THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2 (1985)

THOSE 'HILLS' STILL HAVE EYES

Philadelphia Daily News (PA) - January 2, 1986

Author: JOE BALTAKE, Daily News Film Critic

"The Hills Have Eyes II." A thriller starring Michael Berryman and John Laughlin. Written and directed by Wes Craven. Running time: 100 minutes. A Castle Hill release. At the Duke and Duchess exclusively.

The local showing of Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes II" must be some sort of marketing experiment.

The movie is being screened exclusively in only one theater (the Duke or Duchess - I've never been able to figure out which is which) and, to the best of my knowledge, it is playing nowhere else in the country. So, I suppose that the eventual national release of "The Hills Have Eyes II" depends on how well it does here.

Judging from the local reaction at the performance I attended, Craven's film won't be released.

This movie is so shallow and pointless that it goes beyond the usual horror idiocy and enters the realm of anti-humanity. Its plot is so simple I couldn't even follow it.

It goes something like this: A bunch of kids jump on a bus and, with the money made from the stud fees of their communal pet dog, Beast, they head for the desert. Why? Who knows? (Anyone who figures this much out must have serious emotional problems.)

Anyway, one of the kids, the overaged Ruby, has reservations about the desert trek because she was involved in the murder and mayhem there that laced the first film. The original "Hills Have Eyes" was a fairly disgusting to- do about the systematic extermination of a family of vacationers by a family of hermits. Ruby was one of the hermits, see; now she's a good guy.

Much of the film recaps the previous movie via flashbacks. Ruby has flashbacks. Even Beast, the dog, has a flashback or two. Honest. Meanwhile, the fresh-faced kids - Jane and Harry, Foster and Susan, Cass and Sonny and something called The Hulk (John Laughlin of "Crimes of Passion") - start dropping like flies.

The bald Michael Berryman encores from the first film, once again exploiting his birth defects as the movie's most horrific villain.

He keeps telling the rest of the cast - the victims - to "choke on your puke."

I almost did.

Parental guide: Rated R for its senseless violence.