The Hills Have Eyes (2006) Review

Written by: TiM the Zombie   

From the minds that brought you High Tension comes this gore soaked adventure about a large family crossing the new mexico desert to reach there destination of the beautiful California. When stopping at a deserted gas station in the middle of absolutely no where causes them to get directions to a short cut thats not listed on any road map, so be it! It's a horror movie, lets have some fun. Little does the family know that the short cut leads them straight to a government nuclear testing zone in which a family of mutant cannibals await there next victims.

Whats in store for them involves survival and gore...and lots of it! Note that spoliers will appear ahead. As all of you know, this film is based on the original screenplay by none other than Wes Craven himself back in the 70's...1977 I believe it was. A lot of people would give the original film the title of a cult classic. Being that it was the 70's and the resources for a film were limited due to...well, it was the 70's! It gives the film some slack for being so damn cheesy. However, I think the original Hills Have Eyes lacked some important details that the brilliant remake by Aja recovered up on. It had some bad costumes and some terrible acting which led me to believe that the title cult classic was a little to far. Plus the cannibals, which made the movie what it was, looked like crap.

Yeah, yeah it was the 70's but movies like TCM or Dawn '78 were made back in the 70's and are easily two of all time favorite movies. Both of which I own in my own personal collection. I think the overall direction was bad which is credited poorly towards Craven. From there his movies just plain sucked with exceptions from freddy, last house, serpent, and a few more. Now in the new generation of 2006 comes the new masterpiece from director Alexandre Aja, The Hills Have Eyes. This movie is truly fantastic and is a perfect example of "horror". I mean do you ever come across a horror movie that has you rooting for the good guys to win? Doubtful. Do you ever come across a horror film that shows rape to a mainstream audience? No, you dont. I'm not saying rape is a good thing but for a horror film its hard to watch and is a truly "horrific" event. Now you have to take into account that this movie will probrably get to a lot of people.

Think about it, you can watch jason slay a bunch of inocent teenagers on the spot. You can probrably watch Freddy slay a teenage girl with a future ahead of her threw her bed sheets. You can probrably even watch the demon girl from the exorcist stab herself in her "crotch" with a cross. But when you see a father being burned alive, a teenage daughter being raped, a mother/daughter being breast fed and hit, a mother being shot by these sick cannibal mutants all while a new born baby is being held at gunpoint ALL in a few scenes? That might actually get to a lot of people and have them turn away with disgust. I remember seeing this bad boy in the theatres and having half the theatre leave the building becasue it was just to damn brutal. Aja created something based off a boring and plain piece of work and turned it into an all out hardcore gory horror film that hasnt been seen for a while. The acting is played out well.

The mutants look fabulous. Minus the few CGI moments you can still easily enjoy this film until the second its over. The script is solid and was put to life very well. The direction unlike the original is very good and is brought to you buy someone who could very likely be one of the next masters of horror and have his own episode on the wonderful series. This is now added in the very very short list of remakes that have actually been great and succesful along with Dawn, the Thing etc. Everyone should give this film a chance if you liked High Tension. Plus, if you liked the original you will liked this one way better. I know i did and a lot more did as well. Put aside the fact that its a remake and go to your local video store and buy the unrated version to see it for all i care. And yes, it is definentally worth the buy. Just do it, and get yourself a copy of this badass bad boy, you wont be dissapointed in the least.