OK, so it's not the first one. But how could it be? Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE is the CITIZEN KANE of horror movies; you don't top that. What this movie does, though, is it takes its crazy ideas and wacks you over the head with them; it goes all the way, and then some. That's the Hooper hallmark. Playing the movie for obvious laughs works to make it even more disturbing. The jokes play against the gruesome carrying on; this is a world gone mad because nothing, and I mean nothing makes sense. We're beyond surreal; we're through the looking glass; which, I think, is Hooper's intention. Stretch falls down the hole - it's not a rabbit hole, and she doesn't meet the mad hatter. But what she does experience is a world that questions sense and sanity. The reason most find this one less satisfying then the first is because it's not seamless; we can see Hooper's gears turning and, unlike the first time, we're actually in on the joke. That aside, Hooper's directorial vision remains consistent. It's not a story, per se, we are following, it's a chase, and we're running, running, running like mad.
Hooper seems to have an unerring ability to get inside the crazies that populate his movies. These weird, disastrous, antisocials he creates have dimensional life; and it's all their own. We follow their thinking, their thought process, and in doing so, the irrational in his movies becomes logical. This is his gift. When he works on material like CROCODILE, where the "monster" is not in some way human, the work stutters and spits. Hooper's mad men are scary because they are human, and their humanity is cleverly displayed. Remember Neville Brand's nutty soliloquies in EATEN ALIVE? Brilliant, I thought. Massacre 2 knows it's being funny, and the surprise we felt in the first one is all but lost. This time, though, instead of surprise, we find ourselves tumbling down the rabbit's hole and we end up with more than we bargained for. Chop Top is one of the weirdest, wildest, funniest, monsters ever put on the screen. Bill Mosley's performance shoots off into areas few actors even know about, much less enter. He is gross, funny, and frightening all at the same time. The crazy things he says are like DaDa ravings; he's the irrational made flesh. Jim Siedow weaves back and forth between rationality and the exact opposite with little or no warning. In truth, he looks like he's on the verge of breaking up throughout the entire movie. The scene where Stretch finds herself tied to a chair at the head of this wildly long table is one of Hooper's finest moments. The entire scene is one long take with the camera tracking into Stretch and then back out over the table, then back in to her, then, yet again, we track back out beyond the table, with Siedow raving on like a mad Baptist minister. The tracking, swooping camera, constantly changing our perspective, creates an almost lyrical sense of grandeur in this mad, mad world; Hooper has let us in on the joke, but he surprises us with such effects because we feel, with the Sawyer clan, the power and drive of their subterranean mania.
Hooper is an extraordinary director. Even when his work misses, there's a power to it. In some way or other he understands what it is to be a lunatic, and his major movies, this one included, celebrates the hysteria while putting us non-lunatics through the ringer.
Hooper seems to have an unerring ability to get inside the crazies that populate his movies. These weird, disastrous, antisocials he creates have dimensional life; and it's all their own. We follow their thinking, their thought process, and in doing so, the irrational in his movies becomes logical. This is his gift. When he works on material like CROCODILE, where the "monster" is not in some way human, the work stutters and spits. Hooper's mad men are scary because they are human, and their humanity is cleverly displayed. Remember Neville Brand's nutty soliloquies in EATEN ALIVE? Brilliant, I thought. Massacre 2 knows it's being funny, and the surprise we felt in the first one is all but lost. This time, though, instead of surprise, we find ourselves tumbling down the rabbit's hole and we end up with more than we bargained for. Chop Top is one of the weirdest, wildest, funniest, monsters ever put on the screen. Bill Mosley's performance shoots off into areas few actors even know about, much less enter. He is gross, funny, and frightening all at the same time. The crazy things he says are like DaDa ravings; he's the irrational made flesh. Jim Siedow weaves back and forth between rationality and the exact opposite with little or no warning. In truth, he looks like he's on the verge of breaking up throughout the entire movie. The scene where Stretch finds herself tied to a chair at the head of this wildly long table is one of Hooper's finest moments. The entire scene is one long take with the camera tracking into Stretch and then back out over the table, then back in to her, then, yet again, we track back out beyond the table, with Siedow raving on like a mad Baptist minister. The tracking, swooping camera, constantly changing our perspective, creates an almost lyrical sense of grandeur in this mad, mad world; Hooper has let us in on the joke, but he surprises us with such effects because we feel, with the Sawyer clan, the power and drive of their subterranean mania.
Hooper is an extraordinary director. Even when his work misses, there's a power to it. In some way or other he understands what it is to be a lunatic, and his major movies, this one included, celebrates the hysteria while putting us non-lunatics through the ringer.