Hooper's Black Comedy: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) is a black-comedy slasher film directed and co-scored by Tobe Hooper and written by L. M. Kit Carson. It is the sequel to Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Radio DJ Vanita “Stretch” Brock (Caroline Williams) is targeted by Leatherface and his cannibal family. Meanwhile Lieutenant “Lefty” Enright (Dennis Hopper), uncle of Sally and Franklin Hardesty, hunts the family with chainsaws of his own. Hooper deliberately made it a black comedy, bringing out the humor he felt audiences had missed in the original. It replaced the first film’s restraint with gore. Released unrated in the US after the MPAA refused an R, and banned in several countries, it was a modest hit and drew mixed reviews. It has since become a cult film.

At a glance

Release date	August 22, 1986 (US)
Director	Tobe Hooper
Writer	L. M. Kit Carson
Based on	Characters from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper
Starring	Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, Bill Moseley, Jim Siedow
Runtime	101 minutes
Rating	Unrated (US; released without a rating after the MPAA refused an R)
Budget	$4.5–4.6 million (reported range)
Box office	$8 million (US)
Franchise	The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: second film; followed by Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

Plot summary

In 1986, two drunk high-school seniors on their way to the Texas–OU football game harass a pickup truck on a lonely highway while prank-calling radio DJ Stretch Brock (Caroline Williams). Leatherface rises from the truck bed and kills them, and Stretch’s station records the attack. Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper), a former Texas Ranger, has spent thirteen years chasing reports of chainsaw killings since his nephew Franklin disappeared. He asks Stretch to play the tape on air. Meanwhile, the family patriarch Drayton Sawyer (Jim Siedow) wins a chili cook-off, crediting his eye for “prime meat.”

The broadcast sends Leatherface (Bill Johnson) and his brother Chop Top (Bill Moseley) to the station. Chop Top beats Stretch’s coworker L.G. with a hammer. Leatherface corners Stretch, but she charms him into sparing her. She follows them to their lair beneath an abandoned amusement park, decorated with human bones, colored lights and carnival junk. Lefty, after buying chainsaws at a hardware store, follows them in.

Spoiler section: the ending

Leatherface puts L.G.’s skinned face on Stretch to hide her. L.G., still alive, frees her before he dies, but the family catches her and torments her at the dinner table. Lefty bursts in and fights Leatherface in a chainsaw duel. The dying Drayton blows up himself, Lefty, Leatherface and Grandpa with a grenade. Chop Top chases Stretch up a tower, where she grabs a chainsaw from the grandmother’s corpse in a shrine and sends him falling to his death. She swings the saw over her head, echoing Leatherface’s chainsaw dance at the end of the 1974 film.

Production and behind the scenes

Hooper began developing a sequel after New Line’s profitable 1981 re-release of the original. It was announced in 1983 and finally made under Cannon Films’ three-picture deal with Hooper, after Lifeforce and Invaders from Mars. He meant only to produce, but became director when no affordable alternative could be found. Cannon expected a straight horror film. Hooper wanted a black comedy, and Carson began the script in January 1986. Gunnar Hansen turned down returning as Leatherface over a low offer, though the unit publicist told a different story. Moseley had made a parody short, The Texas Chainsaw Manicure, which reached Hooper. Hooper remembered him and cast him as Chop Top, the twin brother of the original’s Hitchhiker.

Filming began on May 5, 1986, around Austin. Locations included a Cut Rite chainsaw store and the old Austin American-Statesman building. Most of the shoot took place at the shuttered Matterhorn Amusement Park in Prairie Dell, standing in for “Texas Battle Land.” Hooper cut several scenes for pacing. One showed the family slaughtering moviegoers and rioting fans to collect chili meat, with elaborate effects by Tom Savini and a cameo by critic Joe Bob Briggs.

Release and reception

The poster parodied The Breakfast Club. The MPAA refused an R despite repeated cuts. Hooper said, “There was no way we could get an R rating on that picture… but they kept chopping away at it.” Cannon released it unrated on August 22, 1986. It recovered over half its budget on its opening weekend and grossed about $8 million in the US. Abroad it was banned in Australia, Germany and Singapore. The BBFC demanded 20 to 25 minutes of cuts, and the uncut film wasn’t certified 18 in the UK until 2001.

Reviews were mixed, largely because of the comedy and gore. Roger Ebert gave it one star: “It doesn’t have the terror of the original, the desire to be taken seriously. It’s a geek show.” He found Hopper’s role “thankless.” TV Guide felt Hooper seemed to have “nothing but contempt for the original.”

Legacy and influence

Despite its reception, the film became a cult favorite. Promoting a 2024 revival screening, the IFC Center called it “a wild, outrageous, and unbelievably gory mix of southern fried terror and surreal humor.” Its satirical tone, which divided critics in 1986, is now what sets it apart from the original. It also introduced Chop Top, the Hitchhiker’s twin brother. Primus sampled Chop Top’s “Dog will hunt!” in “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.” The official sequel was Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990). Hooper’s son William later began a short film, All American Massacre, as a sequel and prequel to this one, but it was never finished. The series was later remade as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003).

Trivia

Leatherface was played by Bill Johnson, with Bob Elmore and Tom Morga also in the role.
Kinky Friedman, Dan Jenkins and Joe Bob Briggs make cameos, as does Hooper.
The opening scene was shot at the Old Iron Bridge in Bastrop.
Ontario censors rejected it three times before passing a version with 11 minutes cut. Australia banned it for 20 years.
A 1995 bootleg VHS, which Hooper said resembled an early rough cut, surfaced at a Fangoria convention in New York.