The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Great horror flick!

I've heard mixed reviews about this one, and that's what kept me from seeing it for some time. There have been a slew of old horror remakes, and many fail to live up to their originals. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the original recently enough to remember it (I was really young), but I liked this one enough to put it up as one of my favorite recent horror flicks! This wasn't a standard hack-and-slash gore fest. Gore was certainly present, but it wasn't the point of the film. This movie did a great job pushing the envelope of psychological terror! I think this was mainly because everything from the actors, the script, and special effects were top notch! I'm really glad I own this one, and I strongly recommend any horror fan to give it a go! January 1, 2009

Another wrong turn

All the usual ingredients are here but the recipe lacks piquancy. Aja delivers nothing that we haven't seen before and his treatment of these familiar themes isn't particularly memorable either. Having said that, there's nothing badly wrong with this movie: it delivers plenty of gore and reasonable, but not memorable, levels of tension; we have the usual two-dimensional characters who are by turns incredibly stupid and quite inventive; and we have the insanely psychopathic bad guys. The problem is that I've seen it done more effectively elsewhere. December 28, 2008

..and the Hill Billies Have Knives.

Hills is a shocking and brutal thriller that occasionally comes within a stones throw of the torture-porn genre of horror (which I detest). What keeps this 'mutant-cannibal' gore-fest from slipping over the brink is the competent acting and cathartic final act.

The setup is handled evenly and according to a tried and tested formula. Family takes road trip - dad takes shortcut - car dies (or is killed) - family members get disemboweled. Where Hills deviates from the formula is in its willingness to break the accepted 'rules' of this sort of film. It is not often that the monster in a horror movie actually rapes one of the central characters. Be prepared for some truly unsettling violence.

If you can stomach the first act you'll be rewarded by a thrilling second and redemptive third. The finale wipes your conscience clean of the simulated brutality you've just consumed for entertainments sake, but some images will stay with you regardless.

The unrated-DVD includes Commentary and Making-Of as well as a few accessory featurettes. October 21, 2008

Doug The Cell Phone Clerk Turns Into Rambo And Kills Mutant Cannibals!

Surprisingly enough, the remake of "The Hills Have Eyes" is more enjoyable than the original. The overall setting and plot are very similar. A normal, lovable family is traveling through the Nevada desert. Their vehicle breaks down and they are beset upon by cannibals. However, the remake has more details (and I'm not referring to gore, although there is plenty) that make it a more realistic, faster paced thrill ride. The opening scene is both shocking and horrifying. The viewer soon realizes that this remake will be more violent than the original.

Mild mannered cell phone retailer Doug Burkowski (Aaron Stanford of "X-Men: The Last Stand") steals the film when he must turn into Rambo in order to get his baby back from the mutant cannibals who abducted her while his father-in-law was being roasted alive. This lean, wiry built man kills a lot of tough mutants. He also discovers a crater where dozens of vehicles have been stored - their owners slaughtered by mutants - and an eerie, fabricated town occupied by mannequins. This is the town that the government was using for testing nuclear bombs. Now it is occupied by hideously deformed, inbred miners who suffered radiation damage while hiding in the mines.

The entire film has a creepy Twilight Zone atmosphere that wasn't found in the original. Furthermore, "The Hills Have Eyes" remake was highly influenced by "Wrong Turn," another film involving a cannibalistic family - this one living in the secluded woods of West Virginia.

If you enjoy cannibalistic horror classics involving inbred families such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Wrong Turn," "Raw Meat," etc., then you must see Wes Craven's remake of "The Hills Have Eyes." After watching this film, you will never again travel through the deserts of Southwest America without carrying extra gasoline and good maps. Never take short cuts, especially if they are recommended by a grizzled, toothless yokel who owns a gasoline station where the telephone doesn't work.
October 16, 2008

The Nuclear Family...

The Carter family, led by tough, ex-cop Big Bob (Ted Levine from Silence Of The Lambs) and his wife (Kathleen Quinlan from Twilight Zone: The Movie) are on their final vacation together. Along the way, they have an "accident", bringing their trip to a sudden stop in the middle of the desert wasteland of New Mexico. The situation becomes increasingly desperate when another family- a savage band of mutants- moves in on the unsuspecting Carters. I am a big fan of Wes Craven's original HILLS, and I fully expected to hate this remake. However, Alexandre Aja (High Tension) has retained enough basic elements from the 1975 version, while adding some interesting new twists. The atmosphere is tense and ominous. The characters, whether sympathetic or malevolent, are well presented. I definitely like the updated mutations. This clan of freakish murderers is pretty frightening! Rather than going for the neo-cavedweller look of the original, Aja's mutants are hideously deformed, genetic abominations. An inbred bunch of cannibalistic horrors. In other words, they look the part! I highly recommend THE HILLS HAVE EYES to any / all lovers of well-made, ultra-violent monster movies. You'll be pleasantly sickened... October 11, 2008

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