In a business that is so laser-focused on exploiting intellectual property, it’s amazing that it took over a decade for a sequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to see release. Sure, it’s not unusual for a sequel to take so long to be made, but it is uncommon. This is especially so in horror, where movies can be made for miniscule budgets and, if lucky, see huge returns.
From 1986, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 sees Tobe Hooper, working again with Cannon and Golan-Globus, return to the well one more time. But, if viewers are expecting a simple retread of the first movie, they are in for a surprise. The original movie has a reputation for gore, and Hooper also viewed the film as black comedy. Well, neither is accurate. There is not a lot of gore in the first movie, and only Hooper seems to have found much humor in it. All that is fixed in the sequel. Hooper went all-in on some sicko campiness, and gave so much free reign to f/x guru Tom Savini that the film was released unrated in the States, and remained unreleased for decades in several large overseas markets.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 follows the further exploits of the Sawyer family of serial killer cannibals, relocated from the south of Texas up north, in Red River territory. There, Drayton (Jim Siedow, the only returning cast member), Chop-Top (Bill Moseley), Grandpa (Ken Evert), and, of course, Leatherface (Bill Johnson in closeup, and uncredited Bob Elmore and Tom Morga elsewhere), have set up shop in a shuttered roadside attraction.
One night, a pair of dumbasses driving to the Red River Shootout football game decide to play a game of chicken with an approaching pickup. They made a huge mistake, as the truck is driven by Chop-Top. While the two are chased and massacred, they were on the car phone with local radio DJ Vanita ‘Stretch’ Brock (Caroline Williams), who recorded 
the call. The brutal audio is given to former Texas Ranger Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper). Lefty has been on the trail of the Sawyers ever since the events of the first movie, as it’s established that two of the characters in that movie were his younger siblings. Lefty uses Stretch as bait, leading her into mortal peril, and him to his revenge, in the spacious and sickly decorated corridors of the Sawyer compound. Much nastiness ensues.
The story is pretty simple. There is the introduction with the morons, a setup to Stretch’s predicament, and then the final half of the movie are the events in the compound. It’s horror movie storytelling done right, and I don’t think there’s much to quibble with. What set many viewers against this movie was the change in tone from the first film. That movie was grim, while this is very much fun house horror, brightly lit and colorful, although bathed in so much blood and gore as to lose all innocence. Events move at a frenetic pace, with the Sawyer family playing things totally unhinged.
Siedow’s performance is no different from before. It’s Moseley that makes a new contribution to the franchise. In franchise lore, his character is the twin brother of Nubbins, the hitchhiker who kicked off events in the first film. Moseley’s initial appearance, menacing Stretch at her radio station, is deeply disturbing, gross, and, as Hooper intended, full of black humor. It’s the only time in the movie where he’s somewhat calm, but it feels as if he could explode at any second, which he does. The remainder of his performance is a lot of shouting back and forth with Siedow, but it’s this first scene that viewers will remember most about his performance. He’s more frightening than Buffalo Bill staring down from the top of the well.
This movie is Caroline Williams’ entry into the scream queen hall of fame. Also, the various actors who portrayed Leatherface did justice to the character. Then there is Hopper. The man had undeniable talent. He also didn’t like this movie one bit. This was something of a banner year for Hopper, as 1986 also saw the release of Hoosiers and Blue Velvet, two of the most important films of his career. By contrast, this flick walked a fine line. It came very close to being included in the Shitty Movie Sundays Watchability Index. Usually, something this intentionally campy earns a bid, but not in this instance. There’s an earnestness, despite the black humor, that underpins this movie. Ignore all the hooting and the hollering and what one gets is a morbid character study — a look into a very dark place in which the Sawyer family has lived their lives for generations. It’s horrible to think that in the world of the Texas Chainsaw franchise, the Sawyer family is out there, somewhere, always on the lookout for prime meat.