May be some small spoilers
Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter have proven over the years that they have one very definitive thing in common. They both shocked the film world with one of their dark, and eerie takes on monsters and death and they have since struggled to live up to that sententious billing bequeathed upon them after their early success. Carpenter has never quite managed to duplicate his stylized efforts of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, nor has Hopper managed to emulate anything near the panic and paranoia he introduced us to with Leatherface and his notorious saw in 1974. Hooper's had valiant yet failed efforts with flicks like Poltergeist, Funhouse and Lifeforce, but his attempt to re-capture the fans predilection of the first Chainsaw Massacre with this vapid attempt is nothing short of a pure disappointment.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre did something that very few films have been able to do. It took you inside a killer's mind and a killer's dwelling and showed you the sheer audacity of their life and style. No other villain, including Jason, Michael and Freddy can lay claim to this. What Hooper has tried to do is further the story by taking you deeper into the family of these crazed people. I think that on paper this must have looked like a good idea but when executed it comes off as insipid and dull. We have probably all seen the first one, I can't imagine anyone seeing this film without having experienced the first, so what we see here is Hooper trying to give the audience some feel of the first. There were many disturbing scenes in the first film and in this second one we revisit some of those scenes and in some cases those scenes are basically reinacted but with a different actress. I can only assume Hooper was trying to propitiate his loyal fans but in the process he may just have alienated us. Let's face it, Marilyn Burns will never be forgotten as Sally and long before Jamie Lee Curtis came around, Marilyn may have been considered the scream queen. Here, Caroline Williams does her best Marilyn Burns impression and Hooper tries to recapture the horror of the dinner table scene but it just doesn't work. Many of the elements of the film don't work this time around and I think that is because for some reason you just know that there is help on the way. Somewhere, Dennis Hopper is lurking with his chainsaw and he is going to come to the rescue. You know that grandpa is 137 years old and he is not going to have enough strength to whack the heroine over the head with the hammer. Somehow you just know. In the original, you didn't know.
In the original, Sally was all alone. She was her only salvation. If she wasn't going to come to her own rescue then no one was. You were scared f or her, you were terrified for her and you felt sympathy for her. I really didn't feel anything for Stretch in this film. I somehow just knew that she was going to get away.
Comedy also makes this film a downer. There are too many one liners in here and it looks as though Fred Krueger and The Sawyer family may have traded scripts after a while because what was nothing but frightening shots of sadistic people doing sadistic things is now more like a stand-up comedy than it is a horror film.
Another problem is that Bill Johnson plays Leatherface and he is not nearly as intimidating nor is he as physical a presence as Gunnar was in the original. Gunnar Hansen was a massive, mean looking guy and he frigthened me. But here, he is more like a pussycat. Not good for a film that was lionized in people's minds and opinion, due largely to Gunnar's portrayal of Leatherface.
TCM2 is not all bad, there are some twisted scenes involving Caroline Williams and Bill Mosely, who plays Chop Top. They share a chase scene that was trying to emulate the chase scene with Marilyn Burns and Edwin Neal from the original. And while it was decent, again, it just falls short of it's target because we have seen it all before.
All in all, this is a failing effort but it is worth seeing if you are a fan of the series. The original is head and shoulders above this one and the third is quite a nice improvement, but just try to sit through this one and see what you think. There are some nice homages to the first and you have to give Hooper credit for that....just not too much credit.
5 out of 10
Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter have proven over the years that they have one very definitive thing in common. They both shocked the film world with one of their dark, and eerie takes on monsters and death and they have since struggled to live up to that sententious billing bequeathed upon them after their early success. Carpenter has never quite managed to duplicate his stylized efforts of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, nor has Hopper managed to emulate anything near the panic and paranoia he introduced us to with Leatherface and his notorious saw in 1974. Hooper's had valiant yet failed efforts with flicks like Poltergeist, Funhouse and Lifeforce, but his attempt to re-capture the fans predilection of the first Chainsaw Massacre with this vapid attempt is nothing short of a pure disappointment.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre did something that very few films have been able to do. It took you inside a killer's mind and a killer's dwelling and showed you the sheer audacity of their life and style. No other villain, including Jason, Michael and Freddy can lay claim to this. What Hooper has tried to do is further the story by taking you deeper into the family of these crazed people. I think that on paper this must have looked like a good idea but when executed it comes off as insipid and dull. We have probably all seen the first one, I can't imagine anyone seeing this film without having experienced the first, so what we see here is Hooper trying to give the audience some feel of the first. There were many disturbing scenes in the first film and in this second one we revisit some of those scenes and in some cases those scenes are basically reinacted but with a different actress. I can only assume Hooper was trying to propitiate his loyal fans but in the process he may just have alienated us. Let's face it, Marilyn Burns will never be forgotten as Sally and long before Jamie Lee Curtis came around, Marilyn may have been considered the scream queen. Here, Caroline Williams does her best Marilyn Burns impression and Hooper tries to recapture the horror of the dinner table scene but it just doesn't work. Many of the elements of the film don't work this time around and I think that is because for some reason you just know that there is help on the way. Somewhere, Dennis Hopper is lurking with his chainsaw and he is going to come to the rescue. You know that grandpa is 137 years old and he is not going to have enough strength to whack the heroine over the head with the hammer. Somehow you just know. In the original, you didn't know.
In the original, Sally was all alone. She was her only salvation. If she wasn't going to come to her own rescue then no one was. You were scared f or her, you were terrified for her and you felt sympathy for her. I really didn't feel anything for Stretch in this film. I somehow just knew that she was going to get away.
Comedy also makes this film a downer. There are too many one liners in here and it looks as though Fred Krueger and The Sawyer family may have traded scripts after a while because what was nothing but frightening shots of sadistic people doing sadistic things is now more like a stand-up comedy than it is a horror film.
Another problem is that Bill Johnson plays Leatherface and he is not nearly as intimidating nor is he as physical a presence as Gunnar was in the original. Gunnar Hansen was a massive, mean looking guy and he frigthened me. But here, he is more like a pussycat. Not good for a film that was lionized in people's minds and opinion, due largely to Gunnar's portrayal of Leatherface.
TCM2 is not all bad, there are some twisted scenes involving Caroline Williams and Bill Mosely, who plays Chop Top. They share a chase scene that was trying to emulate the chase scene with Marilyn Burns and Edwin Neal from the original. And while it was decent, again, it just falls short of it's target because we have seen it all before.
All in all, this is a failing effort but it is worth seeing if you are a fan of the series. The original is head and shoulders above this one and the third is quite a nice improvement, but just try to sit through this one and see what you think. There are some nice homages to the first and you have to give Hooper credit for that....just not too much credit.
5 out of 10