Review of The Hills Have Eyes (1977) by Tyrant719 — 30 May 2021

If it wasn’t for the completely horrible script and direction of said script, this movie would be a classic on the basis of atmosphere alone. But the choice to direct all the females and most of the males to be completely inept morons at the hands of what are ACTUALLY supposed to inept morons is not “artistic” or “creative”.

It’s clearly the result of a director ripping off Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but wanting to differentiate it enough to avoid any plagiarism. In order to do that, they make characters that are completely useless and inept, even contradictory to what the story would have you believe (A veteran cop is spooked so much by a jet that he just speeds uncontrollably with a station wagon hauling an RV trailer).

It works in Nightmare on Elm Street because that’s fantasy horror; it works in Scream because that’s already a satire of those concepts that he helped to popularize to begin with. This is essentially Wes Craven ripping off Texas Chain Saw Massacre in order to get his foot into the industry and start working on the stories he wanted to make.

Don’t forget, Craven has about two actually good movies. He’s not a genius and he’s not as innovative as his fans think. Even this formula wears off in the franchises where it fits. And it wears off QUICKLY; basically by the sequel, if not by the end of the first films.

Wes Craven is way too worried about his premise and his main antagonist to care about the other characters of his movies. They are all just there to interact with his new, cool villains.