The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a 1986 horror film, which has Tobe Hooper returning to his most famous material. Unlike the previous film, this one has a more comedic tone.
The family from the first film has expanded its activities into the barbecue business, which they make from their victims. After hearing one of their attacks during her show, radio-host Vanita "Stretch" Brock (Caroline Williams) starts tracking them. A former Texas Marshal named "Lefty" Enright (Dennis Hopper) is also tracking them, with vengeance on his mind.
This film has the examples of:
- Amusement Park of Doom: Texas Battle Land, the run-down amusement park in which the Sawyers hide and prepare their victims.
- Asshole Victim: The obnoxious drunk idiots Rick and Buzz at the beginning.
- Backup Twin: Chop Top is apparently the twin brother of Nubbins from the original.
- Big Damn Heroes: A chainsaw-wielding Lefty finds the family's dining room in time to interrupt the family's attempts to slaughter Stretch, who he didn't know was there in the first place.
- Big Good: "Lefty" Enright, The Hero of the film to Vanita Brock's Final Girl.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lefty is successful in killing most of Leatherface's family, but sadly he also perishes during the grenade explosion caused by Drayton. And the final shot implies that Stretch became insane as a result of the whole ordeal.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The first film is known for being surprisingly light on blood. This film throws it out the window with a head getting chainsawed in half during the first ten minutes for starters.
- "The Breakfast Club" Poster Homage: This poster
◊ spoofs it by posing the chainsaw killers as the characters on the poster. - Broad Strokes: Ignores the first movie saying the gang had been caught so they can still be active here.
- With the third film, as well. Caroline Williams appears briefly as a reporter, and
Word of God is that she and Stretch are one and the same, her having taken up Lefty's job of hunting the Sawyers. But that film also has Leatherface alive and well, save a limp from the injury he received in the first movie but unseen here.
- With the third film, as well. Caroline Williams appears briefly as a reporter, and
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The Sawyers have no clue why Lefty is after them and try to bribe him, thinking that it's a crooked cop thing.
- Canon Discontinuity: Almost completely ignored by later movies apart from The Next Generation mentioning "two minor incidences" happening since the first movie.
- Chainsaw Good: Lefty and then Stretch.
- Creator Cameo: Tobe Hooper shows up in an early scene as some random party dude.
- Death by Irony: The Sawyers all end up being chainsawed to death (Leatherface and Chop Top are impaled through the guts, while Drayton is stabbed/hacked through the back) as a result of one of their latest victims and a relative of their victims from the first film.
- Dead Guy Puppet: The hitchhiker from the first film has become a dried-up husk of a corpse named Nubbins. At first, Leatherface wears Nubbins like a costume. And then later, Chop Top uses Nubbins as a puppet.
- Denser and Wackier: This film is a lot more comedic than the first one.
- Determinator:
- Leatherface continues fighting Lefty even after he is impaled by a running chainsaw.
- LG manages to cling on to life despite being beaten in the head with a hammer over a dozen times and having his face cut off, lasting long enough to cut Stretch free as a final heroic act.
- Diagonal Cut: Buzz's death.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Leatherface licking his lips and making pelvic thrusts with his chainsaw in the general vicinity of Stretch's crotch. Not surprising, given that this leads to a very confusedly sexual scene that actually convinces Leatherface to not kill Stretch.
- Dual Wielding: Lefty combats Leatherface with a chainsaw in each hand at the climax of the film.
- Dynamic Entry: Lefty emerging from a tunnel into the family's dining room, chainsaw revving. While singing "Bringing in the Sheaves."
- Final Girl: Stretch, who has to use a chainsaw to fight off one of her captors.
- Flaying Alive: Leatherface almost completely skins a still barely living man with an electric carving knife.
- Game of Chicken: Part of the introduction scene for Buzz and his buddy Rick has them doing this to a truck owner.
- Happy Ending Override: Well, Bittersweet Ending at least. Though everyone else in her group was killed, Sally escaped at the end of the film, traumatized but alive, only for the opening crawl of this film to reveal that she "collapsed into catatonia" soon afterward, apparently never awakening again. The crawl for the first movie also says that Sally's escape led to the discovery of the Sawyer clan's crimes, implying that they were ultimately brought to justice, but its counterpart in this movie says that the police weren't able to find the killers, the victims, the house or any other evidence of the crimes.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Both Leatherface and Chop Top get skewered through the guts with a running chainsaw at the film's climax.
- Made of Iron: L.G. manages to survive numerous hammer blows to the skull and having large strips of skin sawed off his body, including his face. He's even fully lucid in the moments before he succumbs to his injuries.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: Nubbins's corpse has been turned into a crude puppet. Meanwhile, Grandma's corpse is kept enshrined in a similar manner.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Chop Top is this. He's also a psychotic Vietnam veteran.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The eldest Saywer brother is referred to in all of the subtitles as "Cook", the name by which he is also known by fans. His actual name is given early in the movie, at the chilli contest: it's Drayton Sawyer. Chop Top's name is never revealed.
- Refuge in Audacity: Drayton Sawyer not only keeps his brothers murdering and eating people, he starts selling human meat as a legitimate business. He even enters (and, during the events of the film, wins for the second time) a chilli-cook-off-contest with human flesh chilli.
- Remember the New Guy?: Chop Top, who was in Vietnam during the events of the first film.
- Scenery Porn: The sets for the Sawyers' lair are quite elaborate, and the camera often pans around in ways that allow the viewer to take in all of the details.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: After the serious and deranged original film comes... a horror comedy?
- Soundtrack Dissonance: After the bloody, over-the-top finale, the credits are accompanied by the bouncy country-rock tune "Strange Things Happen" by Stewart Copeland.
- Tap on the Head: Stretch gets knocked out three times. It might contribute to going insane in the end.
- Tear Off Your Face: LG gets his face cut off with an electric carving knife.
- Trap Door: Stretch ends up inadvertently entering the Sawyer hideout through one.
