Exploration, Transformation, and Metamorphosis in The...

Analysis, Theory and Application The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Nicole Weaver English 162 Professor Mark Justice 29 January 2012 Exploration, Transformation, and Metamorphosis in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre released in 1974, is a 1986 film directed by Tobe Hooper. This sequel is set 13 years after the events that transpired in the first film and follows Lieutenant Lefty Enright, played by Dennis Hopper, on his quest to find and destroy the Sawyer family the Sawyer clan did to his niece, Sally Hardesty, and his nephew, Franklin, in the first film of the franchise. Historically, horror films developed out of the tradition of Gothic novels from Europe by way of Mary Shelley or Bram Stoker (Dirks 788). Like these Gothic novels, horror cinema highlights the battle between good and evil whether it is between two separate individuals or entities, or a battle within the self. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2s narrative and description of the fight between good and evil allows for the analysis of theories such as isolation, exploration, transformation, and metamorphosis. Stanley J. Solomon argues horror cinema has the capacity of providing the viewer with protected access to a nightmare world otherwise shunted outside of civilization (794). Solomon continues to argue that it is through cinema that the audiences abstract fears are made a fictional reality and through the