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Jim Siedow co-stars in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
I was moderately excited about picking up the re-released DVD of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 — the direct sequel to the original 1974 Tobe Hooper film. I had seen it awhile ago, but I honestly couldn’t remember a whole heck of a lot about it, so it was almost like seeing a brand new movie.
…Which of course helps me justify spending hard-earned cash on a 20-year-old sequel!
TCM 2 takes place about 13 years after the events of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. We learn that Sally Hardesty, the sole survivor of the first film, spoke of the macabre cannibalistic family to the proper authorities, but soon slipped into catatonia. While local officials attempted to find the family in vain, without any sort of evidence to go by they concluded that the original massacre really never happened. However, the sadistic Sawyer family continued their reign of terror over the next decade.
Two punk high school teens on their way to the big Texas/OU football game decide to call in to the local radio station to pretty much harass the female DJ — Stretch (Caroline Williams). While on the very cool 1980’s car phone, the teens decide to play an old fashioned game of chicken with an oncoming truck. Unfortunately for them, it’s the last time they’ll ever play that game.
We soon learn that inside the truck is none other than our good buddy Leatherface, along with his freak of a brother. In no time, we have our first two deaths of the film. Only this time, the car phone was on and Stretch had recorded the entire thing! Could this be the break law enforcement needed?!
Enter Lieutenant “Lefty” Enright (the venerable Dennis Hopper). The Amarillo native, and uncle of one of the original film’s victims (I’m assuming Franklin), has been trying to track down the murderous family, and Stretch’s tape is just the bait he needs. He tricks Stretch into playing the tape live on the air repeatedly in the hopes that those who committed the vicious atrocities will track the station down to retrieve the incriminating cassette tape.
It works… all too well. Leatherface and his brother attempt to kill Stretch, but she narrowly escapes by stroking the figurative “man” inside Leatherface. The madmen leave, only to be followed by Stretch… who, in turn, is followed by Lefty. Eventually, Stretch and Lefty reach the Sawyer’s lair and madness even greater than the original film ensues.
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised as to how decent Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 actually was. While it’s not the most original film (many scenes feel recycled from the first film), there are certainly far worse selections out there. Most importantly, this sequel does not spit in the face of its original… but that is probably mostly because Tobe Hooper reprised his role as director.
The acting by our heroes is nothing special, but manages to suffice. The real entertainment (if you want to call it that) comes from our villains. The whole Sawyer crew returns here. And, while Jim Siedow (Drayton Sawyer), the apparent leader of the operation, is the only actor that reprises his role, newcomers Bill Moseley (“Chop-Top”) and Bill Johnson (Leatherface) fill the shoes left by their predecessors wonderfully.
Jim Siedow receives my Freak of the Film award here, and he blows away the competition! I don’t know what it is about this guy, but seeing him on screen still give me the creeps. This is one guy that you would most definitely not want to meet in a deserted alley. He is certainly not the strongest guy around, but man can he freak you the heck out or what? Plus, while he’s perfected the character perfectly, he’s added some outstanding one-liners to his arsenal which deserve mention.
After taking first place in an annual Texas/Oklahoma chili cook-off (with a meat type that I’m sure you can guess), a woman crunches down on something hard in the chili. Drayton coolly plays it off as: “Whoop! One of those hard-shelled peppercorns.” Later, after nearly getting sodomized by a chainsaw, he belts out, “Sure burned my beads bad on that one!” And you might even begin to feel a slight bit of sadness for the poor bastard when looking on his life he says, “I wouldn’t wish this life on a one-eyed ferret with mange.”
Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Siedow — inaugural winner of The Horror Guru’s Freak of the Film award!
In this unrated “Gruesome Edition” of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, we are treated to some of FX guru Tom Savini’s handiwork, most of which would otherwise be lost in a standard theatrical cut. While not terrible, you can tell Savini was definitely in the twilight of his make-up career. After a few more less-known films, Savini would go on to focus more on his acting and filmmaking career. You can next see him in the highly anticipated release of Grindhouse next spring.
The DVD’s special features are fairly decent. You’ll get two great feature-length commentaries to enjoy. The first features director Tobe Hooper and David Gregory. The second is more of an actor’s commentary including Bill Moseley and Caroline Williams, along with Savini. Also included are six deleted scenes all of which are in terrible quality. The bright spot here is a scene featuring one of my personal heroes, Joe Bob Briggs: the man who gives me my inspiration in each article I write!
Every horror fan should go out and add The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 to their DVD collection. It manages to have the proper amount of gore, jumps, and groans that a sequel should employ… which makes this an extremely entertaining “group flick”!
Flick Figures: 3 known deaths; 4 presumed deaths; one Sunny Bono wig; one deadly game of chicken; electrocution; human skinning; scab-eating; prime chili meat; massive head trauma; gratuitous neck-slicing; ceiling fan demolition; attempted chainsaw sodomy; fire extinguisher-fu; chainsaw-fu; hammer-fu; gallons of body parts; and the requisite Texas Chainsaw Massacre dinner scene.
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