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The Hills Have Eyes (2006)


RRP: £19.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Boasting an upgrade in production values, The Hills Have Eyes should please new-generation horror fans without offending devotees of Wes Craven's original version from 1977. There's still something to be said for the gritty shock value of Craven's low-budget original, made at a time when horror had been relegated to the pop-cultural ghetto, mostly below the radar of major Hollywood studios. With the box-office resurgence of horror in the new millennium--and the genre's lucrative popularity among the all-important teen demographic--it's only fitting that French director Alexandre Aja should follow up his international hit High Tension with a similarly brutal American debut to boost his Hollywood street-cred. Working with cowriter Gregory Levasseur, Aja remains surprisingly faithful to Craven's original, beginning with a bickering family that crashes their truck and trailer in the remote desert of New Mexico (actually filmed in Morocco), where they are subsequently terrorized, brutalized, and murdered by a freakish family of psychopaths, mutated by the lingering radiation from 331 nuclear bomb tests that were carried out during the 1950s and '60s. After several killings are carried out in memorably grisly fashion, it's left to the survivors to outsmart their disfigured tormentors, who are blessed with horrendous make-up (especially Robert Joy as freak leader "Lizard") but never quite as unsettling as the original film's horror icon, Michael Berryman. In Aja's hands, this newfangled Hills is all about savagery and de-evolution, reducing its characters to a state of pure, retaliatory terror. It's hardly satisfying in terms of storytelling (since there's hardly any story to tell), but as an exercise in sheer malevolence, it's undeniably effective.-- Jeff Shannon


May have eyes,no plot though.
Review date: 2008-11-06 Rating: 4 out of 10

I only watched this recently on the TV as I'm not prepared to shell out cash for something that I fully expect to be trash,this is,as one other reviewer said,was predictable,family take wrong turn in desert,get lost,break down and get picked off one by one by the natives (cannibals),it's the same plot as all of these films,Texas Chainsaw massacre etc.
It really was just a showcase for someone's sick imagination as to how these people can be bumped off,I think nearly everyone has some implement sticking out of their head at one time or another.
So in all,story is paper thin and hopelessly predictable and it's more sickening than scary,I don't dislike all these films,TCM has it's moments and SAW was clever the first time but their scripts could be written on a piece of toilet roll.

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Reviews


Nuclear Family
Review date: 2008-11-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

A family travelling to California are told of a shortcut through the mountains that will get them to their destination quicker. After the tyres of their camper van are punctured they find themselves at the mercy of a group of cannibalistic survivors from Government nuclear testing, who begin to kill the family members one by one.
Wes Craven's 'The Hills Have Eyes' made in 1977 is in my opinion his masterpiece. Anybody attempting a remake really would have a hard act to follow. So the fact that Alexandre Aja succeeds so admirably is quite an acievement.
Apart from a few concessions to modern technology, the remake remains faithful to the original. There is also a refreshing lack of CGI effects.
It may lack the raw power of Craven's original, but Aja's remake is still shocking, extremely gory and has a cohesive narrative. Where this film does score heavily is with its depiction of the radiation affected mutants and their twisted sense of family loyalty. There is real tension in the passage of the film where Doug goes in search of his kidnapped baby and walks through the mine shaft into a forgotten world, an abandoned nuclear test facility complete with charred mannaequins and example after example of unspeakable horror.
So a terrific film, both taken on its own merits and in comparison to the fantastic original. 5 out of 5

I CRIED OUT MY EYES...
Review date: 2008-10-20 Rating: 2 out of 10

...because I wasted money on renting this crap. It's a remake - apart from a few exceptions like SCARFACE or SCENT OF A WOMAN where the remakes are actually BETTER than the original - I should have been warned. But I rented it anyway, due to bad recommendations. And I was disappointed. A group of campers gets lost in the desert. They are attacked, raped and killed by a group of mutants. That's the plot (there is no story). This film has no other qualities (acting sucks, direction sucks). Just like the Freddy and Jason films it lives from blood and gore only.

GORE BORE
Review date: 2008-09-04 Rating: 2 out of 10

This film is like so many other films coming out recently which can only be called a horror film in the lossest terms that can ever be possible films that should be called GORE BORE. These films this one included all share several features:

-NO REAL PLOT
-POITNLESS VIOLENCE
-EXTEMELY FAKE LOOKING KILLERS
-TEENAGERS WITH MISSING COMMON SENSE GLANDS

This film also has the added bonus of a rape scene which only serves to make the viewer disgusted and has no real point within the film. I would actually pay someone not to show me this film ever again.

Quite poor!
Review date: 2008-07-10 Rating: 4 out of 10

I was quite disappointed to waste my money on such a rubbish film. i don't know what all the fuss is about this is just another film about homocdial retarded hillbillies. Anoher disappointing horror!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Kathleen Quinlan
Vinessa Shaw
Emilie De Ravin

Creators:
Emilie De Ravin (Primary Contributor)
Kathleen Quinlan (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036027335
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-06-26
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 103 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2006
Language: English (Original Language)

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