The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

A radio host is victimized by the cannibal family as a former Texas Marshall hunts them.

Director:

Tobe Hooper

Writers:

L.M. Kit Carson, Tobe Hooper (film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre")

Stars:

Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dennis Hopper	...	Lieutenant 'Lefty' Enright
Caroline Williams	...	Vanita 'Stretch' Brock
Jim Siedow	...	Drayton Sawyer - The Cook
Bill Moseley	...	'Chop-Top' Sawyer
Bill Johnson	...	Leatherface 'Bubba' Sawyer
Ken Evert	...	Grandpa Sawyer
Harlan Jordan	...	Patrolman
Kirk Sisco	...	Detective
James N. Harrell	...	Cut-Rite Manager
Lou Perryman	...	L.G. McPeters (as Lou Perry)
Barry Kinyon	...	Buzz - Mercedes Driver
Chris Douridas	...	Rick - Gunner
Judy Kelly	...	Gourmet Yuppette
John Martin Ivey	...	Yuppie
Kinky Friedman	...	Sports Anchorman

Storyline

Radio DJ Vanita 'Stretch' Brock's open request night is plagued by the annoying phone pranking of two road tripping, party-hard, hoodlums, but things take a disturbing turn when the hoodlums meet their demise at the hands of familiar chainsaw wielding maniacs. With the entire gruesome ordeal recorded on tape, Stretch seeks out the help of a former Texas Marshall who's on a personal quest of vengeance against this family of cannibals. While at first he turns her down, he eventually decides to use her tape to his advantage, asking her to air it during her request block- effectively baiting the cannibals to the radio station where he'll personally deal with them.

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Plot Keywords:

chainsaw murder | scene of the crime | radio | radio station | characters killed one by one | 

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Taglines:

After a decade of silence... The buzzz is back!

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 August 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II

Filming Locations:

Loop 150, Bastrop, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,700,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,822,439, 24 August 1986, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$8,025,872

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cannon Films,Golan-Globus Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min (Ontario) (cut) 101 min (original uncut)

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Color:

Color (TVC)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name of the hitchhiker from the first one is revealed at the end when Drayton Sawyer gets a grenade off of his corpse he says "come here Nubbins".

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Goofs

(at around 13 mins) Lighting equipment is reflected on the side of Lefty's car.

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Quotes

L.G. McPeters: [to Stretch, who is screaming after seeing him skinned] Darlin', don't be scared, darlin'...

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Crazy Credits

Drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs is listed in the end credits as "Gonzo Moviegoer," but his scene was cut prior to the film's release. Briggs would later complain about the cut in his newspaper column, blaming it (with tongue firmly in cheek) on the Russian premier Mikhail Gorbechev.

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Alternate Versions

The film had major censorship problems in the Canadian province of Ontario. After seeing the film rejected three times by the Ontario Censor Board, distributor Pan-Canadian pre-cut 11 minutes out of the picture, including a huge elimination around the midpoint that deleted almost everything shown in the Sawyer family's underground slaughterhouse. Other eliminations included the shot of the Yuppie driver's head cleaved in two and spurting blood, and many of the wounds inflicted on each other by Chop Top and Stretch during the climax. Also, Chop Top only hits L.G. in the head with hammer once in this version, instead of dozens of times, and this single blow kills him (the sequence where the half-skinned L.G. comes back to life is among the other material dropped in the major cut mentioned above). This 89 minute edition of the movie was finally approved for exhibition in Ontario, but because of all the censorship delays, it opened a week later than in the rest of English Canada.

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Connections

Referenced in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

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Soundtracks

Over the Shoulder
Performed by Concrete Blonde
Written by Johnette Napolitano and Jim Mankey
Published by Happy Hermit/I.R.S. Music, Inc. (BMI)
Produced by Earle Mankey

User Reviews

Texas cheesecake

Hate me if you want, but I never understood the high regard for the first movie. Yeah, I get the grim documentary tone, and I respect that, but there is only ONE massacre with a chainsaw, and it happens off-screen, while the rest of the film is also virtually bloodless. Nah, it's not something I rate highly.

This bizarre sequel only crossed my radar when I saw it on sale rather cheap and I was surprised by how much I liked it. Taking place 13 years after the first movie it opens with a couple of Yuppies being massacred with a chainsaw (sadly, the only chainsaw massacres in the whole movie) and the case promptly investigated by renegade Texas Ranger 'Lefty' Enright (the brilliant Dennis Hopper). The sound of the killing is caught on tape by radio DJ-type lady 'Stretch', who Lefty uses as bait to lure Leatherface out of the shadows. The trail leads to the labyrinthine catacombs beneath an abandoned amusement park for an epic showdown that doesn't really happen.

The problem begins with the second half in which Dennis Hopper seems to wander off into a different movie and nothing really becomes of his character while Stretch runs screaming from a horny Leatherface. It's a bit disappointing in this regard, but the wonderful set-design and gore effects keep it interesting. I just wish that there was more fodder for the titular chainsaw.

A lot of people consider this to be a spoof, but I don't think so myself. Horror movie-making had changed a lot by this point in the 80s. With slashers and the tools of their trade gaining popularity the genre moved away from gritty, grindhouse darkness and into something more colorful and mainstream (for better or worse). TCM2 is just a reflection of that. It's trash, but it's highly energetic and manic trash that's never boring, despite its shortcomings.