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Old 17th October 2022, 11:39 PM
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nosferatu42 nosferatu42 is offline
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Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs View Post
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)

Twelve years on from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper returns with this sequel in which Dennis Hopper plays a former Texas Ranger determined to bring the cannibal clan to justice by whatever means necessary because his nephew (The lad in the wheelchair) was one of the families original victims. He's helped by Caroline Williams DJ who taped their latest atrocity - an action sequence on a bridge involving cars and chainsaws right out of a Mad Max film - as part of a live phone in on her late night radio show.

It's been years since i last saw this, in fact i'm not sure i actually rated it that much when i first bought the dvd so God knows why i bought the Blu-ray in one of Arrows many sales. However i'm delighted i did. This is basically the template for Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, even more so than the original film as this is all gaudy lighting, 80's hard rock and wild OTT characters headed by Zombie regular Bill Moseley as Chop Top who is basically Otis Firefly with a steel plate in his head.

It's definitely a film of two halves. The first concentrating on the action set piece and then a relentless attack on Williams radio station by Chop Top and Leatherface. During the second half the action moves to tunnels underneath an abandoned amusement park, the family's latest hideout. It's these chapters that most feel like a Rob Zombie film rather than anything remotely like Hooper's first take back in 1974 even though the hammer at the dinner table sequence is reused with different characters...and it's still f*cking vile to watch.

The film on the whole is pretty unrelenting. More black comedy than the first film but sicker with it. Parts still shock and would cause outrage if released to cinemas nowadays and the film still has the power to disturb despite the darkest of dark streak of humour running through it. It should also be noted that Hopper's as f*cking deranged as the whole Sawyer clan put together.

I have to say i loved this, rewatching it again all these years later. It may be sacrilegious to say it but i found this far more satisfying than the original Massacre.
I prefer the original, but any film that has Dennis Hopper going apeshit with chainsaws gets my vote.
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