The Hills Have Eyes 2
Parents say
Based on 15 reviews
Kids say
Based on 20 reviews
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
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.
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What's the Story?
Those yucky desert mutants have resurfaced, this time in search of females for breeding. Their all-male tribalism is underlined in the first scene of THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2, in which a not-so-grotesque-looking woman gives painful birth to a baby and is promptly whacked in the head and killed by a hulking male mutant. The mutants' apparent misogyny is then juxtaposed with the coed U.S. National Guard, whose trainees are working together in a harrowing mock battle set in a desert that passes for Kandahar, Afghanistan. When they're hoodwinked by a woman wailing about her dead babies, it's clear that gender integration has been achieved in contemporary warfare. Still, the young trainees aren't ready for what they discover in New Mexico. They've heard the rumors, of course, that Section 16 was used by the military to test nuclear weapons during the 1950s. But they can't anticipate that, 50 years later, descendents of everyone who was neglected by the government and deformed by radiation would still be looking for vengeance against the able-bodied and, especially, the pretty.
Is It Any Good?
This shocking movie features a disturbingly profuse amount of blood and gore. Battle with the mutants results in all manner of bodily abuse, and the mutants themselves arrive looking mightily pre-abused, their heads and limbs misshapen. After much shooting, hacking, and screaming, the National Guard unit is reduced to its survivor core, at which point they're so angry and anguished that their violent payback takes on particularly sexualized characteristics -- it's all about penetrating bodies and kicking crotches.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
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 want to breed with them, and the men want to protect them -- what do the women themselves want?
Movie Details
- In theaters: March 23, 2007
- On DVD or streaming: July 17, 2007
- Cast: Jacob Vargas, Jessica Stroup, Michael McMillian
- Director: Martin Weisz
- Studio: Fox Atomic
- Genre: Horror
- Run time: 89 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: prolonged sequences of strong gruesome horror violence and gore, a rape and language.
- Last updated: May 7, 2022
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