THE HILLS HAVE EYES II — * — Michael McMillian, Jessica Stroup; rated R (violence, gore, rape, profanity); Carmike 12 and Ritz 15; Century Sandy and South Salt Lake; Cinemark Jordan Landing; Megaplex 12, 17 and 20; Red Carpet 5-Star and Gateway 8.

For all its faults (and they would fill a hefty catalog), the 2006 remake of "The Hills Have Eyes" got its talons into our guts by making its characters matter to us before brutally killing them off.

Empathy turns to apathy in "The Hills Have Eyes II," whose makers have, pardon the expression, no vision. This is a horror movie financed on the cheap and made on autopilot.

The people in peril this time are an improbably attractive National Guard unit who could easily pass for a group of Abercrombie models doing a desert camouflage-themed photo shoot.

On maneuvers at a New Mexico military installation that was once a nuclear-testing site, they hear garbled radio calls for help and venture into the nearby mountains to investigate.

Once they reach elevations where their falling bodies would make colorful splatter patterns upon hitting the ground, they are set upon by drooling mutants. These boil-scarred monsters, who resemble stuntmen swathed in pink bubble-wrap packing material, turn most of the squad's men into G.I. tartare and kidnap one of the women for breeding purposes.

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Ho hum. The film aims to toss us into a mosh pit of terror, but the characters are such stereotypical monster chow that their demise scarcely registers. They might as well be named Hothead, Hot Body, Scaredy, Sentimental Mom and Rambo. The unit pokes through dim mineshafts where they are picked off one by one in attack scenes spaced too far apart to build a sense of momentum.

The script (by horror maestro Wes Craven and his son Jonathan) makes a weak stab at topicality. It frames its mini-war on terror with sledgehammer-subtle references to scary people hiding in caves half-a-world away but fails to follow through on the idea.

Although the ads warn "The lucky ones die fast," the truth is, "The smart ones walk out early."

"The Hills Have Eyes II" is rated R for prolonged scenes of strong gruesome horror violence and gore, a rape and language. Running time: 89 minutes.

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