SHREDDER (2003)

Booorrring. I don't even know how a film like this gets financed.  The story, as best as I can tell, is about a cursed ski lodge.  Apparently a few years ago, some drunk snowboarders accidentally killed a young girl by causing her to crash into a tree.  Because of this, the ski lodge closed down.  But now a new batch of snowboarders have broken in and are using the joint as their own private amusement park.  That is until some skiing person in all black starts killing them off in boring, off-camera ways.

Preposterous story, painfully bad dialogue, terrible music, off-camera kills, amateur camerawork, zero gore, low blood, badly photographed nudity, annoying characters you wanted to beat to death, illogical ending.  Outside of making fun of it, I cannot think of a single reason anybody should watch this lame turkey.  Skip it with a vengeance.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986)

"Dog will hunt!  Dog will hunt!"

The police never caught the Sawyer clan after the killings in the original film (maybe because they changed their name from Slaughter to Sawyer?), so now, over a decade later, we're told the killings have been happening off and on ever since.  Alright, whatever, that seems kinda unbelievable but I'll go with it.  TCM2 opens with with a slaughter being caught on audio tape due to a call-in radio show.  The uncle (Dennis Hopper) of Sally and Franklin Hardesty from TCM uses the tape as a way to locate the Sawyer clan's hideout and unleash some righteous vengeance.

Following up on the greatest horror movie of all time is no easy task.  So, I'm guessing, Tobe Hooper decided to go the way-over-the-top route instead of trying to make another serious film.  And I'm cool with that cause TCM2 is a fun trip.  Numerous memorable lines ("It's a dog-eat-dog world and from where I sit there just ain't enough damn dogs!"), some balls out quirky performances, gore, awesome bright colours, Tobe Hooper cameo, solid camerawork, impressive special effects (especially the Grandpa makeup effects) and that radio station scare scene...holy fook!  I actually watch this film a few times a year. It's a lot of fun and the chainsaw shopping scene makes me daydream what it would have been like if David Lynch made a TCM reboot back in the 1980's.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 might rough around the edges (and the ending scene looks to be altered/cropped from the original version I remember on VHS when I was a little girl), but it does add some interesting insight into the Sawyer family history.  Required viewing for any horror fan.

Part 1 - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Part 3 - Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
Remake/sequel - Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994)
Reboot 1 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Reboot prequel - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
Reboot sequel to original - Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)
Prequel - Leatherface (2017)
Direct sequel to original - Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

Funny behind the scenes photo of the Sawyer family.

It's good to see that the "Cattle Truck Driver" from the original film (Ed Guinn on the left) survived and seems to be living a happy life.