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After a group of neophyte National Guard troop (composed of six men and two women) fails the training exercise, their commanding officer Sgt. Jeffrey “Sarge” Millstone (Flex Alexander) orders them to deliver equipment to a group of atomic scientists in Yuma Flats, New Mexico. To their surprise, they arrive at the isolated place to find the camp is mysteriously deserted. After spotting a distress signal in a far mountain range, the team decides to embark on a search and rescue operations for the missing scientists. Little do they know that it is the very hills that the ill-fated Carter family once visited, and that cannibalistic mutants are out to slaughter them. And this time, there is an even larger force of evil at work that is intent on the soldiers’ ultimate destruction: the family patriarch of mutants, Papa Hades who plans to keep the women as breeders in order to ensure the survival of the mutant clan. Thus, the inexperienced group of soldiers must learn to bond together against monstrous foes in the eyes of the hills that intend to kill their men and rape their women.
Although quite far from the look of its prequel, The Hills Have Eyes 2 has still managed to provide a quite ambiguous connection to its predecessor’s original plotline. But then, one need not have watched the initial installment of this sequel in order to grasp the basic story essence which remains to be both hollow and shallow from beginning to end. Trying very hard to scare the audience, the director used clichés to ensure fear factor. With the suspension of disbelief at the beginning, one will be carried away by the horror tricks and gore galore. But as the story goes along, the audience expects more substance and a bit of intelligence from the usual genre’s pattern. This is where The Hills Have Eyes 2 fails, and it fails horribly. The moment one has had enough of the gore, all scary visuals would be deemed as nothing more than wax mannequins and prosthetics. Like a horror ride, such tricks work only the first time.
What would one really get out of watching a film with no intentions other than to explore the audiences’ level of tolerance to gory visuals and scary tactics? The Hills Have Eyes 2 leaves disturbing images of violence that pollutes the imagination of the audience most especially those who are vulnerable to such messages. Although women are portrayed in the film as the strongest among the group, still, their stereotypical role in reproduction has been spoiled and depicted in bad taste. However, it is commendable that the story focuses on camaraderie and the preservation of human life amidst a hopeless situation. It is good to note as well that one mutant in the story is portrayed to have a heart of a human to prove one way or the other that humanness always prevails. Even with that, one has to be highly mature so as not to be overwhelmed by the suspense and gore. The movie is not suited to audiences who are susceptible to media influence considering its strong language, some nudity and graphic depiction of violence.
(Date Reviewed: 20 April 2007)
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