Teksańska masakra piłą mechaniczną 2

Acceptable only as guilty-pleasure trash with a seductively perverse feel. As a sequel to the earnest, powerful horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it’s a slap in the face to fans of the original. (11.08.2002)

How to construct on an unbeatable cult classic? Just go in a completely different direction. Despite the hard-headed fans (and apparently also the equally clueless producer, Menahem Golan), Tobe Hooper approached the challenge of making the second Texas Chainsaw Massacre by forging a connection to his breakthrough film in terms of plot, but thoroughly distancing himself from it in terms of style. Instead of a terrifyingly evocative horror movie with a clear distinction between the victims and the monsters, he came up with a hysterical splatstick satire of the 1980s and that decade’s consumerism and cannibalising capitalism, as well as of American values, with the family representing the foundation of the state, hardworking small business owners, honest work that bears fruit, and even western sheriffs personifying all that is right in the world. The opening sequence indicates not only the shift in style, but primarily the period that Hooper is depicting and commenting on. Instead of idealistic hippies, we have here aggressive 1980s hicks who, through their behaviour, have more in common with the brutal monsters from the first film. Accordingly, Leatherface and his family have to put more effort into their ghastly work, and not just literally. The film’s central motif is madness, which in this case isn’t a fall into the depths as opposed to the sense and rationality of reality, but rather the all-encompassing principle of American society in the 1980s. Among the insipid small-town bumpkins, affected teenagers, obsessive cops looking for revenge and cannibalistic degenerates, the only at least seemingly sane character is the female protagonist. Over the course of time however, as she comes face to face (literally, in the brilliant pantry scene) with the horrors depicted in the film, she begins to accept the embrace of the blissful madness of the whirling dervishes brandishing chainsaws. Hooper again brilliantly stages a cacophony of hysteria, suffering, terror and deviant delights, though by different means this time out. Whereas in the first film Hooper got by with a small, confined space, deflected camera angles, impressive montages and an almost industrial soundtrack, this time he shapes the plot not just in terms of space, but also the dramaturgical concept of a bombastic carnival house of horrors spread out into a huge labyrinth packed with morbidly unhinged freaks, where human remains are turned into oddments and whose walls resonate with the guttural roar of depravity and terror, alternating with hard rock thundering from the radio in the first half of the film. (21.12.2014)

If the first one was (and forever will be) horror gold, this is a garbage mix of sick polecat excrement. It takes a truly indescribable amount of creative imbecility to bring the most frightening villain imaginable to the point of inducing fits of laughter, something Tobe Hooper unfortunately contracted after his initial success. I understand that it deliberately plays on a lighter note, but you really don't see trash this bad and totally incoherent through and through – Dennis Hopper needed the money for drugs so badly in the mid-eighties that he signed up for this gem. The only small good things I see are the passable music, the make-up effects (especially the grandfather is great) and the whiny woman who doesn't look bad in a mini skirt and is responsible for the best scene of the film – a chainsaw running over her exposed thigh. 20% (01.05.2017)

I envy people who have been able to enjoy The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. I tried and definitely had no big expectations regarding this movie - I knew in advance that the sequel would go down a different path of horror-comedy, and would have almost nothing to do with the first installment. However, even as a stand-alone movie, it absolutely went over my head, failed to entertain me, and in the end, it even annoyed me. A deranged Dennis Hopper waving a chainsaw around his head was very appealing (I was looking forward to that the most), however, unfortunately, this was the only justification for the presence of his character in the movie. By the end, you can see that he did not bring anything that surprising to the role. It does not even make sense to mention the rest of the movie - the last part of it is simply a facsimile of the first movie’s ending at best, and at worst it is trying to create a parody with a weird sense of humor, which I just shook my head at - all in a kitschy setting, which was all the slapdash Cannon Films studio’s higher budget would allow. (15.01.2019)

Caroline Williams is great and the film manages to pull you in. Unfortunately, the film doesn't have the same atmosphere as the first installment. Hooper took a different path, a path of madness and insanity that emanates from the Sawyer family characters in every moment they are on the screen. They are insane and that's what makes them terrifying. The horror is then enhanced by excellent effects that are simply enjoyable to watch. Otherwise, it can be said that this is not something that would be a suitable successor to the first film. It's different, it has its positives, but it doesn't get under your skin as deeply. (23.10.2014)