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When exactly did horror films stop being scary?
That’s what I was left wondering after watching the cool, if amazingly brutal, The Hills Have Eyes. This remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 cult classic is a good film, with some nice effects and nasty gore, but not one single fright to be found. Mind you, the last time I got spooked by a film was when I was six years old. Perhaps that’s the answer right there. Horrors can’t scare audiences anymore, so now they’re just trying to make them sick.
The premise to The Hills Have Eyes is classic horror — a family on their way to California come across a rundown gas station in the middle of the New Mexico desert. They then think they’re taking a shortcut through the hills, thanks to the kindly suggestion of the gas attendant, but find themselves stranded in the middle of no where. And to make things worse, the whole thing was a trap so a collection of mutants can kill and eat them.
Here’s a thought. When a creepy and dirty gas attendant in the middle of nowhere suggests a shortcut, just give him a smile and a nod, say thanks, then get in your car and get away as quickly as possible.
French director Alexandre Aja co-wrote and directed this remake, and does a great job of it. His visual style is raw and visceral. The film may be gory, but Aja shows it so elegantly that one cannot help by appreciate the visuals.
My problem with The Hills Have Eyes is that the most interesting characters all get killed, while the dullest of the bunch survive. I won’t get into who lives and who dies, that’s something you’ll need to discover on your own. But I was really rooting for only one person, and that person tragically dies when the mutants first attack. I will say this, though, it wasn’t one of the men. I suppose the logic here is that Aja and co-writer Gregory Levasseur wanted you to care about those people who die, but they should have given the survivors more attention.
Another of the film’s best characters is one of the dogs, Beast. He is without a doubt the best dog in horror film history.
This unrated DVD contains about eight minutes more of violence. Since I didn’t see the uncut version, I can’t say exactly what’s different, but I imagine it involves one or two more axes to the head.
The DVD also includes a collection of special features, such as two audio commentaries. The first has Aja, art director/co-writer Levasseur, and producer Marianne Maddalena. The second has producers Wes Craven and Peter Locke. Both are interesting. They discuss the making of the film, and Craven relates experiences making the original The Hill Have Eyes. This is accompanied by the usual “making of” featurette, diaries that chart different aspects of the production in short, first-person vignettes, and a music video.
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