Review of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) by Drew C — 10 Mar 2013
Alexandre Aja's remake of Wes Cravens 70's horror classic is a superior film in every way, the scope is bigger for starters, with it's expansive desert setting and richly created grim world (especially the nuclear town) I think this can legitimately be called an epic horror film, and there are strong characters acted very, very well by the cast who you care about, i.
E that rarest of things in a horror movie, proper characters, this family unit feel real and well defined and it's utterly soul crushing when shit starts to go south for them. This feels like a proper film, not just a horror flick but a survival movie, an action/suspense thriller and even a western, showing an almost mini war showdown between the human family and the mutant clan in the desert.
Aja shows a potential masters touch to his carefully built suspense, the mannered pace before stuff goes down, the sense of actual shock and raw horror, the superbly executed action and thriller elements.
It's also one of the most puishingly raw and brutalising cinematic experiences of the noughties, maybee even too much so for most mainstream audiences, this is bleak, vicious stuff, but for hardcore horror fans this will be heaven.
A masterpiece of modern horror cinema.
This review of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) was written by Drew C on 10 Mar 2013.
The Hills Have Eyes has generally received mixed reviews.
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