The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Summary

“This town loves prime meat!”

After Tobe Hooper’s extraordinary success with Poltergeist, Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus signed Tobe Hooper to a three picture contract with Cannon Films. The three films that he made under the contract were (in release order) Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Lifeforce was made for $25 million dollars and did less than $12 million at the box office. Invaders from Mars was made for $7 million and did less than $5 million at the box office. It is safe to say that Cannon Films had taken a drubbing financially on their bet, but they still held true to their contract with Tobe Hooper and allowed a $4.5 million budget for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. It was a minor commercial success at the box office bringing in $8 million. Hooper seized the opportunity to make the sequel he wanted to see. Trading out the tension-building claustrophobic madness of the first film, the sequel is an expansive, darkly hilarious, trashy, gory, colorful, piece of cinematic insanity. It was an extremely divisive film with most critics missing its intent. The film was written off by the majority of critics – even critics who enjoyed the first film – as a piece of cinematic trash. Roger Elbert called the film “a geek show,” in a one-star review. Many other writers were just as rough on the film, but the film managed to receive a few decent reviews from critics that enjoyed the film for what it was as opposed to hating it for what it wasn’t. The film found a cult audience on home video and has been given numerous Blu-ray releases including the excellent Shout! Factory collector’s edition in 2016. The new Vinegar Syndrome release aims to be the ultimate edition of the film with a slate of exclusive new features and a brand new 4K UHD presentation of the film. 

Warning: This film is best observed without any spoilers. Spoilers are completely unavoidable in the plot synopsis, so please skip to below if you have not seen the film.

As the film begins, it is explained that after the events of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the killers were never located. Some mysterious events continued to occur, but many wrote the story off as an urban legend. Two obnoxious high schoolers – Buzz and Rick- drive in there car towards the Texas-OU football game. They call in to a local radio show hosted by Vanita “Stretch” Brock (Caroline Williams) on their car phone while drinking and shooting a gun out the window at road signs. Despite their harassment, Stretch is unable to hang up the phone line. Buzz and Rick aggressively pass a truck. The truck pulls up with Leatherface hanging out the back holding up a dead body. Leatherface chainsaws into Buzz and Rick’s car, killing Buzz. The resulting crash kills Rick. The next day, Liutenant Boude “Lefty” Enright (Dennis Hopper) arrives at the scene of the crash. He is the uncle of Sally and Franklin Hardest who were victims of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He is contacted by Stretch and her radio producer LG. They have a tape of the murder which was recorded during the attack. Lefty requests that she play the tape every night on air until the perpetrators are found. After winning a chili competition, Dayton Sawyer begins to drive home. He hears the attack tape played on the radio and demands that Leatherface and Chop Top Sawyer (Bill Mosely) go to the radio station and retrieve the tape and kill the DJs. Leatherface and Chop Top head to the station and attack LG. Leatherface spares but abducts Stretch. Lefty purchases some chainsaws and seeks revenge against the Sawyer family for the damage they have done to his nephew and niece.

I had not seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 until the other night, and I was immediately taken with the absolute balls-to-the-wall craziness the film offered. Tobe Hooper made the film from a script by L.M. Kit Carson that throws out the frightening claustrophobic tension of the first film in favor of bonkers characters, Tom Savini crafted gore, and dark backwoods humor. I completely understand why some viewers love the first film and hate the second. I can also see how someone could love the second film while not enjoying the first. Personally, I appreciate when filmmakers swing for the fences. While this movie could have easily cashed in by creating a rehash of the first film (if you don’t believe me, look at the seemingly endless remakes and sequels to the remakes that basically follow the gameplan from the first film,) Tobe Hooper decided to make something totally unhinged and, in my opinion, deliriously fun. The film is honestly played for laughs, which is probably why so many critics misunderstood it and absolutely hated it. That is their loss, because The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a whole hell of a lot of fun for audiences that can sink their teeth into the meat of what Hooper offered.

Whereas the first film was a story of innocent kids that accidentally stumble upon the wrong house in a forgotten part of Texas, the sequel is a revenge story that focuses on Dennis Hopper’s Lefty and an abduction-survival story that focuses on Stretch. The film has no desire to focus on realism or scares, content to create some extremely impressive and colorful settings and revel in a little bit of Tom Savini provided gore. The humor is either on the nose (such as Drayton saying “This town loves prime meat!”) or more subtle (such as the sequence where Lefty goes chainsaw shopping. That scene is hilarious and reminds me of a certain scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch picks out the sword to kill Zed.) I believe that the humor of the film either failed to land with critics, or was simply mistaken as bad writing.

One area of contention that I truly don’t understand was why the critics seemed to dislike Dennis Hopper’s performance in the film. I thought his performance was absolutely wonderful. Hopper always brings a manic energy to his roles and an anything-can-happen attitude, but he plays the role pretty straight, allowing the more bizarre aspects of the character to shine through by his actions. Other cast members also deliver memorable performances. Bill Mosely is a lot of fun to watch as Chop Top, who is constantly scraping at the metal plate in his head. His role here must have helped him land later roles working with Rob Zombie. Jim Siedow returns from the first installment as the paterfamilias Drayton Sawyer. Caroline Williams is totally acceptable as Stretch. I did not have any issues with the casting whatsoever.

Overall – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a wild ride and certainly one of the most audacious and divisive sequels ever made. Definitely check it out and form your own opinion!

Video

This is a good looking 4K transfer. Vinegar Syndrome has performed their 4K transfer from the original 35mm negative. The source seems to be in relatively good shape with only the occasional sequence looking a bit rough around the edges. I can not honestly imagine the film looking any better than this presentation. Vinegar Syndrome work diligently to provide as accurate a representation of what the filmmakers had presented theatrically. Any limitations of the UHD presentation are from the original material.

Audio

Vinegar Syndrome has provided a remastered 2.0 DTS-HD MA track that replicates the original theatrical stereo mix. As you might expect, range is somewhat limited, but the track is very good for what it is. The only area that may dismay fans of the film is that the prior Shout! Factory remastered 5.1 surround track is not included. The inclusion of that one track would have meant there was no reason to seek out any other edition of the film.

Supplements:

The special features appear on the two Blu-rays included in the set. The special features from the prior Shout! Factory 2016 release are all present on this release. The UHD disc features all four of the commentary tracks.:

Blu-ray Disc 1

• Commentary #1 features film critic Patrick Bromley.
• Commentary #2 features director Tobe Hooper.
• Commentary #3 features special make-up effects creator Tom Savini and actors Bill Moseley and Caroline Williams.
• Commentary #4 features cinematographer Richard Kooris, production designer Cary White, script supervisor Laura Kooris, and property master Michael Sullivan.
• “Stretch Lives” – an interview with actress Caroline Williams.
• “Serving Tom” – an interview with special makeup effects artist Gabe Bartalos.
• “The Saw and the Savini” – an interview with special makeup effects creator Tom Savini.
• “Leatherface Revisited” – an interview with actor Bill Johnson.
• “Beneath the Battle Land: Remembering ‘The Lair'”
• “Die Yuppie Scum” – an interview with actor Barry Kinyon.
• “Texas Blood Bath” – an interview with special makeup effects artist Bart Mixon.
• “Remember the Alamo” – an interview with actor Kirk Sisco.

Blu-ray Disc 2

• “It Runs in the Family” – a feature length making-of for “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” created in 2006.
• Behind-the-Scenes Footage
• “Yuppie Meat” – actors Barry Kinyon and Chris Douridas are interviewed.
• “‘Electric Boogaloo” Interviews” – extended interviews with director Tobe Hooper and producer Cynthia Hargrave from the 2014 documentary on Cannon Films.
• “Behind the Mask” – an interview with stuntman Bob Elmore.
• “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds”
• Outtakes – extended interviews with screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson and actor Lou Perryman.
• “Cutting Moments” – an interview with editor Alain Jakubowicz.
• “House of Pain” – this piece focuses on the special make up effects.
• “Still Feeling the Buzz” – an interview with film historian Stephen Thrower.
• Alternate Opening Titles
• Deleted Scenes
• Still Gallery
• T.V. Spots
• Teaser Trailers  

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.25/5

Audio – 4.25/5

Supplements – 5/5

Overall – 5/5

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is an excellent example of true cinematic freedom. Given a budget of a little less than $5 million, Tobe Hooper was given free reign to revisit his most notorious horror film and create a sequel that completely veered away from the elements that defined the prior film. Instead of working up tension like in the prior classic film, Hooper is more interested in creating a freak show of trash cinema with a revenge plot at its core. The film is darkly funny and completely over-the-top. The film was a modest box office success, but largely critically dismissed. It become a cult film as people discovered it on home video and reassessed its value. While the film is certainly divisive, for myself, I celebrate Tobe Hooper’s decision to follow his own path. I really enjoyed the results.

Shout! Factory released an excellent 2016 Blu-ray edition, but Vinegar Syndrome has now updated that release and given the film a new definitive edition packed with exclusive new features and a 4K UHD presentation. The new Vinegar Syndrome 4K UHD has an excellent 4K UHD transfer of the film, that brings the best out of the original color negative. The audio presentation presents the film in its original stereo track. Sadly, the 5.1 mix from the Shout! Factory edition was not included, but that seems to be a minor complaint given everything else in Vinegar Syndrome’s release. This release – for those who like the film – earns my highest recommendation. This is one of the crowning jewels for Vinegar Syndrome.