Tobe Hoopers
long awaited sequel was not originally released in the UK when it first came out in the mid-1980's.
So when I finally managed to get hold of an American import, I was eagerly looking forward to viewing it.
I knew very little about the film, only that it was by original director Tobe Hooper, the make-up effects were by gore maestro Tom Savini and that it starred legendary actor Dennis Hopper. So, wiith a cast and crew of that calibre, I thought that this would have be a great movie. So you can therefore imagine my utter disappointment at what a complete load of rubbish it turned out to be.
Dennis Hopper stars as Lieutenant "Lefty" Enright, a Texas Ranger who's been chasing after the chainsaw wielding family of cannibals over the past 13 years or so, after they apparently escaped at the end of the last film. Lefty discovers that the chainsaw wielding family has since moved to Dallas, after Radio D.J. Vanita "stretch" Block (Caroline Williams), receives a telephone request from a couple of young lads, just before they are attacked by Leatherface and his brother Chop Top and their deaths inadvertently go out live on air.
Unfortunately, Vanita gets abducted by them and taken back to their lair, where they have their mobile catering business (no prizes for guessing what meat they use in the chilli). But, Lefty is on the case, as he follows them back and, armed with chainsaws, confronts Leatherface and family in a chainsaw duel to the death..
Whilst the film had promise, it was let down by the fact the director decided to make this a campy comedy, rather than a serious horror film, which I thought detracted terribly from the first. Nobody in this seemed to know how to act either, with everyone being either way over the top, or looking like they couldn't be bothered. Even veteran actor Dennis Hopper seemed wooden in this and the annoying synth-soundtrack, which sounded like a chimpanzee jumping on a keyboard, did nothing to enhance the picture either.
There were a couple of good scenes, like where Leatherface is on the back of a pick-up truck attacking a couple of snotty teens in a Mercedes, and the aforementioned Chainsaw Duel between Lefty and Leatherface was pretty good. But aside from those, this was a pretty dire picture, made worse by the inclusion of the Chop Top character (Bill Mosely), who was extremely annoying.
A bitter disappointment that makes you wonder why Tobe Hooper bothered.
