The Hills Have Eyes Part II * (1984, Tamara Stafford, Kevin Spirtas, John Bloom, Michael Berryman, Penny Johnson, Janus Blythe, John Laughlin, Willard E Pugh, Peter Frechette, Robert Houston) – Classic Movie Review 10,882

Writer-director Wes Craven’s cheaply made, troubled 1984 low budget cannibal horror film sequel The Hills Have Eyes Part II stars Michael Berryman, Tamara Stafford, Kevin Blair, John Bloom, John Laughlin, Janus Blythe, Kevin Spirtas, Penny Johnson, Willard E Pugh, Peter Frechette and Robert Houston.

A teenage gang of bikers is terrorised by the tribe of deformed, inter-bred crazed cannibals on exactly the same desert road as in the 1977 original The Hills Have Eyes.

Director Wes Craven, in a too belated, been-there, seen-that, got-the-T-shirt sequel, gives the audience what he thinks it wants – just much more of the same, including clips from the first film.

But he hasn’t got anything new to say, or any aces up his sleeve with the story, and it is much more feebly and less imaginatively done this time. It is not very coherent, but given the shooting circumstances, it is reasonably coherent.

Horror genre icon Michael Berryman returns as creepy Pluto from The Hills Have Eyes (1977). Unfortunately, he thought the sequel was terrible. Robert Houston returns to play Bobby, the character he played in The Hills Have Eyes. Janus Blythe returns as Ruby, the role she played in The Hills Have Eyes, though the character is now using the name Rachel.

The Hills Have Eyes Part II was shot cheaply in 1983 on a budget of $700,000 and production stopped through lack of money, and it was shelved for two years for its release, though it was screened at Mystfest in Italy in June 1984 and at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain on October 1984.

Wes Craven disowned The Hills Have Eyes Part II after making a quick sequel because he was short of money and needed a quick buck. Craven said only about two thirds of the film was shot before the studio halted production through budget concerns. The Hills Have Eyes Part II was shot before A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) but released after. When A Nightmare on Elm Street was a hit, the studio convinced Craven to finish The Hills Have Eyes Part II using only footage already shot. With insufficient for a feature, footage from The Hills Have Eyes (1977) was edited in to fill the running time of 88 minutes.

It was released briefly in US cinemas on 2 August 1985 by Castle Hill and shortly after sold to direct-to-video and pay TV. In the UK, it had its video premiere in January 1985, It was first released on DVD on March 20, 2012.

Virginia Vincent, James Whitworth and Susan Lanier appear in archive footage.

It is produced by Barry Cahn, Jonathan Debin and Peter Locke.

Craven got Nicholas Worth to loop John Bloom’s voice as The Reaper in post-production.

Some of the music cues were used in Friday the 13th, also scored by composer Harry Manfredini.

Don’t you just love this? It is one of the only films to feature a scene of a dog having a flashback!

The Hills Have Eyes Part II is remade in 2007 as The Hills Have Eyes 2.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,882

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