Review of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) by Kyle L — 01 Sep 2015

Intense, suspenceful, scary, Ferocious, Extremely gory and bloody, Wild and brutal plus shocking to the max The Hills Have Eyes remake is one of the most terrifying Horror films ever made and when compared to the original 1977 Wes Craven movie this one surpass the original Hills Have Eyes in many ways.

The story of this movie is about a suburban American Family who are traveling to San Diego by car. But soon when the family takes a shortcut from an advice to the gas station man and their car breaks down they soon learn they are not alone as the family soon discovers that they are the target of a group of cannibals who survived the nuclear bombing in that area.

The family must now defend themselves and fight against these mutants in order to survive. I remember the first time watching this film I seriously loved it. It was one of those Horror films that truly frightened me and it still shocked me today since I watched it for the seventh time.

I really enjoyed this movie because it has all the incredible elements of a survival film combined with gritty elements in the mix. What makes The Hills Have Eyes remake an amazing movie is that this film is well paced from start to finish.

I love how the film starts with a solid flow in the first half and I enjoyed how it changes its pace in the next half by going into the grittiest direction and it really becomes gruesome and more violent at the same time.

The other things I like about this film is the impressive camera work by cinematographer Maxim Alexandre, you get to see loads of beautiful shots and sceneries in certain parts of the film that are combined with a sinister and gritty atmosphere (Lots of incredible mountain shots, the scene where we get to see a big crater from the Nuclear bombing) plus the film's settings are eerie and creepy at the same time (The creepy abandoned ghost town and the crater sequence) and it makes the film look more frightening and well shot.

One of the other things that I like about this movie is the characters. All of the characters are so likable and believable in the movie and you get to feel sorry and frightened for them at the horrible situation they are in when they realize that they are not alone and none of them were annoying at all which I truly think is so cool for the movie.

What I also like about this movie is that this film is packed with loads of scenes that are very scary, suspenceful and gritty plus Ferocious as well (The intense opening scene, Big Bob getting attacked by Papa Jupiter and he later on gets burned alive, the attack at the trailer, the intense fight between Doug and Pluto at one of the abandoned houses that was bombed, the exploding trailer scene and the unexpected and suspenceful fight scene in the finale) and the scenes are extremely tense to the max.

The other things that I enjoyed in this movie is that this film is also full of brutal and violent kills. Seriously all of the kills in this movie are shocking, wild, violent and extreme to the max (There's the brutal pick ax to the head, the shocking death of Big Bob, the killing inside the trailer were two girls both get shot one in the head the other in the stomach, the super graphic and gory suicide shotgun blast to the head, the bloody fight at the house between Doug and Pluto where you get to see Doug gets his fingers chopped off before he attacks Pluto with a screwdriver and then Doug gets the upper hand by stabbing him in the throat with a small American flag, the sequence where Cyst gets an Axe to the face, the nasty sequence where the dog Beast rips the throat of Goggle in a gory and horrific way and the brutal scene where Doug shoots Lizard three times with a shotgun.

) and the gore goes all the way up in this film as you see loads or tons of blood gushing out of every kill and the gore and kills are pure shocking to the bones each of them is more disturbing than the last plus The soundtrack composed by Tomandandy is incredible and it really makes the film look grittier than the original.

But what I like about this movie the most is the design of the cannibals in this film. While in the original the cannibals were tame and not scary enough because they look more like homeless people attacking a family.

In this remake the cannibals are Cannibals in this film. They look real from their design and its like you are looking at someone who survived the atomic bombing of an area and each of them is extremely frightening and I think Pluto was the most terrifying out of the cannibals while Lizard is the most ferocious one and the cannibals look much better here than in the later on Wrong Turn films.

Now the acting is amazing. You get to see loads of incredible performances from a stellar casts like Aaron Stanford as Doug Bukowski, Silence Of The Lambs actor Ted Levine as Big Bob, Vinessa Shaw as Doug Bukowski's wife and sister of Brenda and Bobby, Emilie De Ravin as Brenda Carter the youngest sister of Bobby then of course you have the young Dan Bird as Bobby Carter and from the mutants Michael Bailey Smith and Robert Joy deliver incredible yet terrifying and horrific performances as Pluto and Lizard respectively.

Director and Writer Alexandre Aja did an amazing job in remaking Wes Craven's classic film of the same name. This is why I love French Directors because they know what they are doing and they know what audiences are scared of the most and I love how he created something grittier than Craven's original movie and I love the way Alexandre Aja kept the pacing in the proper direction without messing it up and I truly enjoyed the look of this movie thanks to Alexandre Aja this is the best movie he made since Haute Tension and Piranha 3D.

Overall The Hills Have Eyes remake is a ferocious, intense, wild, bloody, gruesome, gory and violent Horror movie that delivers lots of thrills and suspense at the same time. This movie gets a 10.6/10.