The Power Of Showing Skin in ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’ [FINAL GIRL FASHION]
Emily Gagne
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This month marks the 50th anniversary of the “events” of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, otherwise known as the first floor in the harrowing house Tobe Hooper built. And while I, like most horror fans, love the original film for all of its grimy, gory charms, I have a special place in my heart for its sassy younger sister, which was unleashed on the unsuspecting public a little over a decade later.
Many people have said that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) is a candy-colored remake of the original film, with the story having similar beats (see: the near-identical climax featuring a twisted dinner party) while taking on a new look to suit a new decade. And while I agree with that assessment on the surface (it truly is the House of 1000 Corpses to the 1974 version’s The Devil’s Rejects), I think it undermines the ways in which The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 successfully flips the script, especially when it comes to its final girl and her playfully seductive styling by costume designer Carin Hooper (yes, Tobe’s former wife).
THE SHORTS STORY
Yes, we all love Sally Hardesty, the last woman standing in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Hell, it’s hard to go a day without seeing a reference to that shot of Marilyn Burns covered in blood in the back of a pick-up truck, her dirty blonde hair stained dark red from the carnage she’s witnessed first-hand. But when you look back on that film and how it treats Sally in comparison to her friend Pam, the more sexually assertive of the two, her success feels less empowering. And then there is Stretch, the leading lady of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, who feels like a perfect mix between the two.
In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, modesty is rewarded. Sally survives in her crisp, white bell bottoms and a full coverage tank top, while Pam gets brutally impaled in her backless halter and itty bitty red shorts. Hooper ogles both women’s bodies with his camera, but Pam’s behind is given pointed attention. We literally watch Pam walk away at one point, our POV tracking her backside as she ventures into the Sawyer abode. And later we see Pam’s bare back collide with a meat hook before she is left for dead in the family’s freezer.
In a way, Caroline Williams‘ Vanita “Stretch” Brock is equally on display in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. After all, there is a significant portion of the movie where we see her bare legs wide open as a moaning Leatherface revs his weapon of choice in the direction of her crotch. But while the first film gave the girl in short shorts the most brutal death of them all, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 allows Stretch to succeed while she shows off her great gams.
UNDER THE SKIN
Although she’s first seen in a star-studded ZZ Top t-shirt, Stretch’s signature outfit is an ’80s remix of the Laurie Strode special, the Halloween heroine’s simple jean button-down and bellbottoms traded in for cut-off shorts and bedazzling accents. Whether she’s wearing this Southern fried twist on the Canadian tuxedo by itself or topped with an oversized red blazer, Stretch looks sexy and self-assured at every turn. She’s got a larger-than-life gig (small-town DJ), so why not dress the part?
Speaking of which, so much of the Texas Chainsaw franchise has to do with playing with body parts. After all, Leatherface often wears pieces of people’s skin on his own in true Ed Gein fashion. What makes Stretch such a great foe for him and the rest of the Sawyer clan is her confidence in herself. To put it frankly: you can’t take the skin off someone’s back so easily if they are wholly at home in it.
Sally spends the majority of the climax of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre screaming, hopelessly navigating some strange and twisted cannibalistic customs before narrowly making her great escape. Stretch is a scream queen in her own right, but she’s also pretty assertive from start to finish. Before we see her outsmart Leatherface and Co., she gives an assortment of men the gears for the gross comments they hurl at her and her “prime meat.” A woman after my own heart, she’d rather these horny devils adjust their attitude than change the way she presents herself to the world.
SEX, OR THE SAW
Knowing that her sexuality is a sort of power tool of its own, Stretch uses it to help her get out from under the Sawyers. Playing off Leatherface’s interest in her, she essentially convinces him that she’s into him, too. So much so that “The Cook” (Jim Siedow) gives him a truly cutting ultimatum: sex, or the saw.
As any good Texas Chainsaw fan knows, saw is family. So Stretch’s sultry strategy only gets her so far. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get her happy ending. While her short-term boyfriend gets his guts torn up by a chainsaw operated by former Texas Ranger “Lefty” (the one and only Dennis Hopper), Stretch defeats the head-scratching Chop Top (Bill Moseley). What’s more, she sends him packing with the help of a special family heirloom: a rusty chainsaw hidden in Grandma Sawyer’s ghastly shrine.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre film ends with Leatherface swinging his you-know-what around as sole survivor Sally drives off into the dusty sunset. In its sorely underrated sequel, it’s the final girl who both gets away and gets to throw the saw around. Hooper puts Stretch is in the spotlight in the film’s last shot, pulling out to a wide shot as Stretch holds that thing to the sky like it’s the Texas/Oklahoma Chili Cookoff trophy. And hey, she deserves one after all she and her shorts have been through.
Categorized:Editorials Final Girl Fashion
