The Hills Have Eyes II (2007)

Director: Martin Weisz

Writers: Wes Craven, Jonathan Craven

Composer: Trevor Morris

Starring: Cecile Breccia, Michael Bailey Smith, Archie Kao, Jay Acovone, Jeff Kober, Philip Pavel, David Reynolds, Tyrell Kemlo, Lee Thompson Young, Daniella Alonso, Eric Edelstein

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The lucky ones die fast.

Plot: A group of National Guard trainees find themselves battling against a vicious group of mutants while training in the desert.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

Hey, it's better than THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006).  In a way it's like the first film/remake in that the first half is better than the second half but it's a great first half and the second half isn't all that bad.  The problem is that once we're 100% in the dark caves you find yourself pining to see daylight.  No spoilers but the team decides to take the fight to whoever/whatever is killing them off and go into the mine.  One guy volunteers to make a go at getting away and bringing help.  I was thrilled because I suspected that staying in the darkness for the rest of the picture would bring it down.  I was right but it's still pretty good.  There are few jump scares (if any...I can't remember now but these films are usually loaded with them and I fucking hate that shit) and some of the kills are fun. As stupid as the mutants are (I hate the overuse of the standard look of hillbilly mutants) they're very effective killing machines and use the tunnels to great effect.  The ending set us up for another installment that's not going to happen considering 7 years have past.  It would be easy to rip this flick to shreds when you consider things like how they'd really mutate and how are they able to survive for all these decades with little food and less water and other factors.  How can they live in near total darkness and go outside without being blinded?  Who cares.  It's a fun horror movie.  The unrated DVD comes with a few extras including 4 deleted scenes (with a play all feature that's always welcome), a one minute alternate ending which doesn't change much and it's a good thing they left it out, four featurettes (totaling about an hour) and a non-anamorphic widescreen trailer for the 2006 film yet no trailer for this one.