Film Fetish: "The Hills Have Eyes 2"

The Hills Have Eyes 2 - Unrated (2007) directed by Martin Weisz

This is the much anticipated (at least by me :P ) sequel to the 2006 gore-fest, "The Hills Have Eyes". In the first film, a rabid group of radioactively mutated humans stalked an unlucky family in the New Mexico desert. In this follow-up, the same mutant family terrorizes a fledgling group of National Guard trainees in hopes of capturing the female recruits so that they might breed with them and bolster their dwindling numbers.

I have to say I had high hopes about this film. Since I was over the moon about the production of the teaser trailer. It seemed so stylish and creepy, and certainly in keeping with the mood setup by the first film. I was even more hopeful of learning about an actual plot. That the crazy mutant family actually had a mission or sorts intrigued me. But had I known this movie wasn't directed by the same director... I might've lowered my expectations. And I wish I had. I didn't particularly care for this sequel. It was pretty bad. And I mean bad bad. The acting was horrible. And in no way was this movie as jarring as the first one. It lacked everything that made me love the original. In fact, it's only my love of the first movie and its world that I give this movie a passing grade. Had I never seen the first, I'm sure I'd never want to see this one. All in all it was kinda borderline. A lot of the elements were just, "okay". Meh...

5/10 Only worth watching if you loved the first and are desperate for some gore.



* Spoilers *

The best part of the movie had to be the bit where the nerdy, cowardly "Napolean" goes postal in the depths of the mine after one of the mutants attacks his fellow recruit (I forget her name, the blonde chick) and proceeds to smash a huge rock into the head of our unlucky mutant over and over until his skull becomes a bloody mass of blood and bone. Pretty awesome.

DS333, disappointed.