hills have eyes part two django the bastard

From a filmmaker's standpoint, sequels are both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side of things, somebody already laid most of the groundwork ahead of time: building characters, arranging plot points, maybe even hinting where future stories could go. In the case of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984), the task should have been even simpler, since it was Craven himself who came up with the idea of a family of radioactive cannibals traumatizing any poor sap who wandered into their desert domain. But with seven long years between films, the writer / director seems uninterested in the after-lives of his iconic creations, saddling them with a blasé busload of second-rate victims who are barely worth setting the buffet.

On the way to a motocross competition, some twenty-something take an ill-advised shortcut into the open desert and find themselves hunted by Pluto and The Reaper, surviving members of Jupiter's clan of cannibals, who've now taken residence in an abandoned mining town. The only adult present, Brenda (Susan Lanier), smells trouble right away...which makes sense considering she's actually Ruby, Jupiter's daughter, all cleaned up and turned civilized. But does she still have the survival skills to keep her tag-along team of kids alive...and for how long?

As a sequel, Craven's film follows a predictable course: carry over key cast members (including Beast, the heroic German Shepherd), introduce some new ones and let the terror play out in a same-but-different fashion. It's essentially the rinse-wash-repeat cycle horror films have been using since the '30s....only with motorcycles. Craven introduces some dramatic potential with Ruby's long awaited family reunion, staging a satisfying fight scene with the bald-headed Michael Berryman, only to ditch the character arc in favor of a more typical slasher conclusion.

It's obvious Craven's skills have improved as a director. Visually the sequel is considerably more accomplished than the shot-on-16mm sloppiness of the original, not to mention the addition of a slick Harry Manfredini score. But it also lacks everything that made that film so revolutionary, shattering the boundaries of good taste with shock gags audiences just didn't expect. Unfortunately for Hills II, which uses a laughable amount of flashback footage (including one from the German Shepherd!) there just aren't that many surprises left.

Arrow Video's brand-new 2K restoration is still a welcome addition (we horror collector's are nothing if not thorough) with an essential Making Of that explains the circumstances behind the rushed and under-funded production. There's also a new commentary from The Hysteria Continues, stills, trailer, six postcards, a foldout poster and a 40-page booklet with new writing on the film. It's makes for a fascinating profile of a film that most of the creative personnel responsible would rather see buried.