Lick my plate, you dog dick!

For his 1986 sequel, Tobe Hooper ditched the gritty realism of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and fully embraced the gore and over-the-top madness that was dominating the landscape of the genre at the time. The result was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a huge departure that has gone on to become a favorite for most horror fans.

The film introduced us to Bill Moseley, whose Chop Top stole the show and has, like the movie itself, gone on to become one of the most beloved and iconic horror characters. Leatherface may be the leading villain in the Chainsaw franchise, but one could argue that Chop Top is the character we really wanted to see more of.

Exactly 31 years after the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, which hit theaters on August 22, 1986, Moseley took to Facebook to reflect on the career-defining film.

Moseley wrote…

“Wait a minute, 31 years since the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2?! That ain’t such a long time to a sequoia, but it’s more than a lifetime to the likes of me (old Moseley Brothers lyric). Don’t think I’ll be thanking the Academy for TCM2, but I will thank director Tobe Hooper for taking a chance on me two years after watching the 20-second cameo I gave myself in my 5-minute moviette, The Texas Chainsaw Manicure; my old Hotchkiss classmate, Peter S. Seaman, for walking said videotape across the hall from his office to Tobe’s at Paramount Pictures on that fateful day in 1984; the great Ed Neal for his indelibly psychotic performance as The Hitchhiker in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre that showed me the way as Plate Head; the late, great L.M. Kit Carson for a truly deranged script; Canon Films for paying me $5000 (at the time, a great fortune. Well, it still is) to shave my head for the prosthetics applied by the King of Splatter himself, my great good friend Tom Savini and his merry band of makeup madmen, Gino Crognale, John Vulich (RIP), Sean McEnroe, Gabe Bartolos, Bart Mixon and Mitch DeVane; my co-stars Bill Johnson, who played a soulful lovelorn Leatherface; Caroline Williams, whose lung-bursting screams and shorty shorts were as impressive as they were inspiring; the late, great, Jim Siedow, aka Drayton Sawyer, who became a great friend both on and off the set (BTW, folks, Drayton is the oldest brother, not the father!).”

“And finally to Choptop, who’s with me every day, and without whom I might just be pumping your gas (at least in Oregon)! Dog will hunt!”