The Hills Have Eyes Review

The Hills Have Eyes is the latest horror film to be released on DVD. It is a remake of the 1977 film by the master of horror himself Wes Craven.

I must say that I was not really sure what to expect from this film. The original by Wes Craven had both shocked and disgusted audiences back in 1977 and I guess I was hoping for something that was going to offer the same effect and not let Wes down in the process. Let’s just say, I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

The movie begins with a slightly dysfunctional American family driving through the dessert; they make a stop at a gas station and are unwittingly given the wrong directions back to the freeway by the creepy owner, sending them deeper into the middle of nowhere. As they travel we get to know the characters and learn a bit about the family, but what really struck me was how much you are actually lead to dislike half of the family from the very start! Usually with horror movies the first half an hour is spent showing how great the characters are and why we should love them and be rooting for their survival, but the hills have eyes is a very different set up altogether. I spent the first half an hour wishing that they would hurry up and die already! Little did I know that this was precisely what the film makers want you to do, they made the characters earn your approval, no one gets let off lightly and it certainly doesn’t follow the usual cheesy horror film set up where you can literally pick the survivors from the start. I soon realized that this was going to be genuine no holds barred horror at its finest.

As the family make their way through the desert they are being led into a trap which eventually results in them being stranded with just their camper van for shelter. This is when the terror really starts and we are introduced to the strange family of heavily mutated and cannibalistic people, who live in the desert. One by one the family are targeted, killed, and in one particularly disturbing and disgusting scene raped and tortured. The film moves at a fast pace, and is genuinely scary! It doesn’t rely on cheap scare tactics; it dares to be bold, gruesome and at times really really disgusting!

As I said before, you gradually begin to identify with the members of the family as they are all put in different situations and must face their own individual terrors and work as a team if any of them are going to make it out of the desert alive.

The special effects and the way in which the whole thing is filmed are spectacular, making the whole experience seem not only completely realistic but giving it an underlying similarity to the original film.

I can’t fault the acting, as far as I’m concerned the cast were fantastic and completely suited to their roles, the performance that stood out for me was that of Aaron Stanford (X Men) as Doug, a character who I was completely and utterly annoyed by at first but gradually came to shine as one of the best and well formed elements of the entire storyline.
The mutated family were great, they somehow managed to be scary and yet funny at the same time – a very hard balance to get right but one that they completely nailed. The makeup and effects used on the family were top notch and helped bring the movie up to date for a modern audience.

I absolutely loved this film, it is not often that a remake can actually manage to be not only good but better than the original but I think this film may just have done that. Wes Craven will no doubt be proud of this new remake of his classic film, and audiences and fans of horror movies will be in their element to have finally found a remake that has the ability to shock, scare, and disgust you in ways you thought impossible. Go and buy the film today and experience it for yourself. Just remember, if you are squeamish or easily offended then this film may not be for you.

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