The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

It is the sequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and the second installment in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series.

The film stars Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, Bill Moseley, and Jim Siedow. The plot follows Vanita “Stretch” Brock, a radio host who is victimized and abducted by Leatherface and his cannibalistic family;

Meanwhile, Lt. Boude “Lefty” Enright, the uncle of Sally and Franklin Hardesty—both prior victims of the family—hunts them down.

Development of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 began following the 1981 theatrical re-release of the original film, which proved to be a financial success.

After several delays, Hooper hired collaborator Carson to write the screenplay for the film in early 1986, with an emphasis on dark comedy, an element Hooper felt was present in the first film but went unacknowledged by audiences and critics.

The Cannon Group served as the production company and distributor as part of a three-film deal the studio had struck with Hooper, having produced his previous two films, Lifeforce (1985) and Invaders from Mars (1986). Principal photography occurred in Austin, Texas in the spring of 1986.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was released in the United States on August 22, 1986, and earned over half of its $4.5 million budget during its opening weekend before going on to gross $8 million domestically.

It received mixed reception from film critics and audiences, largely due to its emphasis on black comedy and gore, which departed from the first film’s approach that featured minimal violence, low-budget vérité style, and atmosphere to build tension and fear.

The film’s promotional materials featured a satirical bent, with its theatrical one-sheet parodying the poster art for John Hughes’s popular teen comedy film The Breakfast Club (1985).

Despite its mixed reception, the film eventually gained a cult following. It was followed by Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III in 1990.

Heavily intoxicated, they use their car phone to call and harass on-air radio DJ Vanita “Stretch” Brock. Unable to convince them to hang up, Stretch is forced to keep the line open.

As the two pass the same pickup truck, Leatherface emerges from the back of the truck and rips up the roof using his chainsaw. Rick tries shooting Leatherface with his revolver, but Leatherface kills Buzz. The car crashes, killing Rick.

The following morning, Lieutenant Boude “Lefty” Enright, former Texas Ranger, and uncle of Sally and Franklin Hardesty, who were victims of Leatherface and his family years earlier, arrives at the scene of the crime to help solve Buzz and Rick’s murders.

Lefty has spent the last thirteen years looking into his nephew’s disappearance, investigating reports of mysterious chainsaw killings across Texas. He is contacted by Stretch, who brings him a copy of the audio tape that recorded the attack.

He sends her away, leaving Stretch and her coworker L. G. Peters to reluctantly cover a Texas/Oklahoma Chili Cookoff for their radio show.

The winner of the cookoff happens to be Drayton Sawyer, the current patriarch of the cannibalistic Sawyer family, who declares that his secret is having an eye for “prime meat.”

Meanwhile, Lefty shops for chainsaws at a local hardware store. He at first unnerves, then amuses the shop’s owner with his brutal testing of the saws on a log.

Lefty then drives to Stretch’s radio station and asks her to play the tape on her nightly radio show so that the public, which had previously mocked his case, will have to listen to him.

Driving home from his chili cookoff victory with his family, Drayton is called by Chop Top about the tape being broadcast, so he sends him and Leatherface to the radio station.

While she is about to leave for the night, Stretch is confronted by Chop Top before being attacked by Leatherface. Chop Top brutally bludgeons L. G. with a hammer. Meanwhile, Leatherface corners Stretch and is about to kill her, but she charms him into sparing her.

Leatherface returns to Chop Top and leads him to believe that he has killed Stretch. As they take L. G. to their home, they are followed by Stretch, who ends up trapped inside the Sawyers’ subterranean lair, located in an abandoned amusement park and decorated with human bones, multi-colored lights, and carnival remnants.

Lefty, who has been following their car all along, arrives equipped with chainsaws and proceeds to vandalize the lair before finding Franklin’s remains.

Meanwhile, Stretch is found by Leatherface, who puts L. G.’s skinned face and hat on her before tying her arms and leaving. Later, a still alive L.G. frees Stretch before dying. Leatherface finds Stretch and the family capture her.

Drayton scolds Leatherface when he finds out that Stretch was not killed. They torture her at the dinner table, but Lefty arrives and saves her. Stretch flees the grounds, with Chop Top chasing after her.

Lefty wounds Drayton, then he and Leatherface get into a chainsaw fight, in which Leatherface is fatally wounded. The dying Drayton, accepting that he and his family have lost, takes a grenade from Nubbins’s corpse and frags himself, Lefty, Leatherface and Grandpa.

Chop Top chases Stretch to the top of a stone tower in the amusement park. Stretch grabs a chainsaw from the corpse of the family’s grandmother in a shrine and fatally wounds Chop Top, causing him to fall off the tower to his death.

Stretch shouts in triumph and swings the chainsaw in the air.