Last year's "The Hills Have Eyes" was a brutal, sadistic and ultra-gory exercise in on-screen misery (as far as mainstream movies go, only "Hostel" pushed the audience tolerance envelope further). But it was also a surprisingly well-made & suspenseful remake of Wes Craven's original cult classic. The dread it instilled in the audience was immediate and relentless. It probably comes as no surprise that the Law of Diminishing Returns applies to this inevitable sequel. With rare exception, no matter how well made, horror sequels simply aren't as effective because, for the most part, these roads are best traveled once. Of course that never happens, and with horror sequels, you either get an attempt to add new revelations to the original concept (as in "Hostel Part II"), or simply more of the same. "The Hills Have Eyes 2" falls into the latter category.

This time, that nutty band of desert-dwelling mutant cannibals begins picking off (or raping) a squad of National Guardsman, who've been dispatched to the same military testing zone from the first movie. God help us if these soldiers are ever needed to defend our country, because they are all so stupid, one-dimensional and unlikeable that you'll probably end up rooting for the cannibals. At least, in the original, we sort of cared about the family terrorized by these mutants. Here, all of the characters are simply fodder. The script does little than set them up to be slaughtered, which includes having many of them stupidly wander off alone, even after that's proven to be a bad idea. In that respect, this film is more like a "Friday the 13th" sequel, except these characters don't have sex first. The movie is as violent as the original, but the suspense is gone, as is the constant feeling of dread. We don't care who lives or dies. We simply wait for the next killing, more impressed with the make-up effects than anything else. I think much of the blame can be put on Craven (who co-wrote the lazy script with his son) & new director Martin Weisz(who's competent, but not nearly as skilled as original director, Alexandre Aja). No one has thought of anything new to do with the story. In fact, it doesn't look like they even tried.

The film looks and sounds quite good. The original remake (an oxymoron?) made better use of its foreboding desert locations, but the overall image of this sequel is fairly impressive, especially its black tones. The audio, rendered in 5.1 Dolby Digital, is also good, with decent balance and clarity.

No commentary is included, but in its place is a decent 13 minute making-of featurette, as well as another one in which cast & crew members discuss the difference between these mutants and those from the first film (for which I guess I'm thankful, since I couldn't see any difference myself). Both featurettes include plenty of interesting behind the scenes video footage. The most interesting extra is probably one which takes a look at the creation of "The Hill Have Eyes: The Beginning," a prequel in the form of a graphic novel. Other features include deleted scenes, a gag reel, an alternate ending, some trailers, and a segment in which Craven is interview by some film students.

"The Hills Have Eyes 2" is nothing more than a by-the-numbers, obligatory sequel, saddled with a been-there-done-that story & phenomenally stupid characters. It has none of the suspense or impending dread of last year's remake. All it really has going for it are the graphic death scenes (which do feature admittedly impressive make-up & gore effects). If that's all you crave, dig in. Recommended only for undemanding gorehounds.