The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

After a decade of silence... the buzz is back. 


Radio host "Stretch" takes a prank call which turns suspicious when the sounds of screaming and chainsaws erupt. She later finds out that the callers died in what authorities are chalking up to an accident. But Stretch suspects that a family of chainsaw wielding cannibals who terrorized a rural area in Texas years ago is actually to blame. She joins forces with an eccentric cowboy, the father of some of the cannibals earlier victims, to get to the bottom of the grisly murders.

Sure enough, Leatherface and his family of man eating misfits is to blame. After having just won the state chilli cook off, Drayton, the family cook, is displeased to learn that someone has discovered his families nasty secret. Soon Stretch's life hangs in the balance, but her new friend, the cowboy, is on his way with a new set of duelling chainsaws to boot.

TCM 2 is a toungue-in-cheek lampoon of the original film, released more than a decade earlier. While significantly gorier than its predecessor, the sequel falls flat on its face in terms of scares, suspense, and atmosphere. What it does offer, is multiple opportunities to gag through a variety of nasty scenes of gruesome violence courtesy of horror special effects genius Tom Savini.

Unfortunately, a string of random grisly acts isn't enough to tie together the film as a whole. Horrible, over the top acting, combined with a total lack of likeable or compelling characters helps to finish this off as a dull, horrible sequel. The final icing on the cake, however, is the transformation of Leatherface from a mad, inhuman, killing machine, into a goofy guy in a mask who kills nobody and has a crush on the main protagonist. The whole film wraps up with a blatantly re-used scene from the original featuring "Grandpa" and his unsteady skull hammering hand, followed up an almost epic chainsaw duel.

Slasher films are known for their propensity towards sequels. Sadly, in most cases the majority of these sequels are dismal in comparison to the original. Some slasher series last a few movies before falling into total ridiculousness and idiocy. Unfortunately, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series was not one of those.

1.5 chainsaw duels out of 5
Unrated: contains violence, gore, language.