capkronos Apparently desperately in need of money during his pre-Elm Street days, Craven agreed to write and direct this unnecessary follow-up to his 1977 cult success. After filming most - but not all - of the original script, the backers reneged and pulled funding before it could be completed, leaving the unfinished film to languish on a shelf somewhere for a spell. It wasn't until after Elm Street's success that the studio convinced Craven to finally finish it. And no, he wasn't given money to shoot the rest of the footage, he was simply left with the task of piecing together what WAS shot and then padding the rest out with "flashback" footage from the first. To tie it to the original, several cast members return to reprise their roles and the same basic premise and desert setting are retained, but the tone and the approach to the material is quite different this time out. In fact, it's almost impossible to believe the same man could possibly be responsible for both films. This sequel seems more like a second-rate cash-in made by an inept, inexperienced hack attempting to capitalize on the first film's success than an already-established filmmaker. It's no wonder Craven later disowned this film.After the opening credit scroll informs us that "The following film is based on fact" (lol, please), we briefly catch up with original "Hills" survivor Bobby Carter (Robert Houston). Still traumatized by the events of the first movie, Bobby finds himself unable to accompany his buddies across the desert to a motocross competition to test out their new "Super Formula Racing Fuel." Going in his place is his friend Rachel (Janus Blythe), who, as "Ruby," was a member of the desert-dwelling family of the first film but is now a reformed ex-cannibal after having helped the Carter family put an end to her brood's murderous ways. Or so she thinks. Along with three racers, a mechanic, a few girlfriends and "Beast," the same German Shepherd from the first movie (don't ask), Rachel / Ruby soon finds herself back in familiar territory. Running short on time, the crew decide to venture off the main road and take a shortcut, their bus breaks down near an abandoned mine and then the rest plays out like business as usual as Pluto (Michael Berryman) and Papa Jupiter's hereunto unmentioned big brother "The Reaper" (John Bloom) start picking them off one by one.Gone is the original film's intelligent subtext centered around two vastly different families clashing over harsh terrain and an ordinary, mild-mannered middle-class family forced to turn as vicious as their attackers in order to protect themselves. In its place we get a handful of obnoxious, ill-defined cardboard teenagers no one could possibly give two hoots about. While the first film was a tense, bleak survival film, this one is presented just like any number of other poorly-made slasher flicks with characters who continually do senseless and idiotic things, pitiful attempts at comedy and terrible dialogue ("You're not feeling psychic again are you like you sometimes do?"). The slasher feel is reinforced further by Harry Manfredini's rehashed music, which is nothing more than recycled bits and pieces from the Friday THE 13TH series. I could even live with all that, but this film is genuinely inept and filled with continuity errors and lapses in basic logic. It's almost mind-numbingly stupid... and the absurd moment the dog has his own flashback is really just the tip of the iceberg!Early on, Rachel has a run-in with Pluto and uses karate (!) to defend herself. Immediately afterward she's shown laughing and joking along with the rest of the cast and accusing two guys who have disappeared of "playing pranks too hard" instead of, you know, putting two and two together they may have been killed by the psycho cannibal who'd just attacked her moments earlier. After she leaves the teens in her charge to go look around, they proceed to joke, play pranks on each other and and idiotically wander off by themselves so they can get killed. The movie probably reaches its low point when one of the cannibals steals a motorcycle, slaps on a helmet and starts driving around the rock cliffs while laughing maniacally. I wasn't even sure if this was supposed to be funny or not.The murders themselves are rather tame. Someone's crushed by rocks and there are a couple of booby traps but most are just yanked off-screen and then found dead later on. The only gory moment is when one of the girls gets her throat cut and even that's not much. For what it's worth, our heroine (Tamara Stafford) ends up being a blind girl who has some kind of extrasensory perception, though the script doesn't really make novel use of that idea. The only thing this really has going for it are some nice-looking outdoor shooting locations and the underground lair the last few scenes take place in. Other than that, it's terrible.

MARIO GAUCI I recently acquired this via the full-frame Image DVD in anticipation of the HTF Halloween challenge; I knew the film was nowhere near as well regarded as the 1977 original – but I wasn't aware that Craven only made it because he was hard-up for cash, that he later disowned the result and that the picture was even shelved for two years (by which time he had re-acquired his stature with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET [1984] which itself developed into a franchise and, ironically, the director would also return to much later after another lean period in his career)!Anyway, this sequel is really quite lame as these things go (especially given that the original director is involved): apparently, there was so little plot to work with that the makers felt the need to pad out the running-time with gratuitous recollections of some of the highlights from the first entry – including an outrageous (hence, justly infamous) dream sequence by Beast, the heroic Alsatian! Similarly, the mutant cannibals this time around are relegated to just two – Michael Berryman's Pluto, who's shown to have somehow survived two separate vicious attacks by the dog(!), and yet another relative (brother to Jupiter from the first film and, thus, Pluto's uncle), dubbed "The Reaper", and who appears out of nowhere.The motocross-enthusiast protagonists are among the most obnoxious heroes to feature in this type of film – the kind that you don't care whether they live or die. In fact, just about the only characters to engage our interest are a blind girl and Janus Blythe's Ruby herself – who has been domesticated in the interim (at the end of the original, she had saved a baby from a fate worse than death and, as seen in an alternate ending on Anchor Bay's SE of the first film, had even joined the surviving members of the cannibals' victims). Though Robert Houston (Bobby) is also on hand, his character is conveniently put out of the way at the very beginning: he freaks out when a motor race is set to take place in the desert near where his family was attacked all those years ago and opts to stay behind – Ruby (who's even changed her name) and Beast, however, go along and, though the former's confession about her past isn't taken very seriously by her companions, both of course prove instrumental in the new victims' safe-keeping.Incidentally, Craven knew when he had a good thing going and, so, reproduced here two death methods from the original – Berryman himself, in fact, expires yet again at the hands of Beast (though he's met with the fate that had previously befallen his brother Mercury), while The Reaper's come-uppance is an even more elaborate and protracted stunt than Jupiter's demise in the 1977 film and which would have been more appropriate for a Road Runner cartoon! By the way, Ruby herself inexplicably vanishes from the proceedings during the last third or so!

TheDraytonSawyer Wow this was one terrible sequel. I don't even know where to start on how bad this movie was. It was just so low budget and so dang boring. Somehow Pluto (Michael Berryman) is still alive after the first movie. How I have no idea. Then there's one other cannibal The Reaper. His name sounds cool right? Too bad the character is so terrible it's not even funny. This entire movie is mostly flash backs from the first movie. Even the Dog has a flash back! This movie is pretty disappointing and really poorly made too. I don't know what Wes Craven was thinking when he made this one. Please avoid this movie at all cost; it's not worth your time. If you want to see a good Hills Have Eyes movie. Go see Hills Have Eyes (2006) (1977) The Hills Have Eyes II (2007) those movies are much better! I give The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 a 2/10

user-11512 Admittingly Wes Craven claimed he made this sequel to disturbing and scary hit The Hills Have Eyes for some quick cash. This being said, the movie was made very fast and effort was minimal at best or so it seems. A plus is that the same music score director from Friday the 13th is aboard for this sequel. Only drawback is this film compared to Friday the 13th in a lesser sense, as death scenes were comparative and most of them were un-exciting. Parts I found interesting were Ruby's return to the desert as a civilized human now, the number of remaining mine cannibals, and the amount of buildings. This film was far less brutal than the original however many flashbacks and references connected the two well enough to be franchised. I physically burst out laughing to the canine flashback scene, I wont spoil it and tell you what happened but I will remind you its infamous and applaudable. This was a somewhat entertaining 87 minutes of an 80s horror sequel and may be valuable to have viewed for the upcoming The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007). 80s horror sequels comparable to this film include: The Return of the Living Dead Part II, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, Friday the 13th Part II, and The Howling II. I gave this film 6 stars because I am a true fan of Wes Craven and his horror masterpieces even if this one is a pull it out of his behind piece of work, I also enjoyed the remake tremendously and look forward to the forthcoming sequel.