A group of bikers, heading to a race, become stranded in the desert and find themselves fighting off a family of inbred cannibals who live off the land.
Up until just yesterday, I had originally only seen the remakes of “The Hill Have Eyes.” When my editor sent me the recently restored “The Hills Have Eyes Part II,” I knew I had to go back and watch Wes Craven’s original first. It’s well done overall but I actually prefer Alexander Aja’s gory remake. The original’s plot centered on the Carters, an “All American family” heading to Los Angeles for a luxurious trip just to end up broken down in the remote and harsh Southwestern desert. This picturesque family is preyed upon by another family of mutant-like cannibals. Director Wes Craven stated he was inspired by Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs,” a story where a normally passive human is pushed to fight back and become even more brutal than their attackers. The origin of the cannibalistic family is due to some shoddy birth defect that bred a monstrous man who bred more monstrous children. I found it clever that they are all named after different planets but ultimately, I found the remake retained a more interesting backstory with the family living near nuclear testing, resulting in violent mutants.
“The Hills Have Eyes Part II” focuses on Bobby (Robert Houston), one of the only surviving members of the Carter family and Ruby (Janus Blythe), a former member of the cannibal family. Bobby is in therapy recounting his horrifying ordeal in the desert and is anxious knowing next week he must return to the desert again. Bobby is set to lead a group of young adults on a dirt bike adventure through the aforementioned desert. The group of adults is predated yet modern, two white pranking punks, a stereotypical black man and his no-nonsense girlfriend, the blind yet bodacious blonde girl and some other forgettable characters. It seems more important in a cheap horror sequel to increase the body count than to develop characters or expand on the origin story. The most important returning character is Beast, the large and in charge German Shepherd from the first outing. Beast wrecks quite a few mutant killers and that is the best moments in both films.
Things take a bit too long to get going, for a 90-minute movie there’s way too much time spent recapping the first movie’s story and it’s obvious that this story and characters can’t stand on their own. This time around, the filming takes place in Joshua Tree. While it’s more visually pleasing, it’s not unforgiving as the prior film’s location where there’s a real sense of hopelessness, where radio signals fade and buzzards take the place of passing airplanes. In the end, “The Hills Have Eyes Part II” feels too polished, too safe, and too dated as the ’80s young adults use “Home Alone” and “Goonies”-type booby traps to overpower their enemies. This time around I’ll stick with the remake.
Available in a Special Edition Blu-ray & DVD September 24th
