On Film: The Hills Have Eyes 2

 

 

Directed By Weisz

 

Starring Michael McMillian, Jessica Stroup, Daniella Alanso

OK, I'm a huge fan of the original Hills Have Eyes, but that film doesn't stand the test of time as a horror film they way others have.  Actually when I see it now much of it I find humorous.  What does remain interesting in that original film is the sociopolitical commentary and the odd sense of family values that exists among the mutants.  I liked the first remake even though most of the family values were gone, but Alexander Aja did bring in the commentary, all fairly well done with only a few instances of heavy-handedness.  So, I was looking forward to this sequel especially since Wes Craven and his son wrote the screenplay.

 

The Movie

 

I should have been concerned when the director chosen for this sequel came from music videos.  Now, I know there have been some great directors who started out doing music videos (Spike Jonz) comes to mind, but more often than not these guys are all visual and no depth.  In the previous film Alexander Aja was able to not only bring the visuals be he was also able to take Wes Craven's themes and create interesting characters that fed the story and the underlying sociopolitical commentary of the film.  The characters were a bit cookie cutter, but they were interesting enough to make the audience care about them, and they played well off the mutant family that was working to kill them.  The first remake did mostly miss the boat as far as really building a family dynamic for the mutants, it was there but it wasn't as important to the story as it should have been.  Now after seeing the sequel, I miss that little bit that was in the first one because it's not here at all.



The one thing that does seem to be important in this film to the mutants is the continuation of their family and that's done by kidnapping women, rapping them, and if they get pregnant keeping them alive until the baby is born.  That premise is very interesting but in the film it's only used for disturbing scenes, it's never given any thematic depth.  Obviously that's because the mutants have devolved to the simplest of instinctual animals.  It sure is funny that one of them is so desperate to have babies and continue his family on one hand and he seems to not care about others in his family on the other.  There's just no cohesion in the group of mutants like there was in the original films and to a certain degree in the original remake (now isn't that a weird term).

The military is investigating this place for mysterious reasons and a group of halfwit reservists are sent in to deliver supplies.  Now if these reservists are such failures why are they chosen to deliver supplies to a top secret facility?  Maybe that's commentary in itself.  Anyway they get there only to discover that everyone is missing.  They get a distress call and see a mirror flashing at the top of a mountain indicating one of the people that's on base is in trouble.  Most of the group heads uphill with a couple left at the base in case someone else shows up.  From here on out the movie is nothing but gratuitous gore and chase scenes, with a rape thrown in for good measure.  Now I like gratuitous gore, don't get me wrong but the only way gore and rape are effective in a film like this is if the audience cares about those being tortured.  I didn't find myself invested in any of the characters.  They are all near personality free cardboard stereotypes of 80's horror movies all dressed up in military uniforms.  Heck I almost wanted to see them all die.

There's just no story here to speak of to support the gore and visuals.  Speaking of visuals, the creepy song and footage in the trailer is more visceral and effective than anything in the film.  Sure everybody is dirty and sweaty but the visual style of the film just felt flat and basic to me.  I never believed that they were uncomfortable, even though the actors probably were during filming.  If you compare the look of this film to the previous one, to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre or to a degree the original Hills Have Eyes this movie just feels like amateur hour.

I think this franchise should really be done at this point.  There could have been some interesting things done with it but instead this sequel turned into a two hour cliché. 

 

3/10

 

-Stephen Lackey