The Horror Classic Sequel That Goes Absolutely Bonkers, Stream Now

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a completely different experience than the original. The closest comparison would be Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre—yes, that’s really how the original spelled the word “Chainsaw,”—is one of the creepiest movies ever made but surprisingly light on blood and guts

The movie relies on atmosphere and eerie set dressing to spark a sense of unease in the viewer as a redneck family of cannibals—the Sawyers—terrorize a group of teens. The sequel is basically Hooper asking, “How can we do the complete opposite?” Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 answers this question by being one of the nastiest, goriest movies ever to get a widespread theatrical release. It’s also one of the funniest…if you have a warped sense of humor.

Most people don’t consider the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre a comedy, but then again, most people aren’t Tobe Hooper. Hooper thought the original film was downright hilarious and was disappointed when viewers didn’t seem to “get” the humor. When the time came to produce a sequel, the horror director was determined to make sure people knew it was funny this time.

That meant a scene where Leatherface uses his comically oversized chainsaw as a pretend phallus and pantomimes making love to the air with it. It meant a chainsaw duel between Dennis Hopper and Leatherface. It meant having a new character, Chop Top, carrying around the corpse of his dead twin—the hitchhiker from the first movie—like some kind of rotting flesh muppet. Tobe Hooper wanted to make a movie that fans wouldn’t know whether to laugh at or throw up while watching.

Boy, did he succeed!

There is, believe it or not, a thin semblance of a plot, but really, it’s just an excuse to follow around a deranged family of cannibal rednecks while they do increasingly messed up things. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 walked so that The Devil’s Rejects could—no scratch that. Even Rob Zombie couldn’t out the “disgusting brood of white-trash mutants,” Tobe Hooper. TCM2 is in a class of its own.

Dennis Hopper of Blue Velvet fame plays Lt. Lefty Enright, the uncle of two of the teens killed in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Lefty has been scouring Texas for years, trying to find the family of serial killers who murdered his niece and nephew. Eventually, his search brings him to Vanita “Stretch” Brock, a Radio DJ who accidentally recorded Leatherface and Co. murdering a pair of yuppies during a listener call-in segment.

Lefty has Stretch play the tape of the murder over the air, hoping that the Sawyer family will hear it and come after her. They do, and Lefty tracks them back to their lair—a series of subterranean tunnels below an abandoned theme park. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 ends with the Sawyers all dying—yes, there are sequels, but it’s best to pretend they exist in an alternate universe from the first two movies—and Stretch swinging around a chainsaw in a mirror version of the original’s ending.

The movie’s poster played into the comedy aspect of the film by mimicking the poster for The Breakfast Club, with the deranged Sawyers taking the place of the young Brat Pack actors. Unsurprisingly, the movie was savaged by critics during its original theatrical run. Equally unsurprising was that fans didn’t care, and even with limited distribution and little promotion, the movie still doubled its budget at the box office.

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Today, horror fans consider The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 a cult classic. Some disturbed gorehounds even prefer the unhinged sequel to the original classic. If you’re one of those gorehounds, or you’re a fan of the original TCM and never got around to checking out any of the sequels, you’re in luck: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is currently streaming free on Tubi. Just remember, it’s not for the fain