Review #13: The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Alexandre Aja (Director): High Tension (2003)

Aaron Stanford (Doug): X-men 2 & 3, 25th Hour (2002)

Kathleen Quinlan (Ethel): Event Horizon (1997), Breakdown (1997), Apollo 13 (1995), The Doors (1991), Airport 77' (1977)

Vinessa Shaw (Lynn): 40 Days & 40 Nights (2002), Corky Romano (2001), Eyes wide Shut (1999)

Emilie de Ravin (Brenda): Lost T.V. series, Santa's Slay (2005)

Ted Levine (Bob): Monk T.V. series, Joyride, Manchurian Canidate (2004), The Fast & Furious (2001), Evolution (2001), Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Robert Joy (Lizard): Fallen (1998), Land of the Dead, AVP 2

Dan Byrd (Bobby): Firestarter 2 (2002)

Trailer:



Plot:

The Hills Have Eyes (H.H.E.) is a remake of the Wes Craven's original made back in 1977. The story goes along the lines like this, the Carter family takes a road trip and travels cross country from Ohio to California. They travel through the the desert of New Mexico where the government tested nuclear bombs during the 1940’s & 50’s.

The family pulls off at a gas station on the highway to fill up. The father, Big Bob, asks the attendant for directions and gets directions of a "shortcut" in return. Meanwhile in the background scenery, strange beings spy on the gas station and the Carter family. Other Carter family members include: Ethel, Brenda, Bobby, Lynne and her husband, Doug and baby Catherine. And we can't forget the family German Sheppards, Beauty and Beast.

Big Bob gets back in the SUV pulling the camper and heads off on the short cut route. Miles down the road, their car is ambushed with a hidden spike trap that punctures the tires causing the vehicle to crash in an isolated part of the desert hills.

Stranded with no where to go and help no where in sight, Big Bob ventures back to the gas station on his own while the family makes camp and his son in law Doug, walks off the other direction to find help. But little do they know, they are being watched by others.

Hiding in the hills watching them are a pack of mutants. The mutants are survivors after years of nuclear testing in the area. They are local miners who refused to leave the area after the testing began. The radiation over the years has caused deformities in the family of mutants. And inbreeding doesn't hurt the cause either.

Big Bob has finally made it back to the gas station and witnesses the crazy attendant commit suicide before he is captured by a member of the mutant clan. Meanwhile, back at the family camp, Doug has returned and they have a little family meeting, talking about the possibility of people hiding in the hills.

An explosion happens in the distance and a few of them run to check it out. While the majority of the family is out investigating the explosion, a couple of the mutants slip into the camper. One of them rapes Brenda and the other one takes interest in the baby.

They discover that the source of the explosion is actually dad tied to a burning tree. Doug and Bobby attempt to free him and put out the fire. Lynn and Ethel return to the camper to find the mutants inside who take them hostage. While one of the mutants is fondling Lynn, Ethel attacks him in rage. The sequence ends up in the deaths of Lynn, and Ethel as the mutants take the baby with them into the hills.

Doug and Bobby are unsuccessful at saving Big Bob and then return to the camper only to find the carnage the mutants left behind. The shaken Brenda tells them that they took the baby with them. Doug sets off into the hills to find his baby daughter from the mutants as Bobby and Brenda take refuge in the camper repelling off mutant attacks.

Villain:

Multiple nuclear-fall-out miner mutants terrorizing a family on vacation in the New Mexico desert. Hell yeah! The mutants looked pretty good visually. They were disgusting looking enough to pass as bad ass. Some of them may have looked too over the top in their looks, but the majority of them looked dead on. They used multiple weapons of death to get the job done, including a big miner axe.

Cast:

Ted Levine (Monk & Joy Ride) played the lovable father of the family. He was a retired cop and was the strong personality of the family. He was by far, my favorite character. Doug was played by Aaron Stanford, Pyro from the X-men series, I didn't like his character too much. I guess that I just could feel for him or relate. I loved that he finally said, "F*ck it!" and went out and became vengeful on the mutant's ass. His character I thought sucked for 75% of the film, and then just went off. Bravo!

I liked Bobby, the little brother, who was played by Dan Byrd. He brought something to his role. Vinessa Shaw, and Emile de Ravin (pictured right) did what they were supposed to do on camera, look good. And they did that pretty well.

I'm sorry, but I don't have too much expectations when it comes to Emilie's acting abilities. I've watched Lost now for...what is it?...four years, and I haven't been impressed so far. The coolest characters outside of Big Bob happened to be the family's twin German Sheppard dogs.

SFX/Gore:

Seventeen deaths in the film. Not bad. About half and half (9 mutant vs. 8 people) when it came to species in the film. There was a bit of unnecessary and over usage of blood in the film, especially in the mutant town scenes.

They might have gone a little over board in that story board. There was some good brutal deaths in the film including my favorite which happened in the opening sequence. The special effects in the film were good, especially on the camper accident and explosion.

TNA:

Lacking. This category didn't really exist. There were no twins in the film. No boobies! None, zilch, zip, nil. What the hell? As I mentioned above, we get two hot chicks to look at, and one sex act or an inferred rape mutant scene...and did I mention...NO BOOBIES!? The closest thing for a guy getting a woody is Emile de Ravin wearing a nice short blue bathing suit. And come to think about it, the other hot chick, Vinessa Shaw (pictured right) looks a lot...man-ish... like Hillary Swank.

Story:

This was a remake off an original idea, but it was a good remake. The movie pace was fine and film/sound quality was top notch. There were a couple of jump factors in the film and they made a moral statement with an underlining tone. We hate government. Don’t set off nukes. They have repercussions, like killer mutant families. We don't need an alien from space named Klaatu with a big killer robot named Gort to bring us to peace and stop nuclear testing and experimenting.

T.Gun Factor:

A pretty good remake. I wasn't a huge fan of the original so I have no personal feelings for this film being remade. In fact, I thought the original sucked. It was too boring and unwatchable in my opinion. This film did well enough to merit a sequel at least. And let's not mention its sequel for a while longer. It wasn't as good. It sucked.

The special effects were good and deaths were brutal. Two key elements to make me happy. I really liked the camper crash and it's subsequent explosion. Visually it looked good on film. Another plus was that the film featured some killer German Sheppard dogs. Killer Dogs!!! How could they go wrong?

Director Alexandre Aja also directed the French film Haute Tension (High Tension – USA title) back in 2003. The film was shot in Morocco, because the 1977’s film location was...is... currently occupied by condominiums. That would be pretty cool to live in a location of an iconic film. Even if the original sucked, it still would be cool.

Bookie actually seen the movie and kind of liked it. Surprisingly something we both agree on. So if we agree on it, then it must be a good flick! And by the way...Killer Dogs Rule!!!

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on March 10, 2006 and made $41.7 million at the Box Office ($15.7 million opening weekend)
-The gas station in the film was built from scratch, and looked so real, that people were stopping by for gas.
-Temperatures on set during filming reached around 120 degrees