Well it's
been eight long years since the events of the first film, and one of the survivors, Bobby Carter (Robert Houston),
is now the leader of a motorbike racing team. However, Bobby is still somewhat traumatised by the events that took
place all those years ago, so much so that when his team are asked to compete in a desert race tournament, which is
not too far from the place his family were attacked, he finds himself unable to go.
The rest of the team decide to go anyway, and Bobby's partner Rachael (Janus Blythe) agrees to take his place on the trip. Unfortunately, they hit a slight snag on route and find themselves running late, so they decide to take a short cut across the desert to prevent them missing the start of the race (not a good idea).
Now this is where things start getting silly. Rachael is actually Ruby, the daughter of the cannibalistic clan from the first film who helped the Carters. Yet when they decide to cut across the desert in their bus, she seems to do very little to try and stop them, despite the fact she knows who might still be lurking about in the area.
Predictably enough, their bus's fuel tank springs a leak and ends up breaking down on an old dirt track next to an abandoned silver mine (presumably the same one that the Carters where looking for in part one). Anyway, the next thing we know is Pluto (Michael Berryman) from the first film pops up, along with his uncle Reaper (John Bloom) and they start trying to pick off the stranded teens.
The film proceeds to get progressively sillier, as despite having a rather nasty run in with these cannibalistic retards, rather than staying together and preparing to defend themselves against further attacks, they start roaming around the place and playing practical jokes on each other, then getting bumped off rather stupidly as a result. In the end, only one of the bikers is left along with his blind girlfriend and how they finally manage to defeat Reaper and Pluto defies belief.
Directed again by Wes Craven, this was apparently only produced to make some fast cash, as Craven and Producer Peter Locke were in need of funds at the time. The film's low budget is rather apparent, given the amount of time devoted to flashbacks. That's not to say the film isn't altogether bad, but it seemed way too reminiscent of the "Friday the 13th" films. Which isn't helped by the fact the music was scored by Harry Manfredini, who provided the music for most of those.
It's definitely worth a watch, but sadly isn't a patch on the original.
