Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Pros:
Extremely scary, acting, plot, special effects, emotional side of Leatherface
Cons:
new Leatherface actor, some scenes similar to the first
The Bottom Line:
I like it and I think most fans of the original will like it too. Some might not like it as much cause it's much different.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I loved the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I thought it was an amazingly horrifying movie. While I scanned the shelves at Rogers, I noticed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I decided to get it; it was directed by Tobe Hooper, who had directed the first. Overall, I thought that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was as good as the first one, but much different.
The movie starts off with Stretch, a d.j on a small radio station in Texas. One night, she is constantly phoned by two teenager punks driving to a party, who bug and annoy her. During one of their calls, the two are attacked by Leatherface and killed. Stretch gets the whole murder caught on tape.
If you haven't seen the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, neither Leatherface or his family(Chop Block, Drayton, and their Grandpa)are caught. In the beginning of TCM2 it explains that no one could find evidence of them or their murders. In case you don't know who Leatherface is, I'll explain. Leatherface is a cannibal, along with his brother(Chop Block), his dad(Drayton) and his Grandpa. Leatherface and Chop Block both catch and kill victims, and Drayton cooks them and then they all eat them. Leatherface wears a mask made of human skin on his face
Back to the story, Stretch is terrified by this and is soon confronted by Lt. Lefty. His brother's kids were killed by Leatherface and he's seeking revenge on Leatherface, trying to track him down. He persuades Stretch to play the murder on the air so that people will be aware of what's going on.
Meanwhile, Drayton, has become popular in town, winning the second chilli cookoff in a row. You can guess what he puts in the chilli. On his way home, he hears the murder being played on air. Drayton sends his two sons to go kill Stretch.
At the radio station, Chop Block kills a employee in the radio station, while Leatherface goes after Stretch. To Stretch's amazement, it seems Leatherface has taken a liking to her. He doesn't kill her, but merely pretends, then leaves with Chop Block. Stretch follows the two in her car, making sure they don't get away. This leads her to the families secret underground lair and Lefty enventually also shows up. As the two walk around, Stretch falls through the ground, down, deep into the underground lair, finding herself trapped. Meanwhile, Lefty busts in the front door and tries destroying the place and tracking down Leatherface to kill.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is amazingly scary. This is just as scary as the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This film has some of the scariest, jumpy scenes out of any movie I've seen. This movie uses the element of surprise better than any horror movie I've seen lately. There's plenty of moments where Leatherface popped out that made me jump out of my seat. This film also has plenty of creepy moments too. A scene where Leatherface skins someones face off and puts it on his creeped me out a lot. There are tons of other creepy things too, including Chop Block, who was much creepier this time around. This movie is extremely scary, although I thought Leatherface was less scary in this one. I'm not sure why, I think it's mainly because he looks less scary. But overall, this film was really scary; this film also has one of the creepiest underground lairs I've ever seen. Around every corner is a corpse or dismembered body part. I think this film is just as or maybe even more scary than the first.
This film also had plenty of amazing special effects and gore. This was a pretty gory film. I've seen gorier, but I've never seen a gorier film that hasn't got an NC-17 rating. There were heads getting chopped in half, people being skinned, people getting their stomachs chainsawed open with their guts falling out and there was a head bashing. It's extremely gory and it all looks real, thanks to Tom Savini, one of the best special effects artists alive. Everything looked really realistic. The sets were also really good. Tom Savini was most likely responsible for the lair, which I thought was amazingly creepy. It's probably the creepiest house I've seen. The only thing I didn't like was Leatherface's look in this one. His mask was much less scary. He also gave up on wearing woman's clothes, which always made him more scary in my opinion. Plus, the new actor wasn't as good as him, but that's not Savini's fault.
Which brings me to the acting. Dennis Hopper as Lefty was good, but not exceptional. For the first half of the film, his performance was pretty wooden, but once the second half began, he got much better. He was very convincing, although all he really had to do was act furious, and destroy stuff and people. Caroline Williams as Stretch was also good and very convincing. Drayton and Chop Block were both acted really well. The actors made them extremely creepy and horrifying. The worst actor by far was the man who played Leatherface. He was o.k.. He played a much more emotional Leatherface, but wasn't as creepy.
I also loved the plot in this movie. The first one was just more of a slasher film, with the teens getting picked off one by one, but Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 has more of a plot. This time, we get to see a more emotional side of Leatherface. This time the plots more interesting, as Leatherface wants to help out Stretch, but doesn't want to disapoint his family either. This time, Leatherface is more human than before. The one thing I didn't like in this plot is there is a huge scene almost exactly similar to the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They shouldn't have re-used the same idea from the first. It had already been done.
Overall, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is an amazing film. It's scary, good special effects, good acting and a good plot. It's much different than the first, so some people won't like it as much, while others will like it more. It's far more campy than the first. My only problems are the actor playing Leatherface and some scenes similar to the first.
P.S The ending, although cool, was confusing and I didn't really understand what it was implieing. I'm not sure to put it as a pro or a con