The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985)

Years after the massacre of the Carter family by the cannibals in the Air Force gunnery range, Bobby Carter has now married Ruby, the cannibal girl who saved him. She now calls herself Rachel & together the couple run a Yamaha dirt bike dealership. Rachel decides to go along with a team of professional dirt bike riders to a competition, which takes them deep into the territory where Rachel's family used to roam. But what she doesn't know is that one of her brothers, Pluto, has survived & together with an uncle named Reaper are still active in the area. When their bus breaks down in the desert area, the team are picked off one by one by the cannibals. The Hills Have Eyes was Wes Craven's second film & his first real classic – a brutal survivalist tale where two families took on each other for survival in a brutal battle. In the same year as his greatest work, the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven decided to mount a sequel to Hills. Not that it left the door open for one – Craven had to retcon some details in order to 'revive' Michael Berryman's character Pluto & create an entirely new character in the Reaper. The only other members to make a return are Robert Houston (who only appears in some early scenes) & Janus Blythe, the cannibal girl now civilised adult.While the original was a minor classic & an important part of Wes Craven's career (the director would later mount a remake & a further sequel to it), this sequel is a far cry from the brutal intensity of the original. This time out, Craven treats the setup in a more slasher-like fashion (slasher films were the rage then), without any of the intelligence that he demonstrated in the original. The film moves with the pace of your average Friday the 13th sequel & even with a similar score, courtesy of that franchise's musical hack Harry Manfredini. The killings are no longer brutally visceral but standard slasher stalk-&-slash. The addition of a blind girl as one of the good guys is interesting, her trip past the bodies of her friends having a slight suspense value to it, but the rest of the cast are given one-dimensional roles. As for Janus Blythe, she doesn't get to face off with her family, instead taken out before the climax (although it is not made clear whether she was killed or simply knocked out).

When I saw the first movie, I really enjoyed it and quickly became one of my fave Wes Craven movies, and when I heard that there was a sequel, I was interested until I heard all the bad things about it, but I didn't let that bother me and went into this one with an open mind. But sadly all the bad things were spot on and I was thinking how could director Wes Craven get it so right with the first movie and get it so wrong with this one, apparently this was only made cause he needed the money, but even so it looks as if that was no effort put into this whatsoever.Okay this isn't the worst movie Wes Craven has ever made, there are about four other titles that take that honour and there's such a massive drop in quality between it and its predecessor that you're almost convinced a studio hired some hack to come in and cash in the original's reputation. For a start what's up with that dog having flashbacks, that concept is just stupid and doesn't work at all.Even the plot is just recycled from practically every slasher movie from this time period and instead of having a family of cannibals this time round we only get two, one is which from the first one Michael Berryman who I'd say is the only decent aspect in this mess of a movie, but even that is not enough to save this. And we do get some returning characters like Janus Blythe who played Ruby in the first movie, almost totally unrecognisable this time round and gives a capable performance, and Bobby (Robert Huston), another survivor from the first one, in a totally pointless role in this one, I mean what was the point of bringing him back, I liked him in the first one he was one of the strong performances but in this one he's totally wasted. And a cast of disposable teens who apart from the leads Kevin Blair and Tamara Stafford are totally forgettable and unlikeable and just made me bored, even the deaths are boring.All in all even Wes Craven doesn't like this mess of a movie, and that says it all.

This sequel to 'The Hill Have Eyes' might sound like good idea to a person, like myself, who had never seen it. They bring back back some familiar characters/actors from the first one, They decided to continue with the original story, Wes Craven wrote and directed it. But despite a good premise, The Hills Have Eyes Part II didn't deliver the goods. It begins with Bobby from the original who is seeing a psychiatrist to deal with his issues of seeing his family murdered. The funny thing is that his wife is Ruby who was a part of the sadistic family! That's right, Ruby, the one who helped save the baby in the original is now the wife of Bobby and has changed her name to Rachel. The rest of the plot involves a biker gang of young people (including Ruby/Rachel) who are set to go out to the desert to race; the same desert in which the events from the first movie occurred. Of course when they get there, two members of the cannibalistic family begin their attack. So that is the basic plot. That may sound alright, but there are so many details of this movie that are just plain stupid. Oh and don't get fooled by reading that the character of Bobby returns considering he was only in this sequel for the first fifteen minutes. Major disappointment there.So some other problems with part 2...first off, this feels a lot like an average slasher movie for the most part. Typical stalking scenes, a large killer with a machete, jump scares, a group of dumb teenage characters. The music used is straight out of Friday the 13th, no joke. Popularity of those films at the time clearly influenced the creation process of this sequel. There is a a blind girl in this who I wasn't sure was even blind for most of the film. She appears to see enough to dodge things such as flames and a burning mutant running after her. Another problem I have is with Ruby/Rachel. She lived with the cannibals for years but didn't recognize the area the group was exploring? How about telling them "hey let's get the hell out of here, my crazy mutant ex-family use to reside in these parts"?!Movie started pretty good and with promise bringing back original characters, but quickly turned into a joke with a motorcycle riding cannibal, a dog having flashbacks from the original, characters who seem oblivious to the fact that there are mutants in the area, a blind girl who roams around alone while cannibal killers are on the loose. Probably the most stupid characters ever created in a horror movie. One part in particular really blew my mind with stupidity. A girl decides to take a relaxing shower all while knowing there is imminent danger around her. It's like she was thinking "Hey, someone might be trying to kill us, guess I'll take a shower".There are good things about Part II like the return of Ruby/Rachel, Pluto and cameo by Bobby. The new member of the family, the reaper, was a pretty effective villain. But the stupid plot points made me shake my head way too many times for this to be a very good sequel. I love the fact that they go back to where it all started, but so many things make you go "huh" throughout the entire thing.

If you are as curious about this movie as I was I would highly recommend not wasting you're time, it kinda sucked. So instead of wasting you're time looking for it i'll save you 87 minutes by spoiling this movie completely. PART 1 A group of stupid bikers get ready to go into the the desert for a motocross competition, oh yeah one of them is blind. Bobby has a bunch of flashbacks and Ruby is now known as Rachel (she is now sibilized and pretty much normal other than THE FRIGGIN FLASHBACKS! PART 2 The kids make there way into the desert and there bus breaks down (duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhhhh) After realizing there pretty much f***ed they decide to look around. Thats when Ruby gets attacked by Pluto and kicks his a**. She then claims to the kids that she is the now legendary Ruby.Pluto takes off on one of the bikes. Two of the idiots go catch him, they catch him he surrenders. But one of the kids falls into one of the family's traps and is killed by the reaper (papa jupes big bro.). PART 3 3 more kids are killed and ruby hits her head on a rock (you never find out what happened to her) The blind chick and one other survivor burn the reaper to death. Feel free to email me at [email protected]