There is just something about the fact that when a baby is involved in a horror film and is the main focus of the whole film that does not sit well with me. The thought of having your child kidnapped from you just so that someone else would eat your fist born, man the psychology of that is enough to scare the shit out of me, and I don’t even have any kids yet.
“The Hills Have Eyes” is a remake of the 1977 Wes Craven film of the same title. Although the plot is little different than the original it does not stray from the original story whatsoever. Instead it expand on it and explains how these crazy cannibal families came to be. In my opinion this remake of “The Hills Have Eyes” is much better than the original film.
The plot is pretty good, and the film starts off with one hell of a bang, which is probably one of the best, most brutal beginning to a horror film ever. This film does not let up on the blood and gore, and there is a lot of crazy ass scary fight scenes as well as killing scenes. However there were a few things in the film that seemed a bit out of hand in a way. One such thing is that the family in this film seemed very similar to the cannibal characters in “Wrong Turn”, and maybe it’s just me, but some of the way this film was editing and the music used reminded a lot of House of 1000 Corpses. Then when we get to the mining town, it seemed a lot like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” farm house. Maybe I’m looking into to much, and I’m by no means complaining about it, because I love cannibal family films, but I guess it’s the fact that it just did not seem all that original at times. But then again, we have the baby to worry about, these sick fucks wanted to eat the baby for breakfast. At least in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake they wanted to raise the baby they kidnapped as their own, here the kids just as good a s bacon on the breakfast table.
The acting in this film surprisingly enough was pretty good, I think the only time I really had any thoughts of giving the acting bad reviews was during the scenes when the family was all happy together. The dialogue during some of these scenes was a bit corny, and I felt it took away from the characters. I really got into some of the characters in this film however, mainly the character of Doug Bukowski, whom started off as this pussy liberal asshole and became this brave kick ass father trying to save his child. The transition of this character reminded me of Ash from “The Evil Dead”, rising up against the evil that threatens to take him down. And how can forget to mention the dog known as beast, he practically had the best dam performance in this film, and not to mention I think he had the most kills for the good family side. Beast was one hell of a kick ass German Sheppard. The only thing I wish we got more of in this film was more screen time for the characters of Jupiter and Pluto, whom were the main bad guys in the original. In this film they seemed to be more of secondary characters.
The effects in this film are great, there is so much blood and guts and body parts, I don’t know where to begin. The overall atmosphere of the film is genuinely creepy and scary. In a nutshell with all that’s going on with this film, effects wise you get a screen full of blood and guts galore, enough to satisfy any horror fan.
Overall, I really dug this remake of “The Hills Have Eyes” its far out does the original film and is a flick that all hardcore horror fans and new fans or horror should check out. However don’t ignore checking Wes Craven’s original 1977 version of “The Hills Have Eyes” if you haven’t seen the original , it’s worth checking out as well. However the remake is good. For all you parents out there with newborns or parents to be, this film will scare the crap out of you.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
