Surprisingly, this remake closely follows the original. More time is spent on how the nuclear testing has created the mutants, whereas in the first one it was more implied that it was from inbreeding as much as radiation. Towards the end, when one of the survivors comes across a "test town", which has all these burnt dummies arranged as if they are living people, I thought, "okay, we get the point". Then, when one of the mutants explains who they are and how the government is responsible for how they are now I was kind of rolling my eyes, as the exposition was a "little" forced. In the original, it was more implied that the deformities were as much caused by inbreeding as it was the radiation. There are also many more of the "Hill" people-and Ruby, who was normal looking in the first film is deformed in this one.
The thing is, I didn't find this new HILLS HAVE EYES as intense or frightening as the original Wes Crave movie. The first is still the best.