Customer Reviews
BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL - By: Lou Almighty, 26 Dec 2008 
I Never much cared for the original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. It was an ok terror film but nothing more. Part 2 was far better. This is partly due to a superior cast, now including Dennis Hopper, & some great FX (save the one at the very beginning) by Tom Savini. Otherwise the film features the same sadism but with a humorous undertone. A great finale by the way.
DIFFERENT EDITION - By: Patty O'Heeter, 23 Feb 2008 
These reviews & the description (which even bemoans "the lack of extra features on this disc") alll seem to refer to the standard edition of TCM2, when in fact this listing & illustration is for "The Gruesome Edition" which has various excellent extras, including 2 commentaries (one with director Tobe Hooper, & another featuring various cast members plus Tom Savini), a selection of deleted scenes (which more than earn this edition it's "Gruesome" tag), stills gallleries & an extensive documentary - so this is the edition you want if it's the extras you're after...
As for the film, it's not a patch on the original, but then what is, but it's still enjoyable in it's own right & getting "the gruesome edition" will certainly enhance that enjoyment.
What a Disappointment - By: David Rush, 07 Jan 2008 
If you're expecting a film similar in quality to the excellent original, then you are going to be very let down by this woefully bad sequel. Dennis Hopper hams it up as the uncle of two of the original's victims - Sallly & Franklin - who is out for revenge on the cannibal family from the first film, who are now living in an abandoned amusement park in rural Texas. When a plucky radio DJ overhears the murder of a pair of teenagers during her broadcast, the family is out to get rid of her & remain unknown. This film is much gorier than the first & features a new member of the famous family in the repulsive Chop Top, who was apparently fighting in the war during the first film. The film appears to be a parody of the original, but is simply not funny. Unless you find the thought of a woman being forced to wear the cut-off face of her boyfriend amusing, then it's safe to say that you won't be laughing. There is also a lot of noise - whether it is necessary for the plot or not - which may force you to turn down the volume or turn it off completely out of utter irritation. Tobe Hooper - who did so well with the original & also his brilliant Poltergeist - should have known better.
A CLASSIC - By: stuart, 27 Oct 2007 After a series of accidents on the highways, Lieutenant 'Lefty' Enright, (Dennis Hopper) fears a repeat of before, & DJ Stretch, (Caroline Williams) & her producer L.G. McPeters, (Lou Perryman) come forward with evidence in the case. Trusting his instincts, he gets her to play a tape of one incident over the radio which attracts the attention of Chop-Top, (Bill Moseley) & Leatherface, (Bill Johnson) to the station. Stumbling upon their hiding place with leader Cook, (Jim Siedow) she is held captive in a massive underground lair until Lefty mounts a rescue effort to get her back. Deciding to also settle an old vengeance against the family, he fights to both set her free & settle his score.
The Good News: This reallly surprised me with how good it reallly was. One of the greatest things about it is that it has a fun atmosphere present. From the simple storyline to the amount of action to the sick displays around at the ending, this movie simply screams good time. Right from the opening chase scene, where the family chases & chainsaws a car & the passengers traveling along a highway bridge, it sets an incredibly ominous tone that is equallly spread throughout the rest of the movie. The attack in the radio station is one of the highlights, due to the fact that practicallly everything happens in there that could possibly happen. There's a great chase through the library stacks, great gore with a kill involving a hammer to the head, one of the best jumps possible where Leatherface comes roaring out the darkness with chainsaw blaring & one of the greatest & most suspenseful scenes in the genre. Trapped in a room with a large ice-chest, the attacker stops when he realizes the victim is covered in ice water. What happens afterward is incredibly sexual & very tense, but the fact that a chainsaw is present there makes it alll the better & alll the more memorable. There is another fantasticallly sick scene later on, where Leatherface, using an electric knife, slices off the face of one of his victims, takes it still dripping wet with blood, & places it over a characters face & proceeds to dance with them. It's great in it's concept & comes across as reallly disturbing & quite memorable. The gore in here is quite over-the-top & comes from so many great deaths. There's a guy bashed repeatedly in the head with a hammer, a guy who is still able to walk even though the skin of his face & other parts of his body have been peeled off, a throat slashing with a straight razor, a head chopped in half, & a chainsaw wound through the gut & out the back. There's piles of skinned corpses & body parts laying around on the floor, & with intestines stored inside a giant barrel, there's so much additional blood & guts on display in here. There is also a reallly spectacular underground labyrinth, which looks like the ruins of a hotel turned into a slaughterhouse with bizarrely placed corpses sitting under sun-lamps, at dinner tables, suspended on wires, alll amid a bewildering maze of chandeliers & Christmas lights. Whenever the film is set there, it's impossible not to like it, & becomes another great factor about the film. What needs to be said about the chainsaw sword-fight at the end, which is reallly spectacular & brings a special extra to this. All in alll, there is a large amount to like about this one.
The Bad News: I reallly have a hard time finding stuff to dislike in here. This was a reallly enjoyable film that had tons going for it & reallly nothing I could find wrong. The one thing that even remotely bugged me was that the black comedy may not always be funny. It's such a change from the original that it's distracting to those expecting an alll-out creep-fest. Other than this, there isn't anything in the film that's wrong.
The Final Verdict: It was surprising how good this one actuallly was, & with so little against that's also very easily overlooked, this is one of the very best entries in the series & one of the better sequels made. Fans of the first one will love this one, & general horror fans will want to check it out as well.
Leatherfarce! - By: Peter J. Hodgson, 11 Jul 2007 Okay this made me laugh, maybe because Tobe Hooper intended this to be funny? Well yes...Leatherface is just funny, you wont help find his performance OTT more so than the original, especiallly when it comes to his love interest...seriously watch this one its funny & scary & just insane. Dennis Hoppers part may as well be non existent as he is just crap & the movie could have done without him, the leading lady is the one the camera loves & her hardcore performance at the end is just cool.
