Wes Craven, who by now has become a household name in the realm of American horror, has struck again.
Taking a backseat as producer rather than director, Craven presented the remake of his 1977 piece The Hills Have Eyes to audiences everywhere this past weekend.
Directed by the relatively unknown French director Alexandre Aja, The Hills Have Eyes is one of the first noteworthy releases of 2006 and, despite some degree of inevitable simplicity, is relatively worth the buzz.
The film tells the story of a family that, while on a road trip across the American desert, has its car break down miles from the nearest gas station or cell phone signal. The father and son-in-law split up to seek help while the mother, children, and one grandbaby as well as the family’s two German Shepherds stay to guard the car against rattlesnakes.
Without wasting too much time, the mutated, cannibalistic people who inhabit the surrounding hills begin to close in on their unsuspecting victims, and the adventure ensues.
The strange people, the viewer discovers, used to be miners in the American desert. When they refused to abandon their homes for US nuclear testing, they and their children were subjected to the mutating, maddening powers of nuclear radiation.
A few decades later, driven insane by deformity and rage, the miners live together in a small village in the desert, preying on whoever is unfortunate enough to pass by.
The filmmaking is decently creative, combining high resolution imaging with a fast filming speed to create a gritty, panicked visual impression. Intermittent shots of random images and inexplicable scene changes augment the viewer’s emotional participation in the story with the feeling that events are out of everyone’s control.
Combined with a musical score that is pretty original in the genre The Hills Have Eyes ends up being a worthy sensory experience.
The film does lack in certain areas, however, as most horror movies unfortunately tend to do. The acting leaves a bit to be desired, although a cast that appears to have done predominantly television work could have done much worse.
As usual the characters are not always the most intelligent and the plotline leans towards the predictable, but one admittedly would be hard pressed to find any self-proclaiming horror movie that did not possess all of the above aspects.
The Hills Have Eyes is the story of one family versus another.
While one family is sadistic and deformed, the apparently “normal” family has its own issues to deal with, a discussion which defies the length of this article.
Suffice it to say, however, that with all of the filmmaker’s inclusion of American flags, symbolic names, and political rhetoric, it is obvious that someone is making an effort to say something important within the film.
Whatever that may be, however, ultimately the unapologetic carnage, deeply disturbing moments, strategically placed hero shots, and, of course, those scenes of selfless sacrifice overall make
The Hills Have Eyes a sufficiently macabre cinematic adventure on any level of interpretation.
The Hills Have Eyes is rated a deserved R for brutal gore, language and disturbing situations. It is currently playing at Real to Reel in Johnson City and at the Fort Henry Mall in Kingsport.
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