The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Part 2
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About a decade after the original shocker, Tobe Hooper directed his sequel starring Dennis Hopper and a whole load of crazies.
We chose this film to finish up our month of notorious #2’s because Hooper and Co. decided to go a completely different direction with a wacky, gory comedy, instead of the shocking straight horror style of the original (which did, truth be told, have its own darkly comedic moments).
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)
Episode 117, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast
Todd: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.
Craig: And I’m Craig.
Todd: And, we are coming to you a little later this month. I really apologize, but, we hit a it really, originally intended for February to be our month of twos. But, some technical issues on my end delayed our episodes a little bit. But we’re gonna press on with what we planned anyway. And this week, we’re doing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2, which I was super excited about doing. I know you were too, Craig. I was. We, I don’t think you hadn’t seen this before. Right?
Craig: No. I had, but only once in a long time ago. Oh, yeah. So I didn’t I didn’t remember much about it except for that it
Todd: was crazy. That it is. And I, I knew it was crazy. I hadn’t seen it before though. It’s something that as a kid, I’d always wanted to see and I never got around to. As you probably know, if you’ve been listening to us for a while, our goal for this month was really to do number twos that weren’t just ordinary sequels, but things were a little off the beaten path that took the original and did maybe did something crazy with it or went in a different direction. This sequel totally goes off the rails, I would say, especially compared to the original. It came out about 10 years later, actually. This one is 1980 6, and, it was at that time that Tobe Hooper was given the opportunity to do a sequel to this movie, although kind of been working on the idea for of doing a sequel for quite a while. It was back and forth with this writer, l m Kit Carson, who wrote this screenplay for this movie. The 2 of them just decided they needed to do something completely different with the second one because the first one ended up being so iconic, and so unique and so shocking to people that they knew that it would be really hard to top that by trying to go in the same direction. And so they took a complete left turn and made a comedy out of it. Whereas the original, we’ve done that on this show before as well. You can go back and listen to that, is was pretty shocking for its time. It has some dark comedy in it, of course, but it is really pretty brutal, and brutal in a sense that it doesn’t it’s not super gory. That’s one thing we talked about, but it just the level of violence and the way that people are treated in that movie, is just a bit shocking and adds to the brutality and a lot of the gross stuff that happens, happens off screen. As opposed to this movie, where they just decided they were gonna they were gonna show it all, just kinda go balls out on the gore. They brought Tom Savini on board. He did some amazing, gore effects for this movie. This movie, I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about. And so I’m really excited Todd talk to talk about it today.
Craig: Yeah. It’s it’s interesting. Gosh. I I I don’t know much about the history. Like, I really couldn’t find all that much about it except for the Tobe Hooper, His original concept for it was that it would be about an entire town of Campbells, and he, was gonna call it beyond the valley of the Texas chainsaw massacre. And, I guess, you know, that’s that’s where they started, but after, you know, rewrites and rewrites and rewrites, this is the movie that, they ended up with. And I don’t really have mixed feelings about it at all. It’s just it’s I don’t know, like, it’s kind of in keeping with the first movie in some ways, but they just, like, they just crank the volume up to 11. Like
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: Let’s let’s just go totally kinda crazy wacky with it. And as I was watching this, you know, I’ve seen Rob Zombie’s movies, and I’m specifically referencing House of a 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. I’ve seen those movies and I’ve heard that he was very much inspired by, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But in watching this second one, I have to believe that he had to at least have been equally influenced by part 2, because this movie reminds me a lot of House of a 1000 Corpses, with just, like, really interesting over the top set pieces and visuals and just these wacky wacky characters. And, of course, Bill Mosley who, plays Choptop in this movie.
Todd: He’s so good.
Craig: He is really good. And then he went on to work with Rob Zombie a bunch of times. Whereas the first one felt very low budget but in a good gritty way, this one, you can obviously tell that it had a bigger budget. This one was made on a budget of, like, 4,700,000, which is, you know, a a pretty good budget for a a a horror film.
Todd: Oh,
Craig: yeah. You can tell. I mean, like, it’s just it’s it’s it’s so insane. Like, Dennis Hopper is in it for Todd sakes. Like, and and Dennis Hopper is in this movie just chewing up and spitting out the scenery left and right. Like, it’s hilarious. He’s I don’t I don’t know. What are your thoughts?
Todd: You know, it’s it’s, it’s interesting. Like, okay. So you gotta compare with the first one. So the first one, like I said, really pretty gritty, pretty gruesome in a sense that it’s just so well done in its documentary kind of feel, in its not showing you on camera all of the bad stuff that’s happening and really letting you fill in the blanks with your imagination, and just sort of the shocking brutality of it. I felt like there was, a kind of reality to it. And I think that’s what a lot of people latched onto is that when a guy’s hit in the head with a sledgehammer, he’s dead. Like Right. It doesn’t take 5 hits for that to happen, you know? It happens once, and and he’s gone. And then he’s flopping around on the ground a little bit, you know, while he’s dying. I mean, that is that is the kind of stuff we get in the first one. Compare it to this one. You can’t even take it seriously. I and I don’t think you’re No. You’re and I mean, I’ve obviously, people are gonna say, well, you’re not supposed to take it seriously. But there’s there’s a point. You know, there’s a point to which my mind just got a little disengaged while we were watching this movie. And and I think not in a necessarily a good way, you know. Now, this this has a really troubled production anyway. There is a great I don’t know, Craig, if you’ve seen it, but there is a fantastic serie documentary, a series of short docs that were packaged with the DVD version that you can find on YouTube. I think it’s called It’s All in the Family or something like that. Did you find any of that?
Craig: No. I didn’t look at it.
Todd: It’s great because, you know, when you watch this documentary, you they interview most of the original people. Tobe Hooper isn’t interviewed, and this was done before he died because he died fairly recently. But, Kit Carson, the screenwriters interviewed at length. The production designers interviewed, Carolyn Williams who plays the the lead female in this. Bill Mosley’s interviewed. Bill Johnson’s on there. Quite a few people. And what’s really cool about it is that it seems like everybody just had a blast making this movie not that it was easy and not that it wasn’t kind of a grueling exercise but they everybody speaks very highly of their experience on the film, and some of it because it was so stressful. Like, their production designer talks about how quickly they had to throw these sets together and with such limited budget because the money kept getting taken away from them by their distributors
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: That he said, you know, it was really And I was, like, in this super hot giant warehouse for 36 hours and didn’t see the sunlight and was, you know, we were scrounging from everything trying to put this together. But he he said there was just something really thrilling about that, you know, about that process of being able to do it and get it together. The screenwriter, Kit Carson, writes the whole screenplay, submits it to their distributors, which is Canon Films, which they’ve got a whole history, and we’ve talked a little bit about them before. And they said it’s too too expensive. You need to trim it Todd. But they had to start production on it because they had a deadline. And so he literally had to rewrite the movie as they started shooting it. And they only had, like, 5 or 6 weeks to shoot it. So he’s on the set day by day writing, and he’s talking about, like, passing out in a typewriter. People are pulling papers out of it, like, in in front of him to get the next shots of the script. He said it was just this manic manic thing, but they were ultimately very proud of what they were managed to put together with all this just to sort of turn around and see the distributors chop it up. And so that was that was sort of the the sad point to it. So it’s like the movie that we’re seeing, you get this other side to it where they’re like, we really enjoyed this process. We really enjoyed working together. It was a great ensemble cast. Everybody was in good spirits. We’ve managed to sort of pull off the impossible. We felt like we had a really cool movie. And then our producers were idiots, and they said, oh, what’s all this stuff? We wanna just people just wanna see more blood. They wanna see more gore. Right. They took it over, chopped it up, and they there Todd, even Toby Hooper, I looked at a couple interviews with him, is willing to say that they hated the final the final product. They just said that the product that they went in there with and came out, you know, the first cut, they said was just so much better.
Craig: Well, I I I read that. I read that Canon kept kind of changing the budget on them depending on how the films that they were releasing were doing. So if they released a film that it was doing well, then they would throw a little bit more money at them. But then if another if they released another film and it didn’t do well, then they would take money away. I don’t know exactly how this turned out because I know that there were different cuts. Like, I know that the Todd, when they cut it, it was only, like, 82 minutes or something like that. Well, the the version that I watched, and I assume that you watched, is an hour 41. I also read that when they sent it to the MPAA, the MPAA wanted to x rate it. So Yeah. They just went with they just went with not rated, instead. So is even this hour and 41 version that we saw, is that still a significant cut?
Todd: You know, your guess is as good as mine. It’s certainly like, I’m on the IMDB page right now, and it says 101 minutes is the original cut. So this has gotta be kind of extended except for the fact that a lot of the deleted scenes that people talk about are not in this. So it’s not like they inserted a bunch of deleted scenes.
Craig: Sure. Well, on the deleted scenes, I think, are available on some of the releases, and, I think you can find them on YouTube also. I I didn’t watch any of them. And part of the reason that I didn’t is because at an hour 41, I have so many notes because so much happens. Like, this this movie just it goes and goes and goes and like there’s always something happening. It’s it’s it’s quick paced. There there really aren’t very many lulz and even the things that you might consider lulz, are just so wacky like like Dennis Hopper’s trip to a chainsaw store. Like, that should be that should be really boring, you know, somebody going to buy some chainsaws. But instead, it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my whole life.
Todd: Now I have to I have to disagree. I felt like there was a lot of this movie that I just kinda, like, I was waiting for it to be over. And and maybe, you know, maybe if I’d seen the 89 minute cut, it wouldn’t have been quite so bad. But, no. I liked that scene, but there was just some of this just I felt like it needed a good editor.
Craig: Well yeah. And and and to be fair, in my notes at one point, I’ve got, like, Stretch, who’s our main girl played by, Caroline Williams. There’s one point where she’s just being chased for what seems like 10 minutes and, like, she’s just running down this big hall forever. I’m like, is this ever gonna end? Yeah. And, you know, about about 2 thirds, 3 quarters of the way through my notes, I have, my Todd, there’s still a half an hour left. I know.
Todd: Dude, I wrote that at 1 hour, Ian. Yeah. I was like, the same way.
Craig: But I don’t know. It’s it’s it’s really just a wacky movie and and I I found myself pausing so many times to write lines down because the writing I don’t know if you would call it awful or genius. Like like it it just straddles that line. Like, it’s it’s either really bad or it’s hilariously funny. So many lines. And and I’ll quote some of them for you as we go along. But I feel like we should get into the movie. Otherwise, we’re never gonna
Todd: Yeah. Get all the way through it. Let’s do it.
Craig: There’s an opening scroll as there is in the first movie and and a voice over. And and the opening scroll is really just a recap of the first movie, and then they at the very end
Clip: Texas lawmen mounted a month long manhunt but could not locate the McCobb farmhouse. They could find no killers and no victims. No facts. No crime. Officially, on the records, the Texas chainsaw massacre never happened. But during the last 13 years, over and over again, reports of bizarre, grizzly chainsaw mass murders have persisted all across the state of Texas. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has not stopped. It haunts Texas.
Craig: And I also just thought that was funny. Like, okay. So did the Texas Chainsaw people who there. I don’t remember if they had the same last name in the first one. I think they did. The Sawyers. They’re the the family. Mhmm. Did, like, did did they did they hide the house?
Todd: What did they do with their gas station?
Craig: Not find it. Yeah.
Todd: It’s it’s all a bit of a stretch.
Craig: Yeah. But whatever. Okay. It’s fine. Nice setup. Nice callback to the first movie. It cuts to god. You know, I I say this all the time, but it happens a lot in horror movies. Then we just get a couple a couple of assholes driving along in a car.
Todd: I knew you’re gonna say
Craig: that. And it’s Buzz and Rick. And, apparently, they’re on their way to some big party. I guess this is, a big football weekend in Dallas, which, apparently, this weekend is a real thing. Like, the rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma, I don’t follow sports. But, apparently, it’s a real thing. And, anyway, they’re on their way to this, you know, big game and these big parties or whatever. One of them is, like, shooting a gun, like a handgun out of the car at at everything that they drive by, mailboxes, signs for attractions, whatever.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And, at one point they see it an oncoming truck and they’re like, let’s play chicken and and they run the truck off the road. Meanwhile, they’re calling into this radio station where Stretch, our main girl is the, that’s not her real name, it’s her DJ name, but she is the host of, Call In, a a request line show. And they’re calling her and harassing her and making really terrible jokes. But eventually, you know, this goes on for a while, and then it’s nighttime and they end up on a bridge, and as they’re crossing the bridge, headlights come on from the opposite direction and it’s that truck, the same truck that they ran off the Todd, and the truck starts riding alongside them going in reverse and in the bed of the truck stands up a corpse. This and it dances for them. There’s a lot of dancing in this movie.
Todd: There is actually. Very good point. The Sawyers have some groove. They do. At this movie could be like this how the Sawyers got their groove back.
Craig: Right. It could be chainsaw 2, electric boogaloo, like, you know, it’s awesome. And, the corpse ends up being I don’t know that they necessarily ever say this outright. I saw it in the trivia, but it’s it’s the hitchhiker from the first movie. They’ve they’ve saved his body, and it’s dancing around. And it turns out that it’s really Leatherface, like, holding up this corpse in front of him, But he starts, like, sawing up the car as they’re racing down this bridge, and he cuts the driver’s the top of the driver’s head off and and the car crashes, and that’s kind of the setup then for what kind of turns into a cop procedural a it’s just so Craig, like, it’s it’s just the wackiest movie and that’s when, Dennis Hopper shows up and, Todd, what are you gonna say? I mean, Dennis Hopper has said in interviews that this is the worst movie that he’s ever been in. He’s also said that about Super Mario Brothers, and I would agree with him more on the Super Mario Brothers front. But, oh my god. He you know, Dennis Hopper, I think he must legit in real life be crazy because he just plays it so well that you I can only imagine that he must be a really intense person, but his performance in this movie is something. I tell you what.
Todd: It is. And it’s funny because about this point where he came in, I just wrote in my notes that they’re laying the Texas on pretty thick
Craig: in this movie. Oh, yeah.
Todd: I I lived in Texas for a good six, 7 years, and, I still have family in Texas. I’m pretty familiar with Texas, but I mean, from the beginning when these guys are, like, shooting their revolvers out the window at, you know, driving down the street, this whole, rivalry of Oklahoma and whatever. And then, Dennis Hopper comes in. He’s got a cowboy hat on and this thick Texas accent, and
Clip: One of those boys so wild Todd his own head off going 90 mile per hour. Hell. Hell is exactly what they raised.
Todd: This other guy comes up, while he’s investigating the crash, and he must be, the local police or the local sheriff or something. Because you think Dennis Hopper is the sheriff at first. It turns out he’s just a guy who’s interested. And he comes up, and he’s got this awful thick Texas accent as he sends, Dennis Hopper away telling him, basically, oh, your obsession with this chainsaw thing is gone even though you’re I thought he said brother.
Craig: I think I thought he said, like, your brother and his kids or something like it. Yeah. It’s weird. I mean, I I it’s it’s kind of a tenuous thing, but they try to get us to understand that lefty, Dennis Hopper, has a personal vendetta with these chainsaw killers. Like, they’ve killed somebody in his past and so he’s obsessed with them. Mhmm. And people are well aware
Todd: of this. His name is lieutenant Enright, and I’m thinking that Enright. That Enright. And as he sends it away, he he looks after him and and says, remember the Alamo, cowboy? And I’m thinking, jeez. Come on. Like, really? And then but later, there’s a there’s a chili cook off. I mean, I think they pretty much squeezed in about all the Texas they could.
Craig: Yeah. The chili cook off is great. Like, somehow I don’t even remember what it is. I I guess that Lefty somehow gets it in the papers that he’s looking for anybody who can help him with this investigation. So Stretch comes to him at his hotel and is, like, I’ve got this tape because I should’ve mentioned that because this is a request line or whatever. She audio records all the requests, so she’s got the whole road murder on audio cassette. She’s like, I’ve got this tape. It’s evidence. I wanna help you. And he’s like, nah, little lady. I don’t need your help. And, like, kicks her out. It’s like dump. It doesn’t make any it doesn’t make any sense.
Todd: He put the ad in the papers so that he could get evidence, and she shows up with evidence, and he turns her away. It’s so stupid. Yeah. He’s like, no. Never mind.
Craig: But fortunately, in that same hotel, there’s a, chili cook off going
Todd: on Same hotel. Which
Craig: she’s also covering because she’s the request line lady, so why wouldn’t she cover a chili market? Radio station. And, yeah, it’s hilarious. And then they’re like, the winner is Drayton Sawyer. And Drayton Sawyer comes marching the barbecue cook in the first movie and he’s there. And it’s such a goofy scene. They’re like
Clip: This year, Drayton, you’ve got to tell the secret of that fabulously tasty chili. No secret. It’s the meat. Don’t skimp on the meat.
Craig: I got a real good eye for prime meat. Runs in the family. And then, like, the woman host is eating the chili and she pulls something out of her mouth. Was it a tooth? Was it a human tooth?
Todd: Or a fingernail or something. Yeah.
Craig: And he’s like, oh, he grabs out of her hand. He’s like, oh, that’s one of those dern hard pepper corns. Oh, it’s so silly. Then, lefty in right goes to buy chainsaws, and it’s just one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen. He walks into this chainsaw store, you know, your local chainsaws. Cut right cut right chainsaws. And he pulls out he pulls out, like, a $1,000 in a $100 bills and just, like, lays them down on a stump and puts his sunglasses down. And then he starts, like, trying out the chainsaws, but he, like, picks them up and he’s like, okay. Could I samurai fight with this? He starts waving them around, like, hacking them. He picks up one great big one and he swings it around like he’s fighting with it. He’s like, okay. That’s pretty good. And then he picks up 2 smaller ones and he’s got one in each hand and he’s, like, using them like boxing gloves and, like, slashing them all around. The store owner is just looking at him like he’s crazy. So then he just starts to walk out like, I’m sure that $1,000 will will cover this.
Todd: And the store guy’s like, you’re not gonna leave without trying them out first, are you? He points them to this log at the front, and this guy so Dennis Hopper’s we’re just gonna call him Dennis Hopper. We don’t need to call him lefty, do we? Yeah. Hopper’s got this long it’s it’s a super long chainsaw, one of them. He get 2 short ones and one really long one. And he starts, like you said, hacking. Like like, you don’t use a chainsaw.
Craig: Yeah. Like, it’s an ax. Like, he’s like And he’s hacking at
Todd: this at this at this log. It looks so awkward. And it’s supposed to look cool, but it just looks terrible. In the meantime, the store owners giddy with delight watching him do this. Oh, my aching banana.
Craig: What does that even mean?
Todd: This this store is, like, out in the middle of nowhere. This cut right chainsaws. And as Dennis Hopper pulls in, there’s a marching band that goes by. I just thought that was so dumb.
Craig: Yeah. Just like on the dirt road behind them. Like, where are you going? Like, are you on your way to a parade?
Todd: Like, what’s happening? It’s a bit of a disconnect there.
Craig: Maybe they’re just practicing.
Todd: Uh-huh.
Craig: I don’t know. And Well, then, Inright changes his mind. Apparently, Dennis Hopper changes his mind and goes, to stretch and says, you know what? I changed my mind. Go ahead and play your tape on the radio. So she does. Then we see the cook, Drayton, driving his, like, food truck. Like, he was way ahead of his time. You know, he’s got this awesome barbecue
Todd: food truck.
Craig: Somebody calls him on his console car phone. And you you you don’t hear both sides of the conversation. You only hear his sides. He’s like
Clip: You you you’ve done it again. You much better. You’ll be the best to be yet.
Craig: He is
Todd: he is so good in this movie.
Craig: He’s He’s hilarious.
Todd: So hilar he is the the charm of this whole film rests on his shoulders.
Craig: Oh, I agree a 100%.
Todd: I love every minute he’s on the screen, and everything that comes out of his mouth is so funny. It it’s It is. I just gotta think that some of it had to be ad libbed because he just seems to nail the delivery and all these silly little things that he says. It’s so laced with profanity, but it’s hilarious profanity.
Craig: Well, and it’s it’s just nice to see him because he’s so recognizable from the first movie and he’s the only person that reprices his role. Leatherface, is played by a new actor. It was, Kane Hodder. It was Kane Hodder in the first movie and they’re dueling stories about this. Kane Hodder says that they offered for him to reprise the role, but they were only willing to pay him scale and and he turned it down. The filmmakers say that they offered him the role, but he waffled on it and so they rescinded their offer. But either way, it’s a new guy, Bill Johnson plays Leatherface in this movie. And the other member of the Sawyer family who is Choptop, played by Bill Mosley, he is supposed to be the twin brother of the hitchhiker from the first movie. And he looked and and he looks like he could be. I’m like He really is. He’s really reminiscent of, that guy. So, you know, there’s there’s callbacks to the first movie, but it’s just really nice to see Jim Seedow return to his role. And and he looks I mean, what? This is 10, 12 years later or something like that? He looks significantly older, but it’s it’s just nice to see him back. So Stretch, plays the tape and she’s got a technician, a radio technician, his name is LG. She plays the tape and it’s the end of the night. It’s funny because obvious this is the eighties and so radio stations went off the air, you know, and they played The Star Spangled Banner at midnight. And LG leaves and she’s there by herself. She hears a noise. So she go she leaves the broadcast room and she goes, like, out into the lobby and there’s this weird, super weird guy sitting there, and it it ends up being Chop Todd Sawyer Bill Moseley. He’s just he’s super gross, like, he’s he’s obviously wearing he’s wearing prosthetic teeth, like, these gross nasty teeth and he’s got these big sunglasses on. He’s wearing what is very obviously a wig, you know, he’s disheveled and and just menacing like and Bill Mosley does such a good job. He’s got, like, this nervous energy Yeah. And he’s giggling all the time and laughing plus oh, god. This is in such bad taste. I can’t believe I’m gonna say this. But he’s got an abortion Todd coat hanger, like, that he keeps sticking it up under his wig and scratching it. And not only that, but he’s heating it with a lighter before he puts it up under his wig and is scratching and you’re, like, what’s going on? And then every once in a while, like, he’ll scratch and then he’ll pick something off the tip and eat it. Like, it’s just so disgusting.
Todd: It is gross.
Craig: Yeah. He’s like, you’re my favorite DJ. I just wanted to meet you. Maybe you’ll play a song for me. Maybe you could play that tape you just played a little while ago. Maybe you can give me a copy and you can sign it and it’s a very tense scene and she’s obviously just, you know, trying to get rid of him, but she’s very scared and nervous as you would be because this guy’s clearly nuts. And he’s, like, well, I want a tour of the radio station. And she’s, like, okay. Well, here’s a desk, Here’s a pen.
Todd: Here’s a stapler. She’s like, I’ll give you a tour to the exit side. Here’s a desk. Here’s a pen. Here’s a stapler.
Craig: Here’s a piece of
Todd: paper, and there’s the exit sign. Right? What’s kind of, like, I you know, and it’s creepy and it’s gross, but there’s this other element too where it’s kind of poorly filmed in that, like, we talked about in a few other films. All she does is kinda stand there. You know? She doesn’t really make moves to leave. She doesn’t really she lets she allows him to get close to her. That part of it kinda bothered me. It is what it is. Right? She’s in a small room with this guy.
Craig: Right. Exact I mean, I get what you’re saying and I’m not gonna say that Caroline Williams is an amazing actress, but I I thought that in this part, she did a good job of, you know, what do you do? You know, you’re alone in this small confined space with this crazy guy, you know, her her male friend is gone. I don’t think that she was expecting him to come back. He does eventually come back. She’s just trying to get rid of him, and and trying to be as calm as she can to get rid of him. She shows him to the door and they have this tense exchange. Good night. Oh. Todd night. Good night. Good night.
Clip: Good night.
Craig: Good night. I have to say this part actually got me. Oh, yeah. She was she’s standing in front of this doorway. It’s there’s I didn’t see a door. It’s just an open doorway into this dark room. Choptop is, like, well, what’s in there? And she’s, like, that’s the record vault. Out of the darkness comes Leatherface with the chainsaw, and it scared me.
Clip: It did. It scared me too.
Todd: It’s a serious jump scare and very effective.
Craig: I didn’t see it coming. No. And and just knowing that he was there lurking in the shadows that whole time is kinda spooky. Yeah. Leatherface chases her in the radio station and for some reason they have one room that has one of those giant meat locker doors like the Sawyers had in their house in the first movie that, you know, it’s a big metal door that, like, slide shut, and she’s able to shut herself in there for a while.
Todd: Yeah. And so he’s he’s kinda hacking away at the door with his for quite a while with his chainsaw, but, of course, he can’t get through the metal. I’ve gotta say this about the radio station. I say this in a future episode we’re gonna put up, Night of the Comet, about how radio stations in in movies tend to be shown as these really awesome places, like, very, light nicely decorated and things like that. I wrote in my notes for the first time I’ve ever seen in a film a radio station look actually like radio stations Yeah. Look. Yeah.
Craig: Like, I I thought the same thing with the carpet on the wall. Yeah. Like a total dump
Todd: and it’s just like things everywhere and stuff stashed and and stuff that’s been on the wall since, you know, 30 years ago and just they they did an awesome job, and I thought they surely that they just shot this in a radio station. And it wasn’t until Leatherface started hacking up the place that I realized, oh, my Todd. They actually put a set together for this. That is Yep. That is unbelievable. But, yeah, the meat locker door thing makes no sense. But it does make for a bit of comedy when she’s in her room and you’re thinking, well, at least she’s safe. And then he just bursts through a wall. Yeah. Like like the Kool Aid man. He’s just like, oh, yeah. Comes at her.
Craig: And at at some point, LG, the technician comes back. He gets killed. I forgot to mention that when Leatherface jumps out, like, he swings the chainsaw and he doesn’t hit the girl at all, instead he hits Choptop in the head. But that’s when we find out that Choptop has this big metal plate on his head and he was wearing a wig. And I guess the backstory is that during the events of the first movie, he was serving in Vietnam and he was injured. He was shot by the Viet Cong, and so he got an honorable discharge, and he got some money out of that settlement and that’s how they’re funding this restaurant business, and that’s that’s why he’s back now. But it’s just hilarious that Leatherface bursts out and just swings his chainsaw and it immediately hits the very top of his head. Like, it’s just convenient.
Todd: But it turns out he has a metal plate in his head.
Craig: Right. Right. Well, not like not just in his head like it’s visible and that’s why he was using that that coat hanger. It’s like he’s scratching around the I would imagine, I can only imagine, that if you did have to get a metal plate on your skull like that that they would graft your skin over it. So my only interpretation is that he is just scratched away at this so that the chrome is exposed and like he’s eating the scabs from around. It’s so gross. And he’s like, he’s playing it he’s playing it for comedy and it is really funny, but in the context of, you know, all the violence, it’s it’s really menacing, like it’s scary. Like he seems like a a psycho, like he’s a psychopath and as as crazy as his antics are, it’s it’s pretty scary.
Todd: I honestly I feel like he’s the scariest part of this whole movie, I think. Quite honestly, he’s way scarier than Leatherface just because Leatherface. Yes. Well, we’ll talk about it later, but Leatherface seems to have some depth to his character in this movie, where whereas just chop top just seems insane, you know, and unpredictable. Yeah.
Craig: And that’s why I was trying to rush past okay. So LG comes back, and he gets murdered. And it’s a it’s it’s ridiculous. Like, Choptop is hitting him in the head with a hammer. He must hit him 50 or 60 times and LG is just like, he just continues to flop around like he wouldn’t be dead. Like, come on. You know? He would be he would’ve been dead after the 3rd hit at least. But anyway, they, quote, unquote, kill him. He wakes up later completely inexplicably. So then Leatherface breaks through the wall where Stretch is like the Kool Aid Man, and then there’s this really weird scene. And I don’t know how I feel about this because I really feel like I’ve seen all the movies. I don’t remember part 3 at all. Part 4, which was Next Generation, I remember Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger. I remember them, and I remember their performances. I don’t remember the story that much, but I really feel like they kind of neuter Leatherface in this movie. And maybe it was an attempt to give him more humanity, but the Leatherface from part 1 was just this juggernaut killing machine. Like, that’s just Mhmm. That’s that was what he was. Yeah. And in this movie, you know, he he breaks in and, like, he’s swinging his chainsaw around. I have to say that my absolute without question favorite part of this movie is
Todd: I know what you’re gonna say.
Craig: The chain it’s the chainsaw shimmy. Yeah. Is that what Every time every time he breaks into a room, he holds his chainsaw up above his head and does a little shimmy dance. It’s so
Todd: funny. It really is.
Craig: Oh my god. I had to, like, through as I was talking about this with my partner last night, like, through my laughter, I had to get up and demonstrate the chainsaw shimmy. Like, I’m like I’m like, no shit. Every time he does this, I’m like, shaking my ass.
Todd: Oh, and then there’s the point. I think it’s after the scene with the girl that we’re about to talk about. But I think he starts shibbing again and starts cutting up more of the place. And before he leaves the room, he points himself directly at the camera and just does these pelvic thrusts with his chaise on towards the camera, like, 3 or 4 times, like Ace Ventura, you know, before he leaves the room. It’s it gets pretty ridiculous.
Craig: It’s clearly supposed to be innuendo. Like, the chainsaw is clearly serving as a phallus in this whole scene.
Todd: Oh, for sure.
Craig: It’s so weird. He comes in and he’s, like, tearing up some stuff and she’s screaming and freaking out, and she gets backed up against the wall with a cooler between her legs and, like, what? Why is there a cooler filled with ice? Happening. Right. Filled with ice and soda pop and beer and whatever. And he takes the chainsaw and, like, starts he just puts it in the cooler, like, slices it in there. Yeah. So liquid is just spewing all over her face and she’s screaming and then she’s like, no no. I don’t even he stops and there’s this whole exchange where she’s like, are you good? How good are you? Right. How good are you? Oh. It’s it’s like she’s trying to seduce him. And so then he takes the chainsaw and runs it all and this is very long, slow sequence, runs all the way up her leg and all the way up her thigh and, like, is, like, nuzzling it at her vagina and she’s like, oh, so you’re really good. Like, she’s apparently also an amateur psychologist. I don’t know. But anyway, she seduces him enough into thinking that, like, she’s his girlfriend or something. So he doesn’t kill her, and and he goes out and, Chop Todd is like, did you take care of her? And he nods. Leatherface never talks, but he does communicate through through Todd and gestures and things. It’s shimmies. And shimmies. And, so so they leave and then okay. So up until now, all of this has been, like, okay, you know, like, it’s different than the first movie, but, you know, it’s kind of a logical and she’s like, damn it, Lefty. Where are you? You’re late. Like, she’d been waiting for Lefty to, like, show up and save the day, Dennis Hopper to save the day or whatever and he hasn’t gone there And she’s, like, they can’t get away. They can’t get away, and she starts following them. And, like, you are the biggest fucking idiot I’ve ever met in my life. Like, call the police. Like, they’re driving a blue pickup truck with a huge American flag painted on the gate of the like, come on. Like, this wouldn’t be hard to find.
Todd: Well, and then she follows them to this abandoned amusement park, Texas Battle Land. And again, also not hard to find. I’m pretty sure you could search through the woods with your police high and low, and you would find this as opposed to the cabin from the first movie. It’s, it’s big, and it’s big fake mountains or whatnot, And they drive this car in and through, and so she stops her truck and gets out, looks left and right from behind a tree, and walks in after them. It’s so dumb. It’s so dumb. Mhmm. Then there’s another car that shows up, and so she starts running from it. And it turns out that it’s Dennis Hopper who comes out and basically admits, yeah, I did use you as bait. Just says that to her face, and they don’t have much more of an exchange before the ground opens up beneath her and Yeah.
Craig: And she falls in she falls into a pit of hell, like like, it’s illuminated from underneath which she hadn’t noticed before. Oh my god. It’s just so silly. Like, she literally falls into this pit, like, what is happening?
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: And then he tries Dennis Hopper’s like, I’ll help you and so he grabs something to help her and it’s a human arm, like, just It reaches it out. And he’s trying to pull her out and then oh oh, come on. Wait. Hold on. I wrote this down because it was too good. When he can’t get her out, she okay. So she falls into the hell pit and then he tries to pull her out and then she falls down a shaft, down a slide, into a pile of human bones, through another floor, into, like, some kind of dungeon. Like she falls like like 3 stories into this huge subterranean amusement park that this family has apparently decided to call their residence and that they have decorated, like it’s got to be enormous and like the entire place is all lit up and like you know, these festival lights all around and and they’ve decorated it with corpses all around, like it’s crazy. Awesome. And it is. It’s an amazing set piece. It’s huge. It’s a great set piece, but it’s so silly. And this is the point where you’re, like, you know what? Good for you for just going for it. Like, if if you’re gonna go balls to the wall, just go for it.
Todd: You should see some of the interviews with the set production designers because they talk about this quite a bit, about how they were able to throw this together and what what they used. And they were, like, literally scrounging for garbage. They got these giant tubes and, you know, they’re putting them together. They went to boneyards and got bones. They said they’re just truckloads of bones, and then truckloads of lights and lamps and things to to stick in there because they the the script called for, like you mentioned earlier, this long tunnel that she ends up running down. And the production designer is, like, how in the world do I like this thing? It was, like, quarter of a mile, this tunnel is.
Craig: I believe it because it took her a half an hour to run down. It took her forever.
Todd: Right? But and he was, like, but I got this idea, like, well, maybe they’re just pack Craig. And so we’re just gonna get all of the freaking lamps in available in all of the Texas pawn shops and junkyards and whatever. And they literally went out, got huge truckloads of these things, strewn them out there throughout the entire set, and rewired them all for lights, and that’s how they lit the set, you know, for some of these especially for some of these difficult parts that would have been a possible light otherwise. It’s so ambitious. It doesn’t make any sense, but it is so ambitious. And it doesn’t make sense because, I mean, think about it. It kinda changes the character of these people anyway. I mean, they were
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: Part of the charm of the first movie a little bit was the fact that they were these sort of backwoods hillbillies without any money.
Craig: And and they just wanted to be left alone. Mhmm.
Todd: And now you’ve got they’ve got this giant underground palace, and they’re suddenly pack rats, and they apparently have all this money in this business they’re running and stuff, and and it’s it it lends a bit of a different tone to it, you know. And I think it’s supposed to be funny. Maybe he’s trying to make some commentary. They they constantly refer the to this as a satire, but it’s really hard to see what they’re satirizing it at any one given time because it’s just a mishmash blender worth of of things in this film, you know. Yeah. But it’s cool to look at.
Craig: It is. It’s really fun to look at. And this is the part especially where it really made me think of House of a 1000 Corpses, which I haven’t seen in a long time. But I know at some point, the heroin from that movie falls into a subterranean lair. Of course, in that movie, it’s much darker and more grotesque. But then a whole bunch of stuff, like again, we’re probably only about halfway through the movie. So a whole bunch of stuff happens down here. But it’s really just a lot of okay. It’s a lot of Dennis Hopper running around by himself with his chainsaw, like, trying to tear this stuff down, and I can only imagine in that they probably had Dennis Hopper for a week and they’re like, we we’ve gotta get all your stuff filmed. So you’re just gonna run around this set and tear stuff down for a while and that’s gonna be you in the last half hour.
Todd: It’s kinda dumb too because he’s cutting these supports. Supposedly, he’s trying trying to tear the place down. Every time he cuts the support, like, nothing a little dirt falls on him and that’s it. Thinking these supports that he’s cutting can’t be holding up much because of doing absolutely nothing to the building.
Craig: Yeah. And he’s apparently, you know, like religious. I don’t even know.
Clip: Oh, Todd. Help me beat this stranger that walks beside me. It takes away my strength. Todd, strength. Lord, you show me the end. Show me what I fear, so
Craig: I don’t fear it no more.
Todd: It’s the Devil’s Playground. Like, we got the fires of God here. Yeah.
Craig: It’s the devil’s playground. Like, oh, my Todd. It’s so funny.
Todd: It up. Hamming it up is the best way to put it.
Craig: Yeah. Oh, god. And it’s hilarious. Stretch wakes up in what I assume is the Sawyers meat locker.
Todd: It’s like the smokehouse maybe. Yeah.
Craig: Yeah. She she hides there while Leatherface, like, plays LG, her friend, her technician. There were these hooks sitting right next to her and I’m like, oh, I I was just waiting for her to kick those over. Like, go ahead and kick them over, honey, because I know you’re going to. And, she finally did. And then Leatherface face that he’s just peeled off of LG and he puts it on her and he puts LG’s hat on her and they dance.
Todd: And then he ties her up.
Craig: And then he and then he ties her up because they hear I guess, they hear some things going on. It, you know, Dennis Hopper tearing things down or whatever.
Todd: And this is where I wrote in my notes, oh my god. I can’t believe we’re only 1 hour into this Me too. Hour and 40 minutes of the movie. And then what happens? LG sits up. He’s been hit in the head with the hammer about 40 times. He’s been flayed, and there he is. He’s he’s alive and able to stand and talk and basically
Craig: be it. Be yeah.
Todd: Hey. They’re putting all the taxes in here. I’m telling you. And and this is again, like I said earlier, I just kinda at some point, I really kinda turned my brain off, and this is it. I’m like, okay, if LG is still alive then what’s what’s really where are the stakes in this movie?
Craig: I know. And and he he sits up and he’s like got no face. And I have to say that the makeup Todd Savini did a great job. The Oh, yeah. Makeup and and the gore effects are fantastic. But he he’s got no face and he’s flayed. He’s, like, don’t be scared, darling. And then he, like, looks at himself. He’s, like, I guess I’m falling apart on you, honey. And then he he cuts he cuts her free, and then he dies. So she puts his face and his hat back on him, and she’s like, LG, I love you.
Todd: But it’s played like she’s confessing her her long secret love for him, you know. Right. It’s really dumb. Really dumb.
Craig: And then she runs around, like, it’s this great big huge enormous lair. And she decides that she’s gonna dart around in plain sight of everybody. Yeah. Oh, my god. Doesn’t make any sense. Leatherface chases her through a tunnel for 5 minutes. The cave in a cave in stops them. That’s Dennis Hopper. Leatherface does the shimmy a little bit. He has her cornered and then
Todd: they do this, this deal where she plays psychologist on it.
Clip: Okay. What are you pissed off? What about me? Listen, this is not gonna work out. I’m trying to be open with you. It’s nobody’s fault. I just can’t do this.
Craig: Yeah. She’s running she’s running and screaming, and then she when she’s blocked, she just turns her
Clip: out and says, alright. Let’s talk about it. What? Are you pissed off?
Craig: And and
Todd: I know that this is supposed to be funny. You know? I know this is supposed to be part of the satire that’s put into the script, but I just think the way that the whole thing plays out, it just comes across as really stupid. It wasn’t skillful satire, I don’t think. No. It’s really clumsy.
Craig: If it’s right. If it’s satire, I don’t know what they’re but I don’t know. I guess I was just on board. I was just on board for the silliness and I was laughing, like, at those lines, they’re so stupid. I was laughing and it was fun laughing, like, I think they were in on it. You know what I mean?
Clip: Oh, for sure. For sure. They knew
Craig: how stupid it was. Well, and I think
Todd: there’s some stuff missing here too because the people involved if you watch these interviews, they talk about how the original movie was written. It was all about family. It was about this family. It was about Dennis hopper losing Franklin who which was his I thought it was his brother but I guess it’s his nephew and then this was cut out of the final cut, but it was a part of the script and a part of what they shot. Stretch was supposed to be Dennis Hopper’s illegitimate daughter.
Craig: Yep.
Todd: So according to the the makers of the movie, they had a more powerful message here and a very strong thematic, element to the whole movie that basically underpinned the film, they said, was this whole commentary on family and what is it like to be family and all that. And I could see, I get maybe these are just the little bits of it, you know, that we’re getting
Craig: Yeah.
Todd: That because they don’t really have a base anymore to go on because of the editing or whatever, that it it just comes off as really dumb and really out of left field.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. And I it is. I mean, it is really dumb. I still had fun with it.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: But it but it is it is. It’s dumb. And then so then, the cook and chop Todd show up while she’s trying to talk leather face down or whatever. They’re like, oh, Bubba’s got a girlfriend. Bubba’s got a girlfriend. And the cook is like, oh, well, you discovered sex. I wish you would have just come and talk to me about it. And he’s like, you got you got one choice, boy. Sex or the saw. And the saw is family. Which is a great line. And I’m I’m pretty sure they used the saw as family as the tagline for the 3rd movie. Yep. But anyway, Chop Todd knocks her out. And then we have the dinner scene which aside from the difference that this has an amazing huge set piece is exactly the same as the dinner scene.
Todd: It really is. There’s like no difference at all down to her ending up, with her head in a pan and grandpa being wheeled in again, except this time grandpa has so much better makeup.
Craig: Mhmm.
Todd: Again, he’s attempting to throw the hammer at her and completely missing every time until he hits her, like, once or twice. And once again, she should be dead, but she’s not.
Craig: Right. But once she’s unconscious, then Lefty shows up singing hymns.
Clip: Boys,
Craig: you never should have been doing this.
Clip: Who sent you? Those sissies over at Del Mar catering? That chicken shit burrito man butts? I don’t care who sent you. I’m the Todd of the harvest.
Craig: I don’t even know what that means.
Todd: And then it’s just it becomes Errol Flynn Robin Todd is what it is.
Craig: Yeah. Yeah. With chainsaws.
Todd: With his really long, tall chainsaw. And once again, shows he has no idea how to use a chainsaw. And he and Leatherface go into this, basically, this fencing duel up to the point where they even leap on top of the table, and they’re fencing Yeah. On top of the table. It’s it’s funny. It’s it’s actually really funny. That that part, I thought, was was pretty brilliant. Even though you can tell, like, the saws aren’t even going. Like No. Like, you’re Yeah. You could hear the sounds of it, but you could see those chains aren’t moving. That’s kinda disappointing. Drayton is underneath the table at this point. He just basically decides to cheerfully give up. Oh, well, I guess I always needed to lay it down at one point. So Yeah. He digs into that corpse that they’ve had kicking around from the very beginning and, pulls out his backup plan, which is a grenade. He pulls the pin out and squeezes it and drops it just at the the point where I think, Lefty gets it over on Leatherface. He’s actually stabs him through with the chainsaw and that is a cool bit.
Craig: It is, but it’s so stupid because like he totally impales him with it. It goes entirely through his torso. So it’s it’s, you know, in one end sticking out the other and Leatherface is still Just flopping around. Fighting.
Todd: Yeah. He’s still swinging the chainsaw around. It makes no sense.
Craig: No. Well and and so that blows up. But in the meanwhile, Chop Todd is chasing Stretch and they’re they’re going up this big ladder. You kinda see the the dust from the explosion come up behind them, but they’re getting outside and and they’re fighting on the ladder which is kind of a fun fight scene and, of course, Choptop’s crazy so he’s just laughing and his weapon that he has at this point is a scalpel. I don’t know where he got that, but he is just slicing away at her.
Todd: And again, it’s just like him hitting her with the with the hammer. Every slice should be making it’s just it’s just like he’s slapping it against her or something. I mean, that it’s having no effect.
Craig: Well, I mean, you see it. You see the blood and stuff, but it’s like she’s almost entirely unfazed, like, I would have been done, but whatever. And it’s hilarious. They’re like climbing up this huge ladder like to the top of a mountain at this amusement park and they get up there and there’s a shrine to apparently Grandma Sawyer who is another one of these living corpses. Why these corpses like, they said at one point that grandpa was like a 137 years old and still kicking. Why these people turn into living corpses, I have no idea. But the grandma corpse mostly just sits there, but she does move around, Stretch, grabs the chainsaw in grandma’s lap and turns around and takes a chop top out with it. And what I thought was clever was that she kinda takes a swipe at him and and connects with him, but then he falls off the mountain like down into a shaft and I’m, like, uh-oh, they wanna bring him back for another sequel.
Todd: But but that shot was the had to be the coolest stunt in the entire film. Like, that guy, I had to rewind it and watch it 2 or 3 times. That guy rolls down the mountain. It’s a guy, just, like, aimlessly, and and hits something, kind of flops over, rolls down a little further, and manages to make it in this tube. It had to be super dangerous, that stunt. I was so impressed with that stunt. Yeah.
Craig: It was cool. And well, I I was impressed by the stunt too. It looked pretty cool, but I also yeah. I just thought, I appreciate you for setting up another sequel. Good job. But then, Stretch, like, the camera is close-up on her and then it pulls out into this big wide shot of her at the top of this mountain with the chainsaw. And then she does the chainsaw shimmy, like, she’s king of the mountain. It’s really hilarious. It’s very, like, Ash Williams Evil Dead.
Todd: Well, it’s kind of a callback to the first film too where, you know, it ends on Leatherface kinda doing the chainsaw shimmy in the middle of the Todd, except his was a little more aimless and hers is more triumphant. Yeah.
Craig: I don’t know. Like, it’s
Todd: Oh.
Craig: I have to say at the end of the day, I appreciate this movie for its ambition and for just, you know, just go on ahead and just just push it right over the top. Just just go ahead and do it, and and I I kinda like it and it’s it’s it’s long. It’s too long.
Todd: Yeah.
Craig: They they could have trimmed probably a good 15, 20 minutes. Nonetheless, I I thought it was fun. I had fun watching it. I don’t know that I would necessarily sit down and put it in and watch it from start to finish again, but if I, you know, was flipping through the channels and it was on, I’d I’d take another look at it. It it’s it’s a fun movie to watch, and I’m glad we did it. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. Because like I said, I had seen it that one time and I remembered it being crazy, but I haven’t seen it since then, probably 10 years or more. And it was fun to revisit.
Todd: I I have to say I don’t I don’t feel like this is a good movie. I don’t think I would rewatch it. I thought it was a bit of a slog. I did find it it had its moments. It had its moments that thankfully would come at just about the time when I when I was, you know, checking my watch They would jump out and and and charm me. But overall, as a one unit of of art, one piece of art, I just think I think it has so many problems. And I wanna say that hopefully, it’s due to the mess that the studio apparently made it after the director’s, you know, initial vision because I don’t think it really reflects well on Tobe Hooper as a director. I have to kinda wonder after watching a movie like this if he was just a bit of a a one hit wonder because nothing he did after that was Todd super successful. And we even learned the poltergeist, you know, was mostly directed by by Steven Spielberg. And so I’m really kinda curious to to revisit some of his later films to see, because I just I don’t think the direction is that good here. The what does work about it is the ensemble. The acting is the acting is really good. The special effects are fantastic for especially for their time. The set design is incredible for any time. Mhmm. They nobody would build a set like that anymore, you know? They wouldn’t. It would all be CGI. And the ideas there are interesting. But when you put them all together, the movie is just one big mess, and I didn’t find it terribly fun to watch. I thought they were fun moments. Other than that, I I kinda I would I would have to give a thumbs down to it myself.
Craig: Well, to be fair, Tobe Hooper didn’t intend to direct this movie. That was never his intention. He wanted to produce it and have somebody else direct, but they couldn’t find anybody else to do it. And so he’s just stepped in and said fine, I’ll do it. And I think that you have to go into this movie looking at it as a comedy, and I’m surprised, you know, it did pretty well and I I guess that has to be a result of, the success of the first movie, but it grossed about 8,000,000 which isn’t great, but, you know, they made money on it, and the franchise continued. But I just feel like if you don’t go into it knowing what you’re getting into, I could see how you could be terribly disappointed. But if you go into it thinking this is a total change in direction and it’s really more focused on the comedy Tobe Hooper says, whatever. The first one had a lot of dark comedy in it too. People were just so shocked Todd overlooked it.
Todd: Notice it. Yeah.
Craig: Right. Which I I can see. I mean, Franklin was clearly a, you know, comedic character. We didn’t even mention that Franklin’s skeleton shows up and so that Dennis Hopper can have a little sentimental moment with this skeleton. But, you know for what it is that’s that’s not to say that it’s a cinematic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but for what it is. I thought it was funny. There were parts of it that were scary. The gore effects were good. The makeup was good. The set pieces were fun to look at. Since you gave it a thumbs down, I will go ahead just to be contrary and and give it a thumbs up. I I I would recommend it to horror fans.
Todd: Sure. It’s it’s worth watching, but it’s probably not, in my opinion, not worth a second watch. It just it just, like, to me, it’s just emblematic of the fact that you can have all of these separate elements that work so well by themselves. But when they come together, they just don’t click. Yep. I think that’s fair. Well, anyway, thank you for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed this one, please share it with a friend. Anywhere you can find podcasts, we are there. You can also find us on Facebook. We have a page there, Finally, we have a website as well, 2 guys dot redfortynet.com, where we put up written movie reviews every Thursday to supplement our terrible, horrible podcast episodes. Until next week, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig. With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw.