Sightlines · reception

How The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 was received

1986 · Tobe Hooper · The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 on Sightlines

The arc

Horror fans who wanted a rerun of 1974's grimy terror were baffled and critics were hostile in '86, but it's since been reclaimed as an intentional Reagan-era black comedy — now a staple of 'misunderstood sequel' lists and for some fans the boldest thing Hooper ever did.

What’s debated

The eternal split: is Hooper's hard swerve into cartoonish farce a brilliant admission that the original was always a comedy, or a betrayal of everything that made it scary?

Its footprint

Its poster parodying The Breakfast Club — the Sawyer clan arranged like Hughes's brat packers — is one of the most referenced one-sheets in horror, and 'the saw is family' became the franchise's unofficial motto.

Where it stands

A certified cult object and horror-head litmus test: loving Part 2 over the original is a recognized Letterboxd personality type.

Did you know? Made for Cannon Films as part of Hooper's three-picture deal (alongside Lifeforce and Invaders from Mars), it was released unrated rather than accept the X the MPAA would have slapped on it.