Released: March 2006
Director: Alexandre Aja
Rated R
Run Time: 107 Minutes
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Aaron Stanford: Doug
Emilie de Ravin: Brenda
Vinessa Shaw: Lynn
Dan Byrd: Bobby
Ted Levine: Big Bob
Kathleen Quinlan: Ethel
Robert Joy: Lizard
Billy Drago: Papa Jupiter
The horror genre has been around since the beginning of cinema. It made a huge impact on cinema during the 30s with the Universal Classic Monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman. Between that and 1970, horror was mostly not overly graphic. Sure, you had some of the Hammer Horror films during the 60s as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, but most of them were generally not super violent. The decade of the 1970s changed everything. Movie-making had entered a new Golden Age of sorts when the 70s came around. This was the decade when the horror genre developed a mean streak. The Exorcist in 1973 was one of the first to really push the envelope. Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left would follow in 1974 along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 1976 would see the release of Richard Donner’s The Omen. 1977 was a banner year for movies. Star Wars blew the whole damned roof off the industry and changed movie-making forever. However, 1977 would see the release of another Wes Craven cult classic: The Hills Have Eyes. The Hills Have Eyes was basically about a family trip into Hell itself. 30 years later, Wes Craven would revisit his 1977 horror flick with a newly discovered French director: Alexandre Aja. The remake of The Hills Have Eyes was released to mixed reactions but was generally well-received by fans of the genre. Is it really that good? Yes. Yes, it is.
The setup is this: A suburban family is on their way to California from Cleveland, Ohio to hit the beach. On the way, they stop by a lone gas station somewhere in the New Mexico desert. The gas station’s owner tells them of a short-cut that will supposedly save them several hours. On the dirt road, their tires blow and they crash into a large rock. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, Big Bob and Doug, Bob’s son-in-law head off in two different directions to find help. The others stay the fort and wait for help, not realizing that they are being watched. As far as re-makes go, The Hills Have Eyes is easily one of the best. The original film may seem cheesy by today’s standards, but Alexandre Aja’s picture takes the intensity and gives it a gritty and brutal face-lift. The story plays out the same way that the original film did with some minor variations. Overall, it holds up and once it gets going, it doesn’t stop or show you mercy until the credits roll.
One of the most effective things about good horror movies is having characters that you care about. If you care about the characters on the screen, you’re going to be afraid for them, and you’re going to feel something if and when they get killed off or worse. Thankfully, the characters in The Hills Have Eyes really do come across as your typical fun-loving suburbanite family caught in a nightmarish situation. Big Bob is the head of the family and while he’s apparently a card-carrying member of the NRA, his son-in-law is anti-gun. With them is Bob’s wife, Ethel and two daughters, Brenda and Lynn. Along for the ride is the younger brother Bobby and two German Shepherd dogs. Lynn has a new baby as well. Each of these characters have their quirks, but they tend to be fairly likable. The other characters include an old man who runs a gas station, and oh, yeah: A band of murderous mutant cannibals that live in the New Mexico desert. These guys are particularly vile, but they are still very effective villains.
As you would expect in a movie like this, not everybody survives. Some of the kills in the film are particularly brutal. The gas station owner blows his on head off in a particularly gory fashion. Big Bob gets roasted alive. Some of the most intense scenes happen when the mutants attack the trailer that only has the women in it. It becomes extremely unsettling with the amount of cruelty that this mutants inflict on the family. Murder, rape and kidnapping are part and parcel for these freaks. At the time, I had seen stuff that pushed the envelope a little bit, but The Hills Have Eyes kind of opened my eyes to new kind of horror movie. I’m grateful for that, actually, because this was one of the most grueling mainstream horror movies released in 2006. Thanks to the watchful eyes of Wes Craven and Alexandre Aja, The Hills Have Eyes remake is regarded as one of the best remakes in the last 20 years.
I can’t review this film and not mention the visual and make-up effects of the legendary KNB Effects company. These guys are widely regarded as some of the best in the business, alongside folks like Tom Savini and Rob Bottin. The design of the mutants is extraordinary. These are characters that have been mutated by the effects of nuclear tests in the New Mexico desert. The make-up on a number of these freaks like Lizard and Pluto. The design is exquisite and quite horrifying. The gore effects are equally impressive. While The Hills Have Eyes is far from the goriest film I’ve ever seen, the use of the blood and prosthetics make for a far more believable and harrowing experience. There is some CGI in the film, and after 10 years, the CGI doesn’t hold up very well. Thankfully, it’s used at a minimum. It’s also used to enhance some of the mutants.
There a couple of nitpicks that I have here and there. For one, the film does fall on some obvious horror film tropes, such as the old man who gives them wrong directions. I’ve seen that in so many movies, it’s cliche. Then you have people splitting up. Have you people not seen a horror movie?! But aside from that, what we have here is one of the most solid and thrilling horror films to come out in the past 15 years. The Hills Have Eyes was enough of a success that it got a sequel the following year. I’ll get to that one in a different post, and boy do I have shit to say about that movie. That being said, if you’re looking for a gritty and intense experience, look no further than The Hills Have Eyes. It’s a solid remake and is one of Alexandre Aja’s best films. This is a must-see for horror fans.
My Final Recommendation: Avoid the New Mexico desert and lone gas stations with creepy old men. No good can come from that. 9/10