Tobe Hooper waited 12 years before picking through the remains of his 1974 masterpiece, meaning The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 has, until this month, never been available in this country: by 1986, two years after the Video Recordings Act, the BBFC had decided they wouldn't even allow the c-word - chainsaw - to feature in a title.
Viewers haven't really been missing much. The original built slowly before revving into terrifying life, but Chainsaw 2 is all action and no pacing. Similarly, it replaces suggested horrors with gory money shots, and mistakenly grants Leatherface a libido, his chainsaw now operating as a phallic extension.
Hooper would have been better off using the cash to ensure Gunnar Hansen again donned the bloody apron - Bill Johnson may have cost less, but he lacks the disturbingly feral qualities Hansen brought to the role.
