Saturday 12 January 2013

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - Lisa's review

As I started with this weeks movie, I knew I had seen it before, but oddly I remembered absolutely nothing about it whatsoever.  Probably not the most promising start.

So with TCM being one of my favourite movies, the sequel had a lot to live up to.  Did it?  Sadly not on any level.  Where do I start?

My favourite aspect of the original movie was the mood, the cinematography, the eeriness.  These were all missing in the sequel.  In fact taking the characters aside, you would be pushed to realise these 2 movies had anything to do with each other.  Where the first movie had aspects of black comedy, which has its place in horror movies when executed well, this movie was just ridiculous.  It was over the top, silly, mad and attention seeking.

Oddly I didn't dislike the movie.  I think if watched alone with no expectations and no reference whatsoever to the first movie, its a fun little watch.  I liked the madness about it, the general freakiness, but I so miss the intensity of the original.  Maybe Tobe Hooper realised he couldn't improve upon perfection so took an entirely different slant?  I just wish he'd left it alone!

One thing I didn't like about TCM2 was the rehashing of iconic scenes from the original movie, mainly the dinner scene from the first movie involving grandpa.  He makes a return in this movie to pretty much do exactly the same thing!  I'm like "what the hell are you doing?"... its as if, they know it went down well first time around so they thought they'd put the same scene in again?  BIG mistake.  It turned an almost parody like movie into a wannabe movie or a weaker sibling.  Surely Mr Hooper had some more sick gems in this head of his?  

Another thing which I found extremely irritating is the constant chainsaw wielding done by Leatherface, again overkill of the famous scene at the end of the first movie.  This time though he does a stupid little shuffle dance when he raises the chainsaw aloft.  Wtf is going on with that?

There are some genuinely funny moments in this movie (a chainsaw up the bum for one) and some genuinely yuck moments (the delayed reaction to having a slice of your head removed) but all in, I was just disappointed with this movie.

As a stand-alone movie, its an ok popcorn movie to watch with friends, but if there is any comparison to be made to the original, forget it.  This one fails spectacularly.  With that in mind, I can neither recommend or advise to avoid.  It just makes me wish the might Texas Chainsaw Massacre was left well alone.

1 comment:

  1. It seems we (mostly) agree; this is a far better movie than it is a Chainsaw sequel!

    I think in many ways, it was a mistake to try and take TCM into franchise territory; It's just not that kind of movie.

    That said, Letherface himself has an awesome look, so, after Freddy and Jason had both done so well in their respective franchises, you can see why the temptation to give him another outing was too much to resist...

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