THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2

The buzz is back!

An opening text intro, spoken solemnly just the one that kick-starts its infamous predecessor, explains that Sally, the only survivor of 1973's Texas-based massacre, alerted the authorities about her ordeal before slipping into a coma. The police instigated a hunt for the dreaded farmhouse that she'd described, but to no avail: with no trace of the supposed killers or their victims, their search was eventually called off.

But, the narrator informs us, reports of chainsaw killings have persisted sporadically throughout the ensuing years. Now, thirteen years after Sally witnessed her friends and brother being sawed to death, the Sawyer family are about to get busy again...

We first meet Leatherface (Bill Johnson) playing a novel game of chicken with a couple of loud-mouthed Jocks who are travelling to Dallas for an annual weekend of partying. Their idea of fun is to shoot out road signs and drunkenly ring in to the local radio talk show, much to the chagrin of its host, Stretch (Caroline Williams).

This enables Stretch to hear - and record - the lads' last moments as Leatherface whips out his chainsaw and makes mincemeat of them. In fairness, they deserve it.

Their murders alert the attention of Amarillo-based sheriff Lefty (Dennis Hopper), who travels to Dallas to investigate further. As the uncle of Sally and her slaughtered brother Franklin, he's harboured a grudge against their chainsaw-wielding tormentor and his family for thirteen years. Now, it seems he's finally getting close to nailing the bastards.

The authorities don't believe Lefty's theories and don't want him around interfering. But he's going nowhere; on the contrary, he moves into a local hotel and buys a couple of chainsaws in preparation for a showdown with the killers.

His only ally comes in the form of Stretch, who reads his appeal for witnesses in a local newspaper and turns up at his door with a cassette of the kids' murders. Initially reluctant to join forces, Lefty soon realises he needs her help in publicising his cause and getting the local police on his side. Hungry for fame that extends beyond "playing head banging music", she's more than keen to help out.

Unfortunately, when she plays audio footage of the Leatherface's misdeeds on the radio, this brings her to the attention of the Sawyer family ... and they're not happy.

Leatherface and his brother Chop-Top (Bill Moseley) turn up at Stretch's radio station, at which points the film accelerates somewhat as this ultimately leads Stretch and Lefty into the Sawyer family's elaborate, carnivalesque lair ...

The sequel to THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE was met with decidedly mixed reviews upon its original release. In America, part of the problem was that much of the Tom Savini-orchestrated gore that had been promised in the pages of Fangoria was toned down in cinemas to appease the MPAA. In Britain, the problem was more due to the fact that fans of the original film's unrelenting terror didn't appreciate its sequel's humour.

In truth, the original had a macabre humorous streak running through it, and all director Tobe Hooper has done here is accentuate that in a style befitting of the EC horror comics he grew up digesting. The film is a lot more colourful than its predecessor (something a $4 million budget can't help but provide), and its characters are larger too. The protagonists are certainly live wires: Stretch is as feisty a heroine as you're likely to find in 80s cinema, while Lefty is the epitome of couldn't-give-a-fuck cool; the villains are grotesque caricatures, all manic eyes and demented laughter. Bringing back the effortlessly sinister Jim Siedow as the cook was a masterstroke, while Moseley compensates well in the absence of the original film's Hitch-hiker.

Leatherface, however, remains childlike. His fascination with Stretch provides two of the best scenes in the entire film. The first blatantly hints at his impotence and more broadly comments upon the sexual power women hold over men; the second demonstrates his wonder at her appeal, dressing her up doll-like and manipulating her limbs to dance for his amusement. There is no malice, no thought even, to his actions. His is a fundamental brain, controlled by his domineering family.

As mentioned above, the tone of Hooper's film veers between pretty intense horror set-pieces and black humour. Along with the commercial songs on the soundtrack - from the likes of The Cramps, The Lords of the New Church and Stewart Copeland - and the healthily budgeted 80s sheen of pop video type colour schemes and slick compositions, fans of the original's unremittingly raw attack were left feeling alienated. I should know, I was one of them

But TCM2 has aged very well. Seeing it in HD really makes you realise how well-crafted all of those garish set-piece scenes are. The money really is up on the screen for all to see. What's more, the tone is spot on for the most part: though a tad camp at times, the comedy is never too broad so as to offset the horror: this is no less perfectly balanced in this respect than, say, THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, RE-ANIMATOR or AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

Hooper is acknowledging here the way in which the genre had developed between 1974, when the original was released, and the release of this sequel. By 1986, audiences were more cynical and less likely to respond to being "scared": here, they're invited to laugh, and be repulsed by rug-pulling gore on occasion.

There's not much in the way of logic regarding L M Kit Carson's screenplay once we're in the Sawyers' lair (this makes up for the second half of the film), so it's best to just sit back and enjoy iconic moments such as Leatherface making Stretch wear a mask of human skin, and Hopper indulging in a chainsaw duel with the oversized madman.

TCM2 comes to UK blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Films Video, in a region B package that can only be accurately described as a stonker.

This three-disc set kicks off with a blu-ray of the main feature, and it looks excellent.

Presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 televisions, this is the 'unrated' 100-minute version of the film - effectively, it's uncut ... or as uncut as the film will ever likely be, seeing as though the odd workprint moments of extra gore only survive in very rough shape.

To begin with, it's nice to see the film open with the Cannon logo. Colours boast an unprecedented vividness and the amount of added detail to almost every scene over the DVD is nothing short of remarkable. Retaining a very light layer of natural grain to retain that authentic filmic goodness, this really is an excellent transfer, free from any over-processing issues and devoid of compression noise. Mastered from a clean print, it truly is tough to find anything to quibble over. Even the odd moments of softness are in keeping with how the film has always looked: they're more than likely inherent of how the film was shot back in 1986.

Audio-wise, the film benefits from a clean and evenly balanced LPCM English 2.0 mix. Optional subtitles in English for the hard-of-hearing are well-written and easily readable at all times.

An animated main menu page starts things off, while pop-up menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with the brilliant 88-minute documentary "It Runs In The Family". This is very comprehensive; taking in most principal cast and crew members while remaining remarkably flab-free throughout what is a relatively long running time for a factual film.

We learn that Carson's screenplay attracted people to it due to its satirical nature, as well as getting more insight into how he and Hooper met in the early 1970s. The production design gets welcome attention given to it here, and there's a great insight into how the film's appeal has endured over the years. Split into 6 segments (but you can watch it as a single whole), this is a perfect accompaniment to the main feature.

An audio commentary track from Hooper is typically hard to listen to. The guy has some interesting trivia to throw up here and there, but his monotone delivery is, as ever, a struggle. Much easier on the ears is a second audio commentary track from Moseley, Williams and Savini. This is moderated by Michael Felsher, who does a typically good job of keeping things fluent and asking pertinent questions - but the whole thing's so jovial, you won't much care - you'll just enjoy.

"Still Feelin' The Buzz" is a new 28-minute featurette from Nucleus Films which opens with Stephen Thrower musing over the problem Hooper must've had contemplating a sequel to "the best horror film ever made". Thrower goes on to comment upon the film in terms of Hopper's career and his acting method for his role, as well as criticising the film in terms of tone, editing and scoring.

"Cutting Moments" spends 14 enjoyable minutes with Bob Elmore, who performed Leatherface's stunts in TCM2. He talks us through his career and then his time spent working on Hooper's film.

A 2-minute alternate opening scene comes with a brief text introduction. It looks like shit, sourced from pillar-boxed VHS, but is nevertheless fascinating to consider. The opening used in the final cut is, however, much better - this one looks like the start of some iffy TV movie.

10 minutes of deleted scenes follow. They're in the same condition as the alternate opening sequence, but they're no less intriguing as a result. There are four deleted scenes in total, each of which comes with a short slice of contextual text that sets the scene. The best of these is a midnight movie screening slaughter in which Joe Bob Briggs enjoys a cameo spot.

The film's original 61-second US trailer is remastered in HD and looks good here.

Finally, for disc one, we get a stills gallery of 80+ black-and-white photographs taking us behind the scenes of the film's making.

Disc two goes that extra mile and proffers two early rarities from Hooper.

The first is his debut feature, EGGSHELLS.

This was shot on 16mm in 1969 on a budget of roughly $100,000.00. It's best described as an experimental 89-minute piece, clearly reacting to the controversies surrounding America's involvement in the Vietnam war while commenting on the sexual revolution and sound tracking its disjointed narrative with country-folk tunes.

The plot, if you can call it that, concerns a household of dope-smoking hippy students who are suddenly joined in their abode by an alien bulb-like presence - originally it lands in fireball fashion on their doorstep. This source of light appears to have a profound, life-changing effect on all who are subjected to it - cue lengthy discourses surrounding themes of communism and free-thinking, and scenes of abject nudity.

I didn't get it, but there are portions of the film that look good, are well-edited and trippy enough to recommend giving it the once over.

Visually, the film is 16x9 enhanced in a HD transfer which looks very similar to the blu-ray presentation of the original CHAIN SAW. Pretty gritty, in other words.

The English mono audio comes across well in this new Master HD mix.

If you can tolerate it, Hooper provides another commentary here.

We also get his 1964 short film, THE HEISTERS. "This theatre is proud to announce that the following presentation is ridiculous", the opening text announces at the start of this 10-minute curiosity. It's presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and looks pretty good - better than EGGSHELLS.

This short has no dialogue - it relies on library music to help drum home its stylised farcical, medieval-tinged comedy home. It's not great, but it's a minor revelation that we can now watch it on blu-ray, all the same. If you like Roger Corman's Poe films, you're sure to appreciate this.

"In Conversation with Tobe Hooper" finds the director in conversation, discussing the film, its politics and working in backwoods America in general, over the course of 24 minutes.

We also get a 25-minute trailer reel which ably showcases the highlights of Hooper's illustrious career. THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, EATEN ALIVE, SALEM'S LOT, THE FUNHOUSE, POLTERGIEST, LIFEFORCE, INVADERS FROM MARS, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION, THE MANGLER, CROCODILE, THE TOOLBOX MURDERS remake and MORTUARY are all represented.

Disc three, which wasn't sent to us to review, apparently replicates the contents of disc two but on standard definition DVD.

This remarkable set also includes a very handsome fold-out digipack packaging, and a 100-page collectors' booklet with new writings. These were not made available for review purposes.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, once lambasted from all quarters as an affront to its predecessor, actually now emerges as a true classic of OTT 80s horror. There's no Gunnar Hansen, granted, but he's compensated for by the arrival of Moseley, Hopper and Williams ... oh, and Savini. His FX work is good here, as is the work of all concerned.

Arrow have given TCM2 the royal treatment and truly made this once maligned sequel ripe for reappraisal and rediscovery.

Highly recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis