6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Not nearly as bad as you might think.
Date of Review: Mar 18, 2002
The Bottom Line: A film that has almost managed to out-last it's initial reputation.
This film, along with Lifeforce and the awful remake of Invaders from Mars, pretty much ended Tobe Hooper's directing career. After a promising start that included the first Chainsaw Massacre, Funhouse, Eaten Alive and Poltergeist, Tobe (in many people's eyes) managed to create 3 films back to back, that were viewed at the time as some of the most awful and repugnant films ever made.
He has since been delegated to directing such straight to video fodder as Spontaneous Combustion, The Mangler and the recent Octopus. It's really quite a shame actually.....
Almost 16 years have passed since the 3 films I mentioned at the start were torn apart from critics, and a lot of people have realized that with the exception of Invaders from Mars, Lifeforce and Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 don't seem nearly as awful as their reputation alludes.
A lot of people don't realize that Tobe Hooper set out to make Chainsaw Massacre 2 as sort of a tongue in cheek send up of the first film, and also as a loud visualization of what the first film was claimed to be, but actually wasn't really: extremely gory.
Instead of leaving all of the graphic stuff to the imagination like he did in most of the first film, we are treated to a guy getting half of his head sawed off (with that portion slowly sliding off of his head with tons of blood), a man getting savagely beaten in the head with a hammer around 10 or 11 times, Leatherface jerking off in front of a justifiably freaked out female, and multiple stabbings, slicings and skinnings than most people would probably like to see.
On top of all this yummy stuff, Tobe poured on tons of really twisted (some would say forced) humor and some of the most loud overracting that I've witnessed in a film. But, with the exception of a couple of places, the frenetic overacting actually works for this film, and not against it IMO. And while some people would criticize the gore and extreme violence as being excessive, it was really just a sign of the times for horror (namely slasher flicks) in the mid 80's.
I think I'm one of the few people who actually likes this film more than the original. While I'll admit that this movie is definitely not for everyone, those with a really sick sense of humor and a taste for all things excessive and horrific, would be wise to give this film another chance.
It's definitely not a perfect film, but I would give it a very solid 4 stars out of 5.
