Fans of Tourist Trap and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End cannot miss this bone-chomping cannibal movie, sequel to the massive cult horror hit The Hills Have Eyes (1977).
Wes Craven, a filmmaker whose name became synonymous with the subversion of middle-class security, found himself in a peculiar transitional period during the mid-1980s. Before he would irrevocably alter the landscape of the genre with A Nightmare On Elm Street, he returned to the desolate terrain that established his reputation. The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984) stands as a starkly different beast than its 1977 predecessor, representing a pivot from the raw, documentary-style nihilism of the 1970s “grindhouse” era toward the more stylized, teen-centric slasher tropes that defined the Reagan years. It is a work that captures a master of horror navigating the commercial demands of a sequel-hungry industry while grappling with the ghosts of his own cinematic past.
The story centers on a group of motocross racers who, accompanied by survivors of the original desert massacre, venture back into the treacherous Mojave Wasteland to test a high-performance experimental fuel. Predictably, their bus breaks down in the forbidden zone, placing them directly in the crosshairs of the surviving members of the cannibalistic Jupiter clan. As the group is picked off one by one in the jagged, sun-scorched labyrinth, the film shifts from a survivalist drama into a kinetic, high-stakes hunt.
Michael Berryman returns as Pluto, wielding his iconic, unsettling physical presence to great effect, while Janus Blythe provides a seasoned, weary grit as Rachel (formerly Ruby), whose performance offers a rare, grounded tether to the psychological weight of the first film’s trauma.
The production of the film was famously tumultuous, characterized by a fluctuating budget of roughly $1 million and a shoot that was halted mid-production due to a lack of funds. This financial instability forced Craven to complete the film years after the initial footage was shot, often utilizing clever—if occasionally jarring—editing techniques to pad the runtime. Consequently, the aesthetic is a fragmented mosaic; it possesses a more polished, “80s-clean” look than the grainy, visceral 1977 original, yet it remains haunted by the starkly beautiful, desolate cinematography of its predecessor.
Within the broader sub-genre of “hillbilly horror,” the film is often viewed as the moment the franchise transitioned from social commentary on class and primal instinct into a more traditional, popcorn-oriented slasher experience.
Cinephiles often point to the film’s most surreal production artifact: the infamous “dog flashback.” Because Craven lacked enough new footage to meet the required feature length, the German Shepherd, Beast, is depicted having a nostalgic recollection of the first film’s events—a moment of cinematic eccentricity that has since achieved legendary status in horror circles for its sheer audacity. Additionally, the film features early appearances from actors like Robert Houston and a young Peter Whitford, further cementing its status as a time capsule of 80s casting.
The legacy of The Hills Have Eyes Part II is one of survival—not just for its characters, but for the film itself. While it was initially dismissed by critics and even disowned by Craven as a contractual obligation, it has since earned a place as a cult curiosity. It serves as a fascinating study of the “sequelization” process in Hollywood, where the sacred dread of an original masterpiece is transmuted into something more accessible, campy, and undeniably of its time. Though it lacked the commercial punch of Craven’s later works, its existence paved the technical and financial way for his subsequent triumphs, leaving behind a trail of desert dust and a testament to the enduring power of the “wild man” archetype in American cinema.
The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1984)
Genre: Horror, Slasher
© 2026 Screenbound International Pictures. Published under license.
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