Released 12 years after the original movie shocked the world, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 brings back the whole sadistic, cannibalistic family to the silver screen in a splattery, comedic package not unlike Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste, released one year later.

Directed by Tobe Hooper, the production values have amped up and what the sequel loses in its snuff atmosphere, it gains in professional set design, tight action scenes and quality makeup. The tone of the movie has changed quite a bit as well, changing from nerve wrecking, documentary like tension to action, comedy and guts.

Dennis Hopper is seen as Lieutenant ’Lefty’ Enright who dives right into the role with the right kind of madness and intensity. Bill Johnson makes for a good dumb, often hilariously confused chainsaw wielding Leatherface often seen in delightfully violent entrances to the scene through some solid walls and doors. A lot of work has gone in the set design of the underground lair, which is a chaotic mix of a slaughterhouse, wax cabinet of mummified corpses in macabre poses, hoarded items, and endless, stuffy corridors filled with color lights.

The sequel is an exercise in bad taste that amps up the madness levels to the max, and the insanity depicted here gets so overboard at times that watching the movie feels suffocating like being locked in an asylum. It’s a movie that’s definitely not for everyone, but obviously that’s the way Tobe Hooper wanted to design it.

80s-o-meter: 82%

Total: 80%