Film Review: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre/The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an undisputed genre classic. Causing mass outrage when it was first released in 1974, it does seem a bit tame when you compare it to todays horror output. For one thing, you barely see anything THAT gory really. But none of that matters, the film drips menace and dread. Every moment is just building to something more and more disturbing.

The film (if you don't know) is about a group of friends travelling one day in Texas. After a bizarre encounter with a hitchhiker, things slowly get worse and worse as they are picked off by a cannibalistic family (including the iconic chainsaw wielding Leatherface).

It's astonishing that 37 years later this film can still fill the viewer with the same sense of foreboding that it must have done back when it first came out. A truly disturbing masterpiece.

Watching the sequel directly after the original isn't the smartest move. The film is akin to asking a pre-pubescent teenager what happened in the original then filming that - every character resembles more a cartoon version. Leatherface starts to fall in love, the hitchhiker is transformed to the ultra annoying Crop Top, and the father figure becomes a huge rednecked cliche, whilst the heroes either run around screaming, or in the case of Dennis Hopper, run around with their own chainsaw shouting about "the walls coming down". For ages.

It's a shame because it started well. You knew that revisiting a film like the original in the 80s was never going to have the visceral unpleasantness the original had, and I accepted that. Immediately more gory, with lots of 80s music playing, all was well.

Until about 45 minutes in where the repeated running/screaming/Dennis Hopper shouting kicks in. For ages. After a burst of interest the film ends as abruptly as the first.

The problem may lie with the film trying to be "funny" (the case in fact says its funnier than the original, not exactly difficult), but it just fails repeatedly due to the overbearing characters. Who knew that the signs for how bad Tobe Hooper became (did you see his 'Dance Of The Dead' Masters of Horror episode?)

Maybe it's because I watched the two back to back, possibly TCM2 would be more watchable in a standalone environment, and its infinitely better than the dreadful remake that was released in 2003, but these remakes are truly a dime a dozen. The original always shine through, and the shod is quite rightly left forgotten.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - *****

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - **

The original is still one of the most disturbing, visceral films ever made and the sequel? Well just an 80s folly with the occasional standout moment. Strangely none of which involved Dennis Hopper.