The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

My husband and I watch a horror movie every night of October..."scary movie month"...a thing we copied from my sister-in-law. This was our selection last night, and it made me absolutely sick to my stomach. Instead of putting effort into developing the characters and providing some connection through which the viewer can empathize at least a little with the family of "mutants", a back-pocket cop-out like rape is used. For all the boundaries most horror movies push, most rape survivors don't expect to suddenly be plunged into the horror of our very worst life moment during a flick. I get weary of the use of rape as a cinematic tool to spice up or fill in where writers can't or won't make the effort to do something better, more complex, or that apparently requires more work, and this time...an underage girl....it was absolutely reprehensible. And no, I'm not a "snowflake" and don't walk around being "triggered" by anything and everything in life, but judging from the other reviews here, not many people were appreciative of this scene either. Ruined what could have been a good horror film.

Saw this on a DVD in 2006. Had seen the original on a VHS in the late 80s. Bought the dvds of the remakes. Felt like reviewing the remake as its much better than the original. Alexander Aja (High Tension) did a terrifc job in remaking Wes Cravens 1977 cult movie. Aja managed to greatly improve upon the flawed original in more ways than can be counted. This one is scarier, intense, a visceral experience n more technically improved remake coz of the larger budget and major studio backing. This movie is like a shotgun to your senses. The mood, atmosphere, and music add the perfect touch of edge of your seat creepiness. This is an extremely rare occurrence when a remake is far superior to the original. Cinematographer Maxime Alexandre allows Aja to use the desert to its fullest to create a foreboding landscape. The hills and desert in bright yellows and subdued reds. The Moroccan locations that double for New Mexico r captured perfectly as a waste land totally isolated and foreboding at the same time.

Director Alexandra Aja had a lot riding on his own Hills Have Eyes film and he certainly did not ruin his rep by remaking this film. In the grand scheme of the horror genre, Aja's Hills Have Eyes is one of the best remakes out there. It was true to the original with a very similar plot but it added some different twist and cool scenes along the way. The town scene, which is a unique idea to the nuclear subplot, is very gory and tense. One negative thing compared to the original is how deformed the mutants are. The mutants are too unrealistic looking, with no distinguishable features, the original gave a way better image. Also, the last five seconds is a big let-down, it's low class sometimes how horror movies try to make it interesting and set itself up for a sequel. Still, the 2006 modern version of The Hills Have Eyes is a big hit and one of the better horror films of that decade.

Switchblade romance was already a really stupid film who treat it's audience like idiots and this remake of the Wes Craven classic if less stupid is still quite moronic. Then again it's full of incoherences, it's heavy on symbolism, then again Aja has never been known for subtlety, but if it's the case don't do,symbolism or psychology and just go plain trash! The scene with killings with the American flag doesn't make any sense : the US army is after all responsible for the mutation of the bad guys. In the original the bad guys were characters , here they're just a freak show with no depth at all. The Wes Craven was really inventive in ways of killing people, the dragging of the bad guy with a rope and a car wheel, the python scene. Here it's just violent and pointless. The end is particularly bad, Ruby sacrifices herself, she could have pushed her dad but no she's jumps with him, in the original she saves the young dad using a python, that was bad ass. The bits where the guy is holding his phone to check if there's any network is phony, especially when they do it twice , that actor for that scene only should get an award for worst actor ever . I cannot believe people think that might be a better version than the original , the make up on the villains is so bad you can actually see the plastic, it's plain awful.