The Hills Have Eyes 2 – Unrated
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: D
Wes
Craven’s original 1977 The Hills Have
Eyes is not exactly forgotten, but not as remembered as other key Horror
films of the time, though the recent remake was very effective and underrated,
challenging the original at points. In
1985, he made The Hills Have Eyes, Part
II (gotta love that title) during his new upsurgence commercially as the
“slice & dice” cycle came and went. The Outpost (1995 aka Mind Rippers) was a “part three” that
made so little a dent that they dropped the idea of making it explicitly so,
paving the way for the remake. Now, too
quickly for our own good, The Hills Have
Eyes 2 (2007) has arrived and wow is it lame!
Like the
1985 sequel, you’d think they would continue between the cannibals and
unsuspecting travelers, but we instead are stuck with a goofy, contrived story
of National Guard trainees visiting the wrong desert and the resulting chaos
that ensures. In the end, it feels like
a very bad, very cheap, very stupid rehash of the space marines battling the
monsters of James Cameron’s Aliens
(1986) as penned by some very bored, unambitious writers. That it is Wes and Johnathan Craven and it
feels like a straight-to-DVD cheapie is sad.
Even Greg Nicotero’s make-up is dull.
Maybe they could have done a comedy called The Hills Have Two Eyes.
Definitely a bomb for all involved.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image tries to imitate the look of the remake,
but it is very generic and lame, not totally gutting the color, but not trying
to distinguish itself like it could have if this had been ambitious. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is filled with the
usual sound jumps, but has no major character about it and is ironically the
highlight of this disc. Extras include
gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate ending, Birth
Of A Graphic Novel, Mutant Attacks,
a making of featurette, Wes Craven’s installment of the Fox Movie Channel’s
ever-amusing Life After Film School
TV series and the trailer for the recent first remake. You can read more about that at the following
links:
Theatrical
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3475/The+Hills+Have+Eyes+(2006
Unrated Widescreen DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3840/The+Hills+Have+Eyes+-+Unrated
- Nicholas Sheffo
