Tobe Hooper's follow-up to his gruelling horror classic is a bit of an unwieldy beast, a wildly uneven sequel that disgruntled many fans. Having watched it, I'm inclined to treat it as a film of two halves: an excellent first followed by a disappointingly vapid second. The idea was good, but it's the execution where this film suffers.
Things kick off well with a fine if unbelievable set-piece with a victim being chainsawed in a speeding car (I couldn't figure out why he didn't just hit the brake?). From then on in we're introduced to a whole new cast, with the only returning member of the original film being Jim Siedow's creepy cannibal cook. Caroline Williams is a sassy, appealing heroine and there's inherent entertainment value in the presence of Dennis Hopper, a vengeance-crazed ex-lawman determined to bring justice to the chainsaw family.
Things simmer along nicely until the major mid-term set-piece, in which a couple of crazed psychos wreak havoc at the radio station. This marks the introduction of Bill Moseley's bad guy 'Chop Top', one of the most over-the-top villains ever seen in a film! Moseley goes way beyond the call of duty with his performance here and set himself up for life in various B-movies. He delivers his outrageous dialogue with aplomb and has to be one of the most sheer insane characters I've witnessed.
Sadly, the plot ends at this point, and the film carries on as the two good characters follow the bad to their lair (hidden beneath an old amusement park, somewhat inexplicably). There's a lot of padding after this, and then a frenetic climax which features Hopper battling Leatherface in a chainsaw duel while Williams attempts to evade the clutches of Chop Top. There's the return of the old man (now VERY old) and lots of grisly gore effects courtesy of SFX maestro Tom Savini, who as usual we can rely upon not to disappoint. But the pacing has gone and there's a sense of just waiting for the film to end; essentially this is a black comedy and the favouring of the gross-out over the genuinely horrific does work against it. All of the CHAINSAW sequels are uneven, but at least this first one has genuine vision – even if it is only in the first half of the movie.
Things kick off well with a fine if unbelievable set-piece with a victim being chainsawed in a speeding car (I couldn't figure out why he didn't just hit the brake?). From then on in we're introduced to a whole new cast, with the only returning member of the original film being Jim Siedow's creepy cannibal cook. Caroline Williams is a sassy, appealing heroine and there's inherent entertainment value in the presence of Dennis Hopper, a vengeance-crazed ex-lawman determined to bring justice to the chainsaw family.
Things simmer along nicely until the major mid-term set-piece, in which a couple of crazed psychos wreak havoc at the radio station. This marks the introduction of Bill Moseley's bad guy 'Chop Top', one of the most over-the-top villains ever seen in a film! Moseley goes way beyond the call of duty with his performance here and set himself up for life in various B-movies. He delivers his outrageous dialogue with aplomb and has to be one of the most sheer insane characters I've witnessed.
Sadly, the plot ends at this point, and the film carries on as the two good characters follow the bad to their lair (hidden beneath an old amusement park, somewhat inexplicably). There's a lot of padding after this, and then a frenetic climax which features Hopper battling Leatherface in a chainsaw duel while Williams attempts to evade the clutches of Chop Top. There's the return of the old man (now VERY old) and lots of grisly gore effects courtesy of SFX maestro Tom Savini, who as usual we can rely upon not to disappoint. But the pacing has gone and there's a sense of just waiting for the film to end; essentially this is a black comedy and the favouring of the gross-out over the genuinely horrific does work against it. All of the CHAINSAW sequels are uneven, but at least this first one has genuine vision – even if it is only in the first half of the movie.