La colline a des yeux n° 2

(* out of *****) I think Craven must have put all of his energy and creativity into "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (released the same year), because this sequel to his own ‘77 classic is horrible. In fact, I would rate this one even below the director's other ‘80s stinkers "Shocker" and "The People Under the Stairs." The best scenes in this are the long flashbacks from the first movie (and there are several of them -- the damn dog even has one!) Unfortunately, in between the flashbacks, we also get the `new' story about a bunch of dirt bikers stranded in the desert when their bus runs out of gas. Once again, they are attacked and killed off by the two remaining members of the savage, cannibalistic clan from the first film (John Bloom as Reaper and Michael Berryman returning as the scary-looking but wimpy Pluto, who gets his ass kicked by dogs and chics throughout the movie). Robert Houston also returns as Bobby in a brief, opening cameo, and Janus Blythe returns as the newly reformed and now civilized Ruby (when she reveals to everyone that she was raised by a desert-dwelling family of killer cannibals, no one seems to care!) Absolutely nothing works this time around. The characterizations and motivations are dumb, there are gaping plot holes, there is no suspense, no blood, no guts -- in short, none of the hyper-realistic savagery, fear, and helplessness that made the first one so good. The blind heroine of this movie (Tamara Stafford) is so perceptive that she can hear things when no one else can and can sense when a person is afraid, but she doesn't even know when someone's smoking a cigarette right next to her! I heard that this movie underwent a lot of pre-release cutting before it came out, and that's why it turned out so badly -- personally, I think this is a load of bunk. Even movies that are cut up left and right before release should give some indication of whether they could be potentially good or not, and this one gives no such signs of any potential whatsoever.

Lowlight: The fiery demise of Reaper -- the hero concocts a ridiculous trap for him involving a gasoline tank, the school bus, a ring of fire, and a cable connected to a motor that will pull him between Reaper's legs and through the flames to safety. It's useless to try explaining it -- you have to see it to believe it (but I wouldn't advise it.)

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 ****

Since Wes Craven himself wrote and directed this one, I was really expecting more than just another slasher movie. Still, it's pretty good, though. And yes, I'm sure dogs can have flashbacks too (they do have minds after all, don't they?)

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.

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.