(Opens This Friday)
Quicktime Version
I have to cope to having really liked the first THHE (the remake, haven’t seen the original). Sure, it didn’t have the most original concept or plot, but it was very well executed and met my basic horror needs.
As far as the sequel goes, I like that they have changed things a bit by substituting the usual hapless victims with national guardsmen, people who actually have guns and are supposed to be able to fight. Will this premise work? I don’t know, something similar worked for Aliens, but it could easily backfire here. But at least they are trying something slightly different.
Now, about the trailer. I think that the trailer for The Hills Have Eyes 1 was significantly better. In part because of the great use it made of “California Dreaming”. But also because it spent more time showing us the set up (family trapped in the desert, dangerous mutants surrounding them) and little time showing any of the scary shit actually going down. That part was just hinted at, leaving us in the audience curious and wanting more.
The trailer for the new movie, on the other hand, offers us little in terms of easily recognizable and relatable characters and spends more time showing us the actual confront between humans and mutants. And that confront is not so interesting to look at out of the context of the movie.
For comparison, below are the trailers for the first movie and the excellent teaser trailer for the second one.