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The Hills Have Eyes 2 Review

Movies.com Critics

1.0

Dave White Profile

… the new synonym for effing-boring. Read full review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 2.0
    32

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Generally unfavorable reviews
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 25

    out of 100

    ReelViews James Berardinelli

    After this disgrace, it's time to shut the hills' eyes for good.

    Read Full Review

  • 30

    out of 100

    Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

    You'd like to think such bankruptcy of imagination means we've seen the last of these subterranean creeps. But you know they'll be back soon to collect their royalties from the gore hounds who apparently don't care how dull or warmed over the accompanying package.

    Read Full Review

  • 40

    out of 100

    The New York Times

    The film is brazenly indebted to old cowboys-and-Indians movies and to James Cameron's "Aliens." Gleefully sensationalistic and paced like an adults-only shoot-'em-up video game, it's ultimately less interested in subversion and subtext than in making viewers squirm, shriek and throw up into their popcorn bags.

    Read Full Review

  • 40

    out of 100

    The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

    The Hills Have Eyes 2 proves that even grisly, gory violence can be awfully boring.

    Read Full Review

  • 50

    out of 100

    Variety

    The politics of "Hills 2" won't enlist any new converts to the horror ranks, but existing fans will be drawn to the combination of visceral tension, violent payoff and the patented Craven gift for innovative gore.

    Read Full Review

  • 58

    out of 100

    Entertainment Weekly

    A retro horror-comedy featuring quick deaths and cheapo-looking gore, with a few dorky laughs and gross-outs but not so many scares.

    Read Full Review

  • See all The Hills Have Eyes 2 reviews at Metacritic.com

For Families provided by Common Sense Media

not for kids

Gory sequel pits mutants against the military.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this mutant-centric horror sequel definitely isn't for kids. The violence is gruesome and sustained, the language is unremitting ("f--k," in all its variations, is a constant), and an ugly rape scene ensures one woman's blind desire for revenge on an especially long-tongued, white-goo-spitting mutant. Weapons include knives, guns, and assorted body-piercing implements (spears, bayonet, poles). The very first scene is a bloody, screaming, gross-out birth (leading to the bare-breasted mother's immediate murder). An early mock battle scene is very fast-paced, aggressively edited, and loud. All assaults by mutants are bloody, gross, and horrible.

  • Families can talk about the movie's over-the-top violence. Do these gruesome, bloody scenes serve specific functions?
  • Discuss how the film treats women.
  • The mutants wantto breed with them, and the men want to protect them -- what do thewomen themselves want?

The good stuff
  • message true0

    Messages: No positive messages to take away.

  • rolemodels true0

    Role models: There aren't too many characters you would want your kids to emulate. National Guard trainees think they're tough, but they learn quickly that they're no match for ruthless, canny mutants.

What to watch for
  • violence false5

    Violence: Bloody, close-up, gory, and relentless. National Guard trainees are introduced in a battle simulation shooting, exploding, and facing a suicide bomber; thereafter, bodies are thrown, grabbed, kicked, beaten, dismembered, disemboweled, exploded, shot, stabbed, and shown splatted on the ground. One dying man shows up inside a latrine, his cuts absorbing toxic sewage; heads are smashed, shot, and pierced; weapons include guns, knives, a cleaver, a grenade, dynamite, a bayonet, rocks, and a shovel. Jump scenes in cave; a horrible rape from behind (in shadows, but violence is very harsh and victim's face shows distress); bodies fall or are pulled into holes.

  • sex false3

    Sex: Early, grisly birth scene shows mother's breasts; discussion of a romance between a pair of National Guard troops includes sexual slang ("Doing a whole 'nother kind of draining"); assault by one mutant on a woman includes a long tongue lick -- he then inserts his tongue in her mouth (she bites it off, very bloody, and kicks him in crotch). Sexualized violence.

  • language false5

    Language: Incessant. Non-stop uses of "f--k" (several with "mother-" and one as finger gesture) in addition "s--t" and other language ("hell," damn," "ass," "c--k," "balls," and "bitch").

  • consumerism false0

    Consumerism: Not an issue

  • drugsalcoholtobacco false1

    Drinking, drugs and smoking: One character is nicknamed alternately "Private Crackhead" and "Crank."

Fan Reviews provided by

2

The Hills Have Eyes 2 by tmkurish
This movie is horrible. The plot sucks and the acting is terrible. There is also a very disturbing scene in the middle of the movie that almost made me turn it off. The first movie was way better and I recommend that one for horror and gore fans but not this one.

3

by QBad3

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