Review of The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) by Spencer G — 24 May 2009

I am always amazed when a sequel to a good film from the horror genre manages to so thoroughly fall flat. Not that I was expecting this sequel to improve upon its surprisingly well-made predecessor, but I quickly began having doubts as to whether or not the makers of this film had even watched that re-make of Wes Craven's original.

They pretty well managed to discard everything that worked well in that film to go in a much less remarkable direction. To even pretend that the brain-dead characters in this movie are supposed to resemble American soldiers is an insult.

Where the makers of this sequel went wrong in particular was that they did not make it possible for their audience to connect emotionally with the soldiers in this movie, a noticeably unlikable bunch.

That was the difference between the first film being what it became and a worthless heap of garbage. Aside from that crucial point, Part II lacks any inventiveness and just devolves into your typical horror show of a movie where monsters and humans do battle, lots of blood gets spilled on both sides, and the remaining heroes eventually limp out into a sun-set carrying their personal memories of having survived 90 minutes being part of a pretty awful movie.