The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Fans of Wes Craven's more recent major studio work (the Scream series) may be put off by the low-budget griminess of his sophomore feature, The Hills Have Eyes, but the director's longtime supporters and aficionados of '70s horror will be riveted by this unsettling culture clash fable. Originally titled Blood Relations, Hills strands a suburban family (which includes E.T.'s Dee Wallace Stone and future documentarian Robert Houston) in the desert and pits them against a clan of inbred cannibals. The resourceful killer brood quickly decimates the outsiders' numbers, forcing the survivors to fight back with equally savage means. Like Craven's debut, Last House on the Left, Hills is a relentlessly tense film which demolishes numerous societal taboos (fratricide and infant kidnapping, for starters), but it also delivers a powerful subtext about family and the fine line between civilization and animal behavior amidst the mayhem. Highly recommended for Craven completists and fans of no-holds-barred horror. --Paul Gaita Amazon.com

Thriller/ Suspence

This movie is a great thriller/suspence filled one.

Not as ''scary'' or gorey as thought.

Very good - 2 thumbs up! April 27, 2008

Classic Craven

To this day, The Hills Have Eyes remains one of Wes Craven's more notable films as well as establishing its place as a horror classic in general. Although the plot is a tad reminiscient of Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hills is still a solid piece of low budget horror.

Opening with some great eerie footage of the isolated desert hills, we meet the California bound Carter family as they make a stop at a dilapidated gas station. Following an ill advised shortcut, they end up in a car crash stranded deep in the outlying desert, but more importantly in the "air force testing range" where a family of deranged cannibalistic savages dwells. Using their knowledge of the desert and some guerilla warfare-like tactics, the mutant tribe begins exterminating the Carters one by one until a select few remain in the struggle for survival. The remaining family members band together to exact their revenge on the cannibals as well as escape the desert with their lives.

Hills really utilizes the creepy desert scenery to create an unsettling vibe as well as imposing feelings of unfamiliarity, helplessness, and simply being alone. As a person who likes a horror film with atmosphere often more than one with gore, Hills is a great example of how important a creepy vibe can play into a movie. I feel the film has aged to a point to where it would not offend a frequent horror-goer, but at the same it is never boring and certainly interesting enough storywise to keep you entertained. Also that's not to say that there isn't some good gory content present afterall, we have a moderate amount of bloodletting here as well as a gruesome death by burning, and a memorable scene with a caged parakeet.

The characters are all generally well acted and likable, the Carters and the cannibals alike featuring some great performances from Dee Wallace, James Whitworth and of course Michael Berryman as Pluto. I feel that some of the film's attributes were better demonstrated in the recent remake such as the back story it provided on the cannibals, which was rather weak in this original, but we'll save that for another review. All in all The Hills Have Eyes is a cool little movie that should be in every horror fan's library, check this one out. April 12, 2008

A Terrible Classic

This is a genuinely bad movie that only true horror buffs will appreciate. It's definitely a classic of the genre, but that doesn't mean it's not a turd. A classic turd is still a turd.
Bad actors, bad dialogue, bad pacing, bad music, bad production values, bad direction, just...plain...bad...
March 21, 2008

Good

Good B movie is all it is. Don't expect a lot out of it. January 13, 2008

They're watching you

In Wes Craven's 1977 "The Hills Have Eyes", a nice clean cut family are driving cross country but become stranded in the southwestern desert. The family is besieged by another `wild' family and must become as savage as the killers in order to survive.

The idea of civilization vs. the wild is obvious in the way the two families are presented. One thing, very subtle, was Craven's takes on religion; the nice family is paying lip service to Christian morals (like the father's exasperation as the family prays), then compare that to the wild family naming themselves after the pagan gods of the Romans (i.e. Jupiter and Pluto). It was also an interesting role reversal at the end when the civilized family became just as ruthless as their attackers. (This theme was also explored in Craven's previous film "Last House on the Left", but I thought it was handled better here.)

This film goes more on emotion and pure terror and suspense than on really good acting. The only really recognizable face that modern audiences may know is Dee Wallace-Stone (remember the mother in "E.T.-The Extraterrestrial"). She did ok as the young mother. The only real stand out performance is horror genre legend Michael Berryman as Pluto. He has a misshapen head and weird, wild look that is all real, no make-up involved. Berryman and James Whitworth (as Jupiter) are feral and menace incarnate; the embodiment of barbaric aggression.

"The Hills Have Eyes" is still hard to sit through as far as the violence goes, even by today's standards. Some movies today may be gorier, but it is the attitude toward violence that makes it nasty and unbearable. Cannibalism, rape, torture, and brutal, gruesome murders are commonplace through out this grim film, which was shot on gritty 16mm camera, adding to the rawness of the overall ambiance.

Wes Craven really came into his own by now, and it shows how much he has learned by now. Some people may not like this movie because it was unsettling. I say that this is a virtue of the film. September 17, 2007

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