The Hills Have Eyes II (2007)

Director: Martin Weisz
Starring: Daniella Alonso, Jacob Vargas, Michael Bailey Smith

Synopsis:
A squad of National Guard trainees are sent on an impromptu search and rescue mission during an exercise in New Mexico and stumble upon a family of subterranean cannibals.

Impressions:
I saw a bit of this movie years ago and it stuck in my head all this time. It took me a few years before I even found out what it was and when I found out, I wasn't terribly compelled to see it, but I finally decided to give it a shot. Though a sequel to the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, it's not really necessary to see the prior entry. Having the main characters be trainees lampshades some of their dumb decisions and while you certainly shouldn't be expecting much military accuracy, there was more verisimilitude than I was expecting. The makeup for the mutants is pretty good, but this is a dirty, grimy movie in more ways than one. It's bound to turn off most viewers, but if you didn't have some sense of that beforehand, the opening scene sets the tone nicely. Even if you're a gorehound who loves scads of gratuitous violence, I don't think you'll like this one much. Skip it.

Rating:
Avoid It