Susan’s History with this movie: I am a HUGE TCM fan but I have never seen this specific one. I have a bit of bias going in because of the franchise but I’ll keep an open mind.
Play by Play:
Okay…..so…..for this movie I’m not going to do a play by play because the storyline is so out there and not inventive enough for me to give it any praise.
I will say though….Dennis Hopper as Lefty is worth the 1hour and 45 minutes of confusion. Running around after Leatherface and his family of cannibals sometimes with a chainsaw as his weapon. Lefty Rocks! Best Lefty Line “I’ll take ya all to hell!!!!” Freakin’ priceless.
Being a HUGE TCM fan I didn’t like the cheesy….let’s try and make this a comedy intention of this movie. I get what they were trying to do but do it to another movie. Leatherface ends up being not even the least bit frightening in this film.
I also noticed something else strange. One of the “Family” had a very similar personality to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice character. Who ripped off whom? I need to look that up.
The obligatory dinner scene was torture to watch. I’m not talking torture like the original TCM where Grandpa beat that girl silly in the head and it made you want to cry. This was more of a “ohhhh good grief…..kill her already” torture.
Sooooo…..the lead character in this movie is ……a woman. And despite a horrible script she does KICK ASS. Her name is Stretch and she is a local radio DJ. Lefty uses her as bait and leaves her to be killed by the family. Nice guy that Lefty. I will always remember Stretch as the woman who seduced Leatherface in order to try and escape. Ummmm, it’s as gross as it sounds.
Lefty eventually comes to her rescue….sort of. He kind of just came in and said run as he was slicing up the family with his chainsaw. Stretch does run…..and takes out like three family members doing so and the movie ends with her on top of their lair waving a chainsaw around. Oh dear lord……
Feminist Slasher Project Research:
While it obvious from my notes that I did not really enjoy this movie I will say that Stretch was smart and could possibly have been mildly funny if someone else would have written the script. She’s gung ho from the beginning and ends up conquering all in a pretty epic way. There really aren't any scenes that are exploitive unless you judge Stretch for wearing very short shorts, but I don't. Bright Green Light for the Feminist Slasher Project.
I also was never a fan of TCMII, because it was a huge departure from the classic original. Part 2 had good gore effects from Tom Savini, but the story was a mess. Tobe Hooper thought that he should add more humor to that film because the first and great TCM movie had humor that was lost on the audience. I thought Dennis Hopper's talent was not utilized in the film.
ReplyDeleteThere is a long history behind the making of part 2. Tobe Hooper never got a chance to make the movie he wanted because of the producers butting in during the production and editing. Don't know if the additional scenes cut would have made this a better movie, but I was disappointed in this flick.