Actors: Bill Moseley, Dennis hopper, Caroline Williams Director: Tobe Hooper Year:1986 Running Time: 96 minutes
Plot:
For 14 years, former Texas Ranger Lefty Enright (Oscar nominee Dennis Hopper, Hoosiers) has been obsessed with finding the psychotic mass-murderers who killed his brother's children. And today he's in luck. A tough as nails late-night disc jockey (Caroline Williams - Days Of Thunder) has caught the ghouls on tape in the act of slicing and dicing a couple of fun-loving rich kids. When she volunteers to help, Lefty persuades her to play the tape on-air to lure the maniacs out of hiding. But what she doesn't know is that she's the only witness to this diabolical family's butchery who hasn't been carved up for somebody's supper... just yet
Review:
I want to start by saying I went into this movie with very high expectations because everybody was raving about it saying it’s the best movie in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, well here is what I thought about it.
First off you got Leather Face he is the main Horror icon in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies you usually see him wielding a pretty big chainsaw and he wears the faces of his dead victims, He is a pretty simple minded kind of guy he doesn’t talk and hasn’t really got any common sense, This time Leather face is played by a guy named Bill Johnson, he plays the role really well I would say almost as well Gunnar Hansen, the scene in the Radio station where he goes crazy after being Sexually Aroused was his best scene it really brought the Fear and tension off the TV screen into the viewer’s home.
Then there is Leather face’s crazy brother Chop Top Sawyer he is the twin brother to the Hitchhiker that you see in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, he is pretty much Messed up in the head *literally* as he has a metal plate in his head, he is played by Bill Moseley and is played to perfection he is by far my favourite character in this movie he looks really freaky and if looks could kill then one look from him certainly would, his makeup effects and costumes are great nothing looks out of place even the metal plate in his head looks real, his personality is that of a really missed up guy he likes to inflict pain upon others and kills his victims slowly and painfully he also likes to see the fear in their eyes as he torments them.
Drayton Sawyer played by Jim Siedow makes another appearance and if you have seen the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre then you will know he is a seriously deranged individual, he also likes to torment his victims and make them suffer, He wins an award for the best chilli in Texas and when asked what his secret is he keeps quite, however it is throughout the scene that it is his Human victims that go into his famous Chilli.
Grandpa Sawyer is played by Ken Evert, he doesn’t really do a lot in the movie he just sits in his wheel chair and swings a hammer (Very unsuccessfully might I add) at Stretch’s head.
Vanita Brock AKA Stretch is played by Caroline Williams, she is a local Radio DJ who is accidently dragged into this mess when 2 drunk college kids are murdered whilst on the phone to her radio station , apart from being quite easy on the eye I found her character to be very irritating, she is constantly screaming nonstop for what seemed to be about 30 or 40 minutes straight, I don’t know what she was trying to do at that point maybe give them a head ache or make their heads explode like the aliens from Mars Attacks…… she did play her character role very well I have to admit she did truly look terrified, and her character really came across as a hard ass (pun intended).
Lieutenant Enright AKA Lefty is played by the legendary Dennis Hopper, as usual he plays his role really well, he is the uncle of Sally Hardesty and her disabled brother Franklin, who were the victims of The Sawyer family 13 years earlier, he doesn’t have a lot of screen time he basically buys 3 chainsaws and then tracks down the Sawyer family’s new home and goes berserk when he finds the body of his nephew Franklin, the thing I liked most about his character was that he actually cared about Stretch and he felt guilty for getting her trapped and captured by the Sawyers.
L.G. McPeters is played by the late Lou Perryman, he is Stretch’s partner at the radio station, he basically gets skinned alive and Stretch is forced to wear his face as a mask by Leather Face, he doesn’t really have much of a role but comes across as a kind hearted prone to accident type of guy.
The special effects and makeup were done by the best in the business Tom Savini, the gore and make up effects were out of this world they are some of the best I have seen from the 1980s era, the gore was way over the top which I loved as you can never get too much gore in a horror movie, my favourite gore scene is when L.G. McPeters wakes up and realises he has been skinned alive and sees his friend and Radio partner Stretch wearing his face and his hat even though he was clearly in tremendous amounts of pain and was dyeing he still managed to hold himself together long enough to help his friend escape.
The movies lighting and camera work were Genius it really gave a feel of dread and fear to each scene.
I thought the scenery of the sawyer family home under the broken down theme park was amazing, it must have taken a lot of time and effort to make and put up in the studio, it is one of my favourite looking movie sets kind of reminded me of the vampire hide out in The Lost Boys movie.
Like I said the only thing I didn’t like about the movie was all the screaming, I can understand screaming is part of every horror movie and that is fine when used properly and effectively but the woman wouldn’t stop! OMG! I just wanted to jump into the screen and kill her myself!!!!
Scores:
Effects and Gore 7.5/10
Acting and Characterisation 7/10
Overall movie enjoyment 7/10
it’s a great fun horror ride, I enjoyed it all the way through I just wish the bitch would should up !!
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