Review of The Hills Have Eyes (1977) by Jj M — 02 Nov 2012

A nasty skidmark on the history of horror film but unfortunately a significant one. The worst thing that Wes Craven perpertrated in the late seventies was to excite the uglier sides of people's imagination just enough to allow this genre of uneducated depravity to slip into the mainstream. I like horror films, don't get me wrong. Without sounding condescending, I think it's all about how it's managed and for what reasons. I think Carpenter was clever in the eighties with his exploration into the genre but Craven just appears to be an unintelligent and uncreative exploiter of audiences...and yet he went on to become hugely successful. No, it doesn't bug me at all!!!

The two most noticable and perplexing devices utilised in this film were the completely bonkers idea that somehow these 'eyes' were living a subsistent cave-dwelling existence somewhere in the Californian desert in the seventies...in the seventies...in California. Whatever about them being a horrific product of radioactivity (which I believe is a pretty reasonable and interesting idea actually). Then there's the unexplained genius of the German Shepherd, which the family can count their lucky stars they brought along with them (well, most of them anyway). This should be called Rin Tin Tin: The Horror Story! A bag of shite!!!