‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ movie timeline fully explained
By Jeremy Dick
via New Line Cinema
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
The first sequel in this franchise is also directed and co-written by Tobe Hooper, and is considered canon to the original film. Despite this, the tone of the film is very different, as the sequel is much more of a dark comedy.
Like how the original took place in the “present day” of the mid 70s, the same can be said for the sequel. TCM 2 takes place in 1986, the year it was released, and 13 years after the events of the first movie. According to the opening narration, Sally became catatonic shortly after her rescue from the bloody farmhouse in the original. It also states that authorities were never able to locate the family or the farm, leaving the surviving family members alive and well.
After Leatherface murders two teens on a Texas highway, Sally’s uncle and Texas Ranger “Lefty” Enright arrives to investigate. To find more information, Lefty convinces the local radio DJs to help with his search for the killers. But Leatherface and his family don’t take to it kindly, bringing the attack straight to the station.
One of the DJs, Stretch, is taken to where the Sawyers have been staying — an abandoned carnival ground. Lefty and most of the surviving Sawyers (including Leatherface) are killed by a grenade, with Stretch becoming the final survivor after killing Chop-top (the hitchhiker’s twin brother).