Halloween has come and gone boils and ghouls…
But, if you’re still thirsty for blood, go to Hero Complex Gallery’s website and pick up my “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” print for their I Am The Law/A Life of Crime show. And don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter too!
Following the pattern I have subconsciously set up for myself, I decided that for this gallery show I would yet again try my hand at an underrated film. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2, a sequel that keeps with tradition and is scorned by many. Leatherface has evolved from a brute creepy force of Texan destruction to a perverted, sexually befuddled, crazed dancer. The washed out and subdued grainy visual charm of the original has been replaced by technicolor, over the top bone backdrops. All the horror that the original let us create in our minds through insinuation is now washed out in a cacophony of blood and gore. The hitchhiker, a disturbing nightmare too close to reality is replaced by his brother, Chop Top, an altogether more colorful nightmare in a Sony Bono wig. And then, there’s ex-Texas Ranger Lieutenant Lefty Enright. A triple chainsaw wielding Dennis Hopper, completely out of his mind, chewing up scenery both literally and metaphorically. To most, all of this will sound terrible. To some, this is to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre what Evil Dead 2 is to the The Evil Dead: an extreme cover version, a different tone to the same theme that ends up transforming it through to it’s very core. If you stick around for it’s psychedelic over the top goriness, you can even find subtle and very relevant social commentary. At the very least though, you will be left with some undeniably classic characters: Lieutenant Lefty, a crazed vigilante lawman for the ages who has no problem with bringing it all down. And the Sawyer clan – criminals with a real good eye for prime meat.
In other news, one unlucky soul won this OG ink from me yesterday.
Stay tuned for more ghoulish goodness tomorrow!
