![]() Seriously, I've spent long evenings in the company of people who have all been dosing for hours on magic mushrooms and none of them giggled and squealed like this ludicrous idiot. The driver looks like a college quarterback with his dad's dress sense and the twerp with the gun appears to have fallen through a time warp from a version of 1960s' drug culture that only ever existed in the minds of filmmakers. Perhaps it's now too long after the event. I probably wouldn't have guessed otherwise. I say these guys are yuppies because that's what they're called in the extra features. We're somewhere in Texas and two coked-up yuppies are tooling down the highway firing a big gun at signs and giggling insanely at their own behaviour. The only thing is, this time the narrator seems in one heck of a hurry, like he's being paid by the job and has another three voice-overs lined up immediately afterwards in the studio next door. It kicks off with a re-run of that narration and scrolling text that so effectively opened the original film, one that brings us up to date on more recent ominous events. hell, I'm not sure I really know quite what it is.įirst up, a little scene setting for hopeful newcomers. It does, after all, take place some years after the events in the original film and makes specific reference to them. It's a response I relived when watching it again on Arrow's spiffy new multi-disc release. When I did get to see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (the "Chain Saw" of the original had been transformed into a compound word) I wasn't sure how to react. ![]() Way-hey! That's what we want to hear! How violent could this film be to prompt that sort of response? This did, of course, present a bit of a problem for UK horror fans in pre-download days, but that's what pirated VHS tapes were invented for. That's a good thing, right? And when the BBFC insisted on something like 20 minutes of cuts, distributor Cannon abandoned its plans for a UK release. But wait, the first sequel was also directed by Tobe Hooper. It also happened to A Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It happened to A Nightmare on Elm Street (seriously, did anyone actually see the remake of this?). It's hard to think of a horror classic from the 70s and 80s that hasn't been subjected to at least one of the above listed indignities or even all three. The brand name's been established, the product road-tested, and a sizeable portion of a modern horror audience will buy almost anything if the right boxes are ticked. So if the first one makes money, then let's give it another go. But for the money men at least, exploitation cinema by its very nature is about squeezing your initial investment dry. And there are three things that perfect cinema doesn't need. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is sublime cinema and everything a great modern horror film should be. ![]() You see that? A pretty bold statement, you might think, but one that I and a good many other genre fans happen to agree with. Tobe's other more recent works included Toolbox Murders, Mortuary and two episodes of Masters of Horror.Stephen Thrower, author of Nightmare USA and Beyond Terror ![]() He continued working in television and film throughout the 1990s and 2000s. It starred JoBeth Williams and Craig T Nelson.Īfter that, Hooper directed two movies for Cannon Films, Lifeforce and Invaders from Mars, a remake of the 1953 alien movie. The story revolved around a family coping with a house haunted by unruly ghosts. The 1982 Poltergeist, written and produced by Steven Spielberg, also became a classic. Hooper also directed the 1986 sequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, which took on a more comedic approach. is regarded as one of the best and most influential horror films in the history of cinema. Hooper also co-wrote the movie alongside producer Kim Henkel. He rose to prominence after his 1974 fantasy thriller The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which featured Marilyn Burns, Paul A Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen. Hooper made his directorial debut in 1969 with a low-budget film, Eggshells.
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