The Hills Have Eyes Part II

Wes Craven admitted in an interview that he needed to make some cash fast, would have happily 'directed Godzilla in Paris'. So he made a sequel to one of his well-made and enjoyable films.

However, 'Hills Have Eyes 2' is a letdown. It seems to rely heavily on flashbacks to the previous (superior) film and is really nothing more than a 'Friday the 13th' clone. It even has the same composer as the Jason films (Harry Manfredini) so much of the music in 'Hills 2' could make you think you're watching a 'Friday the 13th' sequel. This whole film is just a waste of time. The characters are so obnoxious you don't give a hoot what happens to them, the 'Papa Jupe's brother' business is glaringly contrived and unlikely and to cut a long story short I have trouble believing that this mess was by the same director who brought us the best of the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' films and 'Shocker'.

A group of bikers, which includes some of the survivors from the original film, embark on a journey by bus to a biker race near the desert of the infamous incidents. However, because of a mistake they are late and decide to take a shortcut through the desert.

So, allegedly Wes Craven disowned this movie, claiming he only made it for the money. Sounds plausible. Unlike "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Hills" was not a film that needed a sequel. (Somehow, we have since ended up with a remake and sequel...) On the plus side, we have horror icon Michael Berryman, and Kevin Spirtas (who is better known to horror fans for "Friday the 13th Part VII"). So, while this is a pretty poor excuse for a horror film, it at least has a few familiar faces.

In 2019, Arrow Video released a special edition Blu-ray. It's a bit light on the features. There is a making-of documentary, but the audio commentary is provided by "The Hysteria Continues." For obvious reasons they could not get Craven to do it, but certainly there could have been some actor(s). Glad to see the special treatment, but this does not make it a better film.

Just watched this movie a couple of hours ago! Sure, I loved The Hills Have Eyes, and I had heard how horrible this one was, but I bought it anyway for $3. And it's not THAT bad! Really! If you don't keep saying "Gee, this movie is crap compared to the original", I mean, it's not a great movie, but it's not unwatchable. Some things are pretty annoying and/or stupid... like...

*When the girl finally admits to being the ex-cannibal sister Ruby, and that it was Bobby's family that was in the incident, THEY DON'T CARE! GEE, I was hoping they would at least react! P***ED ME OFF! That ruined some of the movie for me... The characters just don'tttt care.

*The characters, most of them, P*** ME OFF also. All they do is walk around saying "Yeahhh right, there's nothing to worry about, hahaha". The 'there's nothing to worry about' attitude Gets old.

*Hardly anyone finds out when someone has been killed. That's part of the fun of horror movies, for the people to find out someones dead, go tell the others, and freak out!

*The ending was ridiculus. So, the guy came up with that ingenius plot? Wow... he must be next in line for the Pulitzer! Brilliant.

But, it is just a movie.... Keep telling yourself that....

That's about it, now, with all that said, there dosent seem to be any good things about it... Annoying... Sometimes stupid, but never really boring... Not the worst choice for a boring day. Plus, there's not as many flashbacks as some people would lead you to believe...

5/10

This movie I thought was more entertaining than the original. It just has more places to go than the first one. The characters are better and funny also. This is one of Wes Craven's most underrated movies. I give The Hills Have Eyes Part II *** out of ****

I liked the first one and after seeing this stupid rip-off of it I was shocked to realize that it too had been directed by Wes Craven! What is the matter with that guy? Is he schizo?

The only reason to see this garbage is that it could possibly be the only film in history where a dog has a flashback. (Not including movies where the dog is the main character.) Craven was obviously stretching for ANY way to pad this sucker out with footage from the first one. While he was at it he might have padded it out with some of the GOOD footage from the first one.

The Hills Have Eyes wasn't perfect but it did build suspense and had some genuine horror. Part II fails on every level.

Wes, be ashamed, be very ashamed.