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THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006) (**)

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I really liked Wes Craven’s gritty original THE HILLS HAVE EYES. It was scary and fascinating. Alexandre Aja, whose HIGH TENSION was a solid horror film until he ruined everything with an absolutely lame twist in the end, was assigned the duty of remaking Craven’s early horror classic. Funny that Aja, along with his co-writer Gregory Levasseur, would remove everything that made the original wonderful.

The general plot is the same. A family breaks down in the desert and are besieged by a family of mutant cannibals. The family dynamic is the same. Big Bob (Ted Levine, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) is a retired cop who likes to tote around his guns. His wife Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan, APOLLO 13) is a conservative, church-going woman. Their young son Bobby (Dan Byrd, FIRESTARTER 2: REKINDLED) is the first to discover that the hills have eyes and is petrified by the fact. The middle child is an attractive blonde named Brenda (Emilie de Ravin, TV’s LOST), who wishes she were not on this family vacation. The oldest sibling Lynn (Vinessa Shaw, EYES WIDE SHUT) has a young child and is married to the annoying, “non-violent” Doug (Aaron Stanford, X2: X-MEN UNITED).

Then there are the mutants… but wait in the first film they are distinctive and had motivations. Here they are just grotesque creatures that have only one purpose — be violent and vile. This is where this version goes oh so wrong.

Craven took time to build the bad guys, which are inherently the most interesting part of the story. In the first film, the gas station attendant (Tom Bower, POLLOCK) had a much more significant role to play — in the new one he’s just a freak along with the rest. All the details about both families built tension and drove the story forward.

I’m tired of stating this in every review of a modern horror film — gross does not equal scary. The threat of gross things is scary and that’s what the original HILLS knew. The famed attack on the camper from the first film, which was disturbing and shocking, has been rendered a flat, geek show. I do not object to the gore in the film, but object to the way it is portrayed. It accomplishes nothing outside of being vile. Good gore can be powerful and haunting. Pointless and/or needless gore is no better than watching a snuff film, but without the same level of guilt.

The filmmakers waste no precious screen time with such things as character development or building tension. Why bother when we have fifty new ways to smash, blow up or otherwise obliterate someone’s head. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre brings a polished, but gritty look to the film that works. The special effects from KNB EFX Group are great in their gruesomeness. As for performances, everyone does the best they can with their slipshod characters. So those are the few good things. The final word is simple — skip the pointless remake and rent the original.

Rick DeMott's picture

Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks