Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984)

1/06/2022

The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984) - Craven's embarrassing train wreck sequel

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A multi-colored, über-cool poster for Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes Part II

A kind of motorcycle gang of young, braindead lunatics end up in the middle of the desert, in which two equally motorcycle-enthusiastic killer mutants are awaiting...

The Hills Have Eyes Part II is written and directed by great Ohioan filmmaker Wes Craven (The Last House on the Left (1972)) as a sequel to his The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

Does the plot above sound silly to you? Then you are correct. It is in a way impressive, how Craven here, - directly prior to his big breakthrough A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), - has collected such a comparatively untalented lot around him for this his second desert horror. (Though the film was apparently also marred by lack of funds.)

In The Hills Have Eyes Part II the young die, but their deaths are sometimes out there. Even so the film remains somewhat entertaining in a train wreck sort-of-way.

My Soul to Take (2010) - Craven returns with a subpar teen slasher

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) or, Your Kids and the Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs! (co-writer)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or, Don't Fall Asleep!

Watch the first 3 minutes of the film from a VHS recording here

Cost: Estimated 700k $

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[The Hills Have Eyes Part II premiered at Mystfest in June (Italy) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place from March - May 1983 in California, including in Los Angeles. The studio halted production due to budgetary fear. But once A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was released to huge success, the studio convinced Craven to scrap together The Hills Have Eyes Part II from the footage shot. In order to boost the running time, sequences from The Hills Have Eyes were used. Details about the film's gross are regrettably not readily available online. Craven since disowned the film. The The Hills Have Eyes films were remade with the same title in 2006 and 2007. Craven returned with Chiller (1985, TV movie), The Magical World of Disney (1986, TV-series) and theatrically with Deadly Friend (1986). 10k+ Rotten Tomatoes users have given The Hills Have Eyes Part II a 2.2/5 average rating.]

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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1/06/2022

The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984) - Craven's embarrassing train wreck sequel

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