Unapologetic in its stark brutality, The Hills Have Eyes is a relentless, gritty torture movie in the grand tradition of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Sure we’ve seen this film countless times before but rarely done this effectively. The simple plot involves a family of annoying people who have to put their road trip to California on hold when they are forcibly stopped in the middle of the dessert by a family of atomic-bomb-test-genetically-altered-creepy-fucks. Before long the family fights for its life as the disfigured, and probably stinky, hillbillies start picking them off one by one in R-rated ways.
The Hills Have Eyes works because there are no annoying kids, no annoying heavy metal soundtrack, no humor, and most importantly, despite its seemingly paint-by-numbers formula, it is unpredictable. When the hillbillies first reveal themselves I was very smug in my predictions of who would ultimately live and who would die. Consistently wrong throughout, I found myself on the edge of my seat wishing I could jump into the movie to help the family out (and by ”help” I mean tell them where the hillbillies were hiding and then quickly return to the comfort of my couch). I don’t normally go for torture movies, but The Hills Have Eyes is a very satisfying cinematic experience that doesn’t pull any punches. I have never seen the original and still have no desire to do so.
See Summerisle’s excellent review for additional praise.
Watch the trailer
The Hills Have Eyes Trailer (2006)
2 comments:
Jeez, I keep telling you, the original ain't so bad!
It's got Michael Berryman in it!
and by the time she hit e.t., dee wallace must have been thinking, "i've faced off against fuckin' atomic mutants! you think a bunch of candy ass federal agents with (handguns/walkie talkies) is going to frighten me? hiii-ya, bitch!"
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