Watch The Hills Have Eyes 2 For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

best movie i've ever seen.

Absolutely brilliant

No question about it, the "original" version of The Hills Have Eyes part 2 is the nadir in Wes Craven's career and probably the most abysmal horror film ever made. First of all, I really enjoyed this film, much more than part 1 which is, as many others have noted already, nothing but a remake, maybe with better resources and a greater display of "style," whatever that is. Given the fact that Craven himself produced the first one, let's take into consideration that he was not only involved this second time around as a producer but as the writer. He created the concept. The saying goes, whoever did it first, they did it better. Remakes are never necessary. Proof of the effectiveness of their inspiration source is the fact they exist in the first place. The pace is great, the exploration and display of the lengths human beings can go to hurt each other bear Craven's trademark, at least the one who created Last House on the Left (1972) and Te Hills Have Eyes (1978), which brought horror down to earth, changed it forever and became the most imitated films of all time, pretty much. The science fiction angle in Aja's film ruined the whole experience for me, because it wasn't humans vs. themselves anymore, but in this one, it does have a purpose, it's not overdone and brings the plot back to the animal nature of human beings from his greatest films: the animal who puts intelligence to serve his instincts. Execution? Honestly, when Craven was in the director's chair, that never was the main point. Just as Ed Wood in Tim Burton's biopic, with him it was all about the Big Picture. Weisz does just the right job; no more, no less. Too bad at the time he hadn't made "Haute Tension" or something like that, I guess. Rushed script? The Last House on the Left took probably only two weeks to write... so what? They would've made a great mistake if they had the female survivor from part one back on this one. The fact that it bears no resemblance whatsoever to what was served us back in 1985 is by no means a bad thing. This is the Hills Have Eyes part 2 that should have been made back then. Sadly, you only get one shot in life.

My opinion on the HILLS HAVE EYES films varies. The first one I saw was the modern remake, which blew me away; sure, it told a familiar story of humans battling mutants, but the direction was strong, the violence visceral, and the pacing remarkable. It was a powerful, shocking film. Next up I saw the Craven original and, like a lot of Craven films, it disappointed me. I found it dated, flawed, and a film that paled in comparison next to the remake, which is unusual. My third exposure is the sequel to the remake, which takes the general premise and utterly wastes it on another ALIENS-inspired storyline of a squad of soldiers entering enemy territory and finding themselves getting picked off one by one by the villains.My biggest beef is that this film has so much wasted potential. Sure, there are outrageous gore effects occurring frequently in the film, but when they happen to uninteresting, uninspired characters, you feel like you're playing a computer game rather than getting involved in a real movie. The biggest disappointment is the script, which is obviously a rush job designed to cash in on the first film's success. Each and every soldier is depicted as either an idiot, a bully, or a thug, and they don't seem to have more than a couple of brain cells between them. Remember, these are the guys we're supposed to root for. Even the victims in a nameless Friday the 13th sequel of the '80s had more characterisation than this! We end up with a load of people scurrying around in some nondescript cave system, and even that's ripping off THE DESCENT. The acting's poor across the board, and the mutants are laughable rather than the fear-inducing creatures of the first film. I mean, the guy who's got that stony skin...is he really supposed to be menacing? They also die far too easily as well. I suppose one bonus is the short running time, but even that seems padded out to the max, throwing in lots of pointless sequences and leaving genuine sub-plots unfocused and hanging (the friendly mutant, for instance – what's the deal with him? He's like that guy in THE GOONIES, but I want to find out more about him!). This means that the only reason to watch THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2 is to see an extended sequence of somebody beating someone else's head in with a rock.

A group of inept National Guard soldiers (soldiers, used loosely), made up of kids almost right out of high school, are commissioned to a New Mexico desert after their commander in charge informs them of a deliverance of supplies to a scientific outpost. This desert just so happens to be where atomic testing was done, and there are still mutant inbred cannibal killers in them there hills. The film (a sequel and basic follow up to Alexander Aja's remake to Wes Craven's film from '77) is essentially soldiers (..snicker, snicker…) versus those grotesque atomic anomalies that wield weapons made from the environment. Sometimes the soldiers are dangerous to each other inadvertently (their commanding officer is shot during gunfire aimed at the mutants), but their inexperience (we see a training exercise exploit their fundamental inefficiencies in combat) doesn't help them, either. The mutants, with their cavernous hideouts and hideaways, are only a detriment to themselves, as well, often succumbing to their brute violent whims in trying to attack the soldiers who have guns at their disposal. Too much time is spent inside the hills, where it can be quite dark and cramped. Good practical effects and gore helps, I guess, but the film isn't as shocking as Aja's prior film or as much a gut punch in terms of those killed this go-around (a family unit is obliterated while the sequel offers a rag-tag bunch of kids not yet ready for the combat they are faced against). The bit with the victim found in a latrine is certainly not expected, though. A rape does exist against one of the tougher female soldiers (her development is that she looks often at a recording on her phone of her boy), which might be difficult to watch. Jessica Stroup looks out of place as the other female soldier among the group, while Lee Thompson Young (the young man who committed suicide while on the show Rizzoli & Isles) is the unfortunate token African-American of the cast who, despite her integrity and leadership skills, doesn't fare well. Michael McMillian has this inexplicable part as someone you wouldn't expect to see in the army…debates with his commanding officer and seemingly not fit to carry a gun (and generally annoying everyone) doesn't help his cause. Jacob Vargas is the hothead ready to shoot first and ask questions later. Amazingly, I expected more to die but the film offers the proposition that at least three survived (and not the candidates among the soldiers that seemed battle ready, perhaps a reason of irony). Surprisingly, Wes and his son put together the story for this rather average and forgettable horror show, which seems fit to be Wrong Turn 14. Morocco has never looked quite so intimidating, though.I think there's a sense that the Cravens were using the mutants to symbolize the unpredictable nature of battle in a place that very well might resemble Afghanistan or Iraq.

(This is a much shorter version of the review I wrote on my flightfromzion blog. tumblr.com/flightfromzion)The Hills Have Eyes II is the sequel to the The Hills Have Eyes remake of 2006. While most people would probably call that remake mediocre to bad, I actually did like it. I thought it was interesting, consistent, had a couple good performances, and I liked how it was shot. It wasn't perfect or even close to perfect, but I'd probably give it a 6.5/10. This movie however, is pretty bad. The editing is terrible, most of the acting is either held back or bad, the story is garbage, the characters are stupid, the dialogue is mediocre, and the pacing isn't great. However, it's not really the worst thing ever either. If I'm being completely honest, I can see the positive aspects and due to its solid tone, great score, and competent cinematography, if can certainly be enjoyable if you turn your brain off. Just don't expect it to challenge you as a viewer at all. Normally this would get a 4, but I consider this movie to be offensive in a way. Not to me, but to people of the National Guard. For them to be represented by the bumbling idiots in this movie has to be downright insulting. It is for these reasons that my final rating for this film is a 3/10.