The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 ** (1986, Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow) – Classic Movie Review 5986

Graphic gore takes over from psychological horror in Tobe Hooper’s disappointing 1986 sequel, made for producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus at Cannon Films, for whom he had made Lifeforce in 1985.

Hooper returns from his career-making classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) to direct Dennis Hopper as Lieutenant ‘Lefty’ Enright, an oddball Texas ex-lawman out to take revenge for the murders portrayed in the earlier film and hunt down the killers. Leatherface is back (with Bill Johnson replacing Gunnar Hansen under the mask) to battle both Hopper’s ‘Lefty’ and radio host DJ Vanita ‘Stretch’ Brock (Caroline Williams), who has enraged the murderously creepy cannibals.

L M Kit Carson’s blackly comedic screenplay injects and keeps up a measure of interest, Hopper is entertaining, and Hooper seems to relish his return to the Texas killing grounds.

Also in the cast are Jim Siedow as Drayton Sawyer the cook, Bill Moseley as Chop-Top’ Sawyer and Lou Perry [Perryman] as L G McPeters. Hooper has a director cameo frolicking during a party scene.

It is shot by Richard Kooris and designed by Cary White.

It runs 101 minutes but only 89 minutes in the cut version.

It did not fare too well at the box office. Costing $4,700,000, it took only $8 million in the US, whereas the original cost $300,000 and took more than $30 million in the US.

No One Lives Forever is written by Danny Elfman and performed by Oingo Boingo. The director co-wrote the score with Jerry Lambert.

Sequel: Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III [Texas Chainsaw Massacre III: Leatherface] (1990).

RIP admired horror icon Tobe Hooper (25 January 1943 – 26 August 2017).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5986

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