La colina del terror: encuentro con el diablo

Wes Craven admitted in an interview that he needed to make some cash fast, would have happily 'directed Godzilla in Paris'. So he made a sequel to one of his well-made and enjoyable films.

However, 'Hills Have Eyes 2' is a letdown. It seems to rely heavily on flashbacks to the previous (superior) film and is really nothing more than a 'Friday the 13th' clone. It even has the same composer as the Jason films (Harry Manfredini) so much of the music in 'Hills 2' could make you think you're watching a 'Friday the 13th' sequel. This whole film is just a waste of time. The characters are so obnoxious you don't give a hoot what happens to them, the 'Papa Jupe's brother' business is glaringly contrived and unlikely and to cut a long story short I have trouble believing that this mess was by the same director who brought us the best of the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' films and 'Shocker'.

Just watched this movie a couple of hours ago! Sure, I loved The Hills Have Eyes, and I had heard how horrible this one was, but I bought it anyway for $3. And it's not THAT bad! Really! If you don't keep saying "Gee, this movie is crap compared to the original", I mean, it's not a great movie, but it's not unwatchable. Some things are pretty annoying and/or stupid... like...

*When the girl finally admits to being the ex-cannibal sister Ruby, and that it was Bobby's family that was in the incident, THEY DON'T CARE! GEE, I was hoping they would at least react! P***ED ME OFF! That ruined some of the movie for me... The characters just don'tttt care.

*The characters, most of them, P*** ME OFF also. All they do is walk around saying "Yeahhh right, there's nothing to worry about, hahaha". The 'there's nothing to worry about' attitude Gets old.

*Hardly anyone finds out when someone has been killed. That's part of the fun of horror movies, for the people to find out someones dead, go tell the others, and freak out!

*The ending was ridiculus. So, the guy came up with that ingenius plot? Wow... he must be next in line for the Pulitzer! Brilliant.

But, it is just a movie.... Keep telling yourself that....

That's about it, now, with all that said, there dosent seem to be any good things about it... Annoying... Sometimes stupid, but never really boring... Not the worst choice for a boring day. Plus, there's not as many flashbacks as some people would lead you to believe...

5/10

The Hills Have Eyes Part II is Wes Craven's less than great follow-up to the brutal original. The first film is damn near terrifying in parts. This one is slightly goofy and unbelievable. The flashbacks are my main problem with the film. Everyone has flashbacks. Every single character from the original has flashbacks, the freakin' dog even has flashbacks. If you're watching The Hills Have Eyes Part II, you almost have to be a fan. I think we're all familiar with the first one. If you're not, then you shouldn't be viewing it. Any reality or spontaneity is also gone. You know who is going to die right away. The cast is decent though. Michael Berryman, Robert Houston, and Janus Blythe all return. Kevin Blair from Friday the 13th Part 7 and Peter Frechette from The Kindred play moto-cros bikers while Nicholas Worth plays the voice of the Reaper. And can anyone tell me where the Reaper was hiding in the first film? If you didn't enjoy the first Hills Have Eyes, you aint gonna like this one.

Note for genre buffs: Kane Hodder is listed as a stuntman.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II (1985)

directed by: Wes Craven

starring: Tamara Stafford, Kevin Blair, Janus Blythe, and Michael Berryman

plot: Bobby (Robert Houston) and Ruby (Janus Blythe), now civilized and under the alias Rachel, run a motorcycle racing team and are preparing for a race in the desert. Bobby chickens out, leaving Ruby in charge. On the way, the group gets lost and must take a shortcut close to where the original horrors took place. They decide to stay for the night, which is a bad idea, because Ruby's brother Pluto (Michael Berryman) and uncle Reaper (John Bloom) roam the area, picking off the friends one by one. Soon, only a few survivors are left - including blind Cass (Tamara Stafford) and Ruby, and they must try to stay alive.

my thoughts: I've heard so many bad reviews about this film. I heard it was the worst sequel ever, and that it was mostly just a bunch of flashbacks from the original.

I finally got my hands on it and watched it with an open mind. I was not disappointed at all.

The flashbacks are only within the first 20 minutes. Bobby flashes back to his and Brenda's final battle with Jupiter, Ruby flashes back to helping Doug fight Mars and save the baby, and even the dog (Beast) flashes back to when he attacked the crap out of Pluto. Once the action begins, the flashbacks end. And the dog flash back did not bother me at all, I found it very cute.

The characters are your usual 80's teens. Some are annoying, but I did like a few - Cass (Tamara Stafford), Roy (Kevin Blair), and Hulk (John Laughlin) were very sympathetic. The others were either annoying or not interesting at all. The return of Ruby and Bobby was also a good idea. I loved watching Ruby seek redemption by saving the others, and Bobby has a small but smart part. It's nice to actually see a character that is smart and stays behind.

Michael Berryman returning as Pluto had it's pros and cons. I loved seeing his conflict with the dog Beast, but I also hated how in the original he was very menacing and creepy, here he is comic relief. At least The Reaper (John Bloom) was a big, strong, savage villain who didn't talk too much.

If you can ignore the unoriginality and the cheesiness of it all, then sit back and enjoy THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II.

(* out of *****) I think Craven must have put all of his energy and creativity into "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (released the same year), because this sequel to his own ‘77 classic is horrible. In fact, I would rate this one even below the director's other ‘80s stinkers "Shocker" and "The People Under the Stairs." The best scenes in this are the long flashbacks from the first movie (and there are several of them -- the damn dog even has one!) Unfortunately, in between the flashbacks, we also get the `new' story about a bunch of dirt bikers stranded in the desert when their bus runs out of gas. Once again, they are attacked and killed off by the two remaining members of the savage, cannibalistic clan from the first film (John Bloom as Reaper and Michael Berryman returning as the scary-looking but wimpy Pluto, who gets his ass kicked by dogs and chics throughout the movie). Robert Houston also returns as Bobby in a brief, opening cameo, and Janus Blythe returns as the newly reformed and now civilized Ruby (when she reveals to everyone that she was raised by a desert-dwelling family of killer cannibals, no one seems to care!) Absolutely nothing works this time around. The characterizations and motivations are dumb, there are gaping plot holes, there is no suspense, no blood, no guts -- in short, none of the hyper-realistic savagery, fear, and helplessness that made the first one so good. The blind heroine of this movie (Tamara Stafford) is so perceptive that she can hear things when no one else can and can sense when a person is afraid, but she doesn't even know when someone's smoking a cigarette right next to her! I heard that this movie underwent a lot of pre-release cutting before it came out, and that's why it turned out so badly -- personally, I think this is a load of bunk. Even movies that are cut up left and right before release should give some indication of whether they could be potentially good or not, and this one gives no such signs of any potential whatsoever.

Lowlight: The fiery demise of Reaper -- the hero concocts a ridiculous trap for him involving a gasoline tank, the school bus, a ring of fire, and a cable connected to a motor that will pull him between Reaper's legs and through the flames to safety. It's useless to try explaining it -- you have to see it to believe it (but I wouldn't advise it.)