Caffeinated Clint
If you thought the remake was by-the-numbers then this is just plain ol colour-in-activity. No imagination has gone into this at all.
Lee Thompson Young, Daniella Alonso, Jacob Vargas, Jessica Stroup, Flex Alexander
Wes Craven will put his name on anything these days. Anything. You don’t want to leave one of the kid’s school books around – he’d scrawl all over it. Best to hide the Avon catalogue too – you’ll end up with both an empty bank balance and a carton of ruby lipstick. Seemingly too tired to get out there and make a buck himself¬ – not that he probably doesn’t have enough of the green anyway, as the man responsible for the enormously successful “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream” series’ – Craven’s been handing his name out to any budding horror production in recent years. It’s a win win situation – he’s on the payroll; film gets a boost because of the name tied to it. When Craven started lending not only his name, but his original movies, to other filmmakers – and studios – though, that’s when the bottle of Tarn-off was ordered. Craven’s got a back catalogue of horror classics, and one by one, he’s handing them off – for a price, of course.
Last year, he lent his name to a contemporary redo of his 70s classic “The Hills Have Eyes”. Was it any good? Yeah, it was OK. Was it necessary? God no. The first “Hills”, though good, wasn’t anything special, if anything it’s best remembered as a somewhat enjoyable video nasty. It was never intended to be a multi-million dollar Summer release.
Surely Craven, even if it was after the film’s release, ultimately came to the realisation too, right?
You’d think so. But since the sequel’s already here – less than twelve months later – the assumption is his personal wake-up call’s still on snooze.
Written (!) by Craven and son Jonathan, the rushed and ragged sequel sees the cannibals this time taking on some soldiers – who are using the ‘hills’’ and surrounding areas as a military test site.
I can’t tell you what happened after a couple of them had their limbs removed and some girlie had her privates punctured by a mutated freak because, well, I fell asleep.
Yep, its that bad. If you thought the remake was by-the-numbers then this is just plain ol colour-in-activity. No imagination has gone into this at all. Sure there’s some OK make-up work and the direction – by Martin Weisz – is slick enough, but events are so yawnable you’d need discarded finger bones to keep your eyes up.
I don’t know why they bothered but FOX has slapped a heap of extras on the DVD – including deleted scenes, featurettes and a gal reel! – so the two or three that did get a kick out of the second trip to the Hills will be entertained for hours. As for the rest of us….
Rating : 
Reviewer : Clint Morris
