| Product: |
The Hills Have Eyes 2 (DVD) |
| Date: |
02/07/07 (116 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Fingers in brains
Disadvantages: It's so silly
Whilst on a military training exercise in the New Mexico desert, a team of National Guard trainees is assigned to an operation to deliver vital supplies to a research unit based deep in the mountains. Hungry for some action, the new (and largely incompetent) recruits set about the mission with some aplomb and aren't discouraged in the slightest when they arrive at the research unit to find it abandoned. In the face of suspicious circumstances, the unit leader advises that their routine visit just turned into a search and rescue mission. Divided into two groups, the unit heads off to find the missing research unit members.
What they don't realise is that the research unit was assigned with a very specific and covert mission. Months earlier, a family of tourists was terrorised by a band of strange, hill-dwelling mutants and only a couple of the family members survived. But whilst the military believes that it can monitor and control any such enemy, its leaders could not have been more mistaken. It is not the military who have the power to observe. The hills have eyes, and they are watching and waiting very closely…..
Approximately one year after Alexandre Aja's successful redux of Wes Craven's horror classic, comes an inevitable, and rather rushed sequel. With studio executives keen to capitalise on the success of the last movie, the makers seem to have pulled out all the stops to get something "quick and dirty" into the cinemas, at the expense of, well, pretty much everything really. Alexandre Aja drops out of directing honours and leaves his shoes to be filled by virtual newcomer, German director Martin Weisz. Wes Craven retains the writing honours, but is now accompanied by his son Jonathan. For Aja at least, the decision to bow out was almost certainly a wise one, because the sequel fails to entertain in pretty much every way possible and quite probably hammers the nail into the franchise's coffin once and for all.
By shifting the story from an attack on civilians to an assault on the military, Craven takes a few chances and seems to have failed to consider the implications. The military is supposedly highly trained, skilled and equipped to deal with any such situation, which means that Hills 2 should have promised far more real combat than Hills 1. In reality, this never happens as, bizarrely, the script opts to show the military unit as utterly incompetent and completely incapable of facing off against anyone other than itself. The resulting action is generally rather derisory and, more often than not, entirely comical. The cadets end up shooting each other or getting picked off in the most stupid fashion and critically for this genre, it fails to engender any kind of empathy with the audience. This is a huge mistake.
Hills 1 and its predecessor(s) operated on the basis that innocent people / families were falling victim to vile mutants patrolling the hills and mountains. The horror of the concept comes from the audience's ability and willingness to imagine themselves in similar circumstances. Hills 2 opts for a more gung-ho, "shoot 'em up" concept which not only relies more heavily on spectacular action and excitement to entertain the audience but also likeable heroes. Both these elements are notable in their absence. Instead, the director decides to crank up the gore and nastiness, as if to paper over the obvious cracks and it simply doesn't work. An unfortunate soldier is found buried up to his neck in a chemical toilet, his body covered in knife cuts to ensure maximum infection. Arms, legs and heads are blown or cut off in a relentless fashion and as one cadet is dragged into a hole, his body is eventually snapped in two as he does his best to resist. It sounds gross, but it's actually very silly and not in the slightest bit frightening. Even the inevitable "rape" theme somehow seems to be dumbed down in Hills 2. As one unfortunate female cadet finds herself at the mercy of a hideously deformed mutant, his guttural dialogue about "giving him babies" seems utterly comical, which is actually quite offensive when you consider her ordeal. Not surprisingly, the film carries the 18 certificate, and rightly so.
So in the absence of anything empathetic or anything to scare us, there really isn't much left to do except laugh and find holes in the plot. The director steals heavily from recent genre successes, opting to set much of the film in dark, underground caves (much like The Descent) but without any real sense of claustrophobia. "Alien" is ripped off in much of the military sequences but without the tension or credibility. Some of the film even manages to feel like a rip-off of Aja's superior prequel. The closing sequence, for example, is dangerously reminiscent of the first film and almost entirely predictable. By the time you're watching the end credits, you'll have given up asking "why they did that" and "why he didn't do that". Sigh.
From a casting perspective, it's largely very easy to predict who will survive and what will be left of them, as the director opts to focus clearly on the nerd and his bird from the outset. There are a few surprises along the way, but the entire bunch is pretty much the same; muscle-bound, stupid and pretty much doomed, regardless of gender. The bad guys are a little more interesting this time round, with some new found abilities to go with such charming names as Stabber, Grabber and Letch. Another one of them (Chameleon) is able to blend into the background rather cunningly, providing one of the cadets with a very nasty surprise and the lead mutant is a pretty hefty, grim-looking fellow. For those of you in search of that satisfying retribution, Hills doesn't disappoint and I for one particularly enjoyed them mutants' gradual demise in a variety of ever-more gruesome ways. I really wouldn't stick my tongue in there, if I were you….
And that's pretty much how Hills 2 goes about its business. It's entirely silly, and not in the least bit frightening, but packs so much claret and spatter that it does at least satisfy the gore hounds. Whilst the running time is mercifully short (around one hour and twenty minutes), the raucous soundtrack will almost certainly have deafened you by then anyway. Anyone looking for a remotely interesting or logical story will be entirely disappointed, as will any genre fans hoping to find the flair and tone of Aja's prequel.
Not recommended
The UK DVD is due for release on July 17th.
Summary: Enough now thank you
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