ideas by bit-part actors like himself. Kinyon is very proud that his death scene was celebrated in Child’s Play (2019) and a whole new generation is being recommended this crazy movie.
• 2014 extended interviews with Tobe Hooper and co-producer Cynthia Hargrave, from Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (40m) Electric Boogaloo is a wonderful documentary and these interviews include the most in-depth talk with Hooper, other than the commentary. Everyone has their takes on the negative reception and most directly affected is Hooper, who rationalises a lot of it as best he can. Acknowledging people simply went into it expecting to be terrified and it wasn’t that for them, mentioning later films like The Blair Witch Project (1999) as “chair jumpers” that share more in common with the first TCSM. Hargrave details some of the producing woes, such as the funding for TCSM resulting in ownership rights being spread “piecemeal” across Texas and having to bring it all back in to get the full ability to even make a sequel. As part of the documentary, despite budget cuts and tight deadlines, both Hooper and Hargrave praise Cannon for “making movies” and giving filmmakers money to make the movies they wanted to make.
• It Runs in the Family (2006), a documentary on the film’s genesis, making and enduring appeal, plus outtakes (110m) A feature-length documentary covering the full story, running just over 80-minutes, plus 30-minutes of outtakes, makes this one extensive special feature. Numerous cast and crew are interviewed in the six-part breakdown. The additional footage acknowledges the later loss of Kit Carson and Lou Perryman and offers their extended interview segments.
• House of Pain, 2016 interview with makeup effects artists Mixon, Bartalos, Gino Crognale and John Vulich (42m) An effects-heavy movie, it makes sense these guys are being interviewed again. Though they cover the major scenes again, they also cover different topics. They share their experiences as newcomers working under Savini, who not only showed them the ropes but encouraged them to have fun with it all. With detailed explanations and archival footage, they go into detail on creating the new looks for Leatherface and Grandpa and creating Chop-Top.
• Yuppie Meat, 2016 interview with actors Chris Douridas and Barry Kinyon (19m) Kinyon returns with co-star Douridas as the two yuppies. While many praise Hooper for his auteurism, both actors have plenty of nice things to say about Kit Carson and his on-set presence. Both of them talk plainly that they had their 15-minutes of movie fame and went off to do other ventures, never thinking much about it until they started meeting fans and realised the movie has an enduring strength.
• Cutting Moments, 2016 interview with editor Alain Jakubowicz (17m) Jakubwicz credits Cannon for bringing him into the American scene by incidentally working with Hooper after his Invaders From Mars (1986) struggled to come together. Jakubwicz discusses the amicable decisions to cut entire scenes, keeping the film trim and tight without sacrificing the pacing or sense in existing scenes.
• Behind the Mask (2016) and Cutting Moments (2013) with Bob Elmore, two interviews with Leatherface’s performer (28m). Two separate interviews that cover the same stories with differing details. Elmore explains how his one-day scene turned into him becoming Leatherface for almost the entire film. Elmore liked his bosses but had to kindly ask, with a chainsaw in hand, that he wasn’t an actor so please stop shouting so much. Despite that, he learnt to bring personality to the role, acting opposite Williams in all their bizarre scenes.
• Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, 2016 featurette exploring the film’s locations (25m) Horror documentarian Sean Clark hosts an episode of his popular webseries. Another independent project, this again retells the history of TCM2 but his energetic enthusiasm and snappy editing in recreating shots is a fresh difference from all the sit-down interviews. Looking at interstates and highways may seem initially boring, but it does highlight the permanence of cinema in how different all these locations look today. The entire meat factory lair in the third act is nothing but a parking lot now in a busy city, you would never know what took place all those years ago.
• Still Feelin’ the Buzz, 2013 interview with horror expert Stephen Thrower (29m) Thrower acknowledges that TCSM was made for the love of it whereas no matter how fun TCM2 is it was made because of the demand for a sequel. He digs into details connecting the two with very specific “crumbs that fans obsess over”, like the use of radio reports in the first and that a radio DJ is the protagonist in the second. Unafraid to offer criticism, he reconciles with the full score versus the “brooding malevolence” of the first and the less dynamic editing.
• Behind-the-scenes (43m) Accredited to Savini, this shot-on-video archival footage features Hooper directing scenes, interspersed with an on-set couple of interviews with the cast. The bulk covers Savini’s make-up application on LG and Grandpa, not like a modern BTS video, they are busy hard at work only talking among themselves. Footage outside their workshop testing how it all looks highlights the exceptional craft by this team.
• Alternate opening credits (2m) Less interesting than the final cut but a nice bonus for the completionists.
• Deleted scenes (11m) Again for completionists, the quality is extremely poor but intertitles helpfully give context. The original sports fan massacre scene would have been a memorable moment, and Joe Bob Briggs is quite funny in his cameo.
• Trailers & TV spots.
• Still gallery.

Cast & Crew

director: Tobe Hooper.
writer: L.M Kit Carson.
starring: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Bill Moseley, Jim Siedow, Bill Johnson, Lou Perryman, Chris Douridas & Ken Evert.