Review of The Hills Have Eyes (1977) by Jake A — 02 Jul 2011

To properly appreciate this movie, you first have to put yourself in the proper context of 1977. You can't fully appreciate it if you try to put it in a modern context due to advances in film quality and special effects.

This is a good horror movie due to the feeling of total isolation of the victims in a hell on earth setting.....the barren Nevada desert. There is no food, no water, no cover, no help and "something" is out there. The movie is raw, stripped down to basic survival, which is nasty. There are shootings, stabbings, burnings, maulings, falls and rapes. In the civilized mindset, there are people that think it's possible to always talk your way out of a situation and that it is possible to always avoid violence. Well, any thinking person knows that's BS. When you are the prey, you need to speak the same language as the predator, and that is exactly what our suburban heroes do. IN order to survive, they need to kill the predators. Although there is some inventiveness, it's not a bunch of high-tech MacGyver stuff.

This film offers a lesson in staging real horror. Most horror movies come off as campy and stupid. This one does not. It doesn't just show blood and gore, it shows the psychological aspects of horror as well. For example, after Bobby finds the mutilated body of Beauty, one of their german shepards, his words and actions demonstrate the fear that he is feeling. Also, at the end of the move, it shows Doug experience bloodthirst, something rarely seen in movies, yet a very real thing that someone would experience in his position. This is a must see for any fan of the horror genre.

It's important to note that when this movie was orginally produced, it received the mysterious and intriguing X rating due to the explicit violence. It was eventually edited down to receive only an R rating. Unfortunately because the X rating wasn't trademarked by the MPAA, it was kind of hijacked by the porn industry and was eventually abandoned in favor of the NC-17 rating. Let's face it, NC-17 is not nearly as enticing as a rating of X.

A movie that carries an X rating has a certain mystique around it. I would like to see the MPAA bring back and trademark the X rating.