Review of The Hills Run Red (2009) by Michael A — 14 Oct 2010

3.6/10.

Since Hollywood can't seem to get it right and very few films of the genre were good even in the past, I decided that maybe "The Hills Run Red", being a direct-to-DVD movie, would be a decent slasher flick. In terms of the genre, it might as well be considered decent. But as an overall film, it's a mess. "The Hills Run Red" is really nothing special. It's just another violent, mindless exercise in sadism; a typical slasher flick but with a little bit of torture thrown in there. It delivers on the gore but really fails to develop as an actual film. It may be a direct-to-video film, but that doesn't mean it can't get a cult status. You probably haven't heard much of "The Hills Run Red" because frankly, it's not too good. It's probably for the best that you continue to be ignorant of the film's existence since it might as well be lost in time. It's a shame because it could have been good, or simply fun to watch. But no luck. The most fun you'll have is laughing at the film's complete arrogance and own pretentious ways. But maybe pretentious isn't the right word. I mean, how can a slasher film be "pretentious"? As a genre film, it can't be. But as a film in general, it certainly has the ability to be so. That is precisely why "The Hills Run Red" is but a mere potential project. It had a lot of potential to be something good although in the end, it's forgettable. It's watchable, but at the same time too sadistic for its own good. And its violent content often gets the best of it, offering little more than another trip to horror movie hell and slasher movie purgatory. It's nothing more than a mixed mess of guts, nudity, blood, and stupidity. It's what we would call a "dead teenager film", and it's basically one of the not-so-unwatchable ones. But still...no movie should be bad. No movie such as this should be, anyways. That's why when all is said and done, "The Hills Run Red" just doesn't work. It's not scary; it's not thrilling...even the gore feels stupid. If you happen to come upon this film in a $1 DVD rack someday, my advice is to skip it. Believe me, it promises a lot more than it can actually deliver.

"The Hills Run Red" is a slasher flick that sort of tries to have a plot. The fact that it actually tries is certainly admirable although when a film is crappy, it's hard to let go of that fact. So the film begins with one man's obsession with a bat-shite crazy horror film that has been lost in time, titled "The Hills Run Red". The director and the cast have thus been lost along with the film, and all that remains are some stills and a movie trailer. The man wants to document him and his pals discovering this very film and proving its existence, and he starts by locating the director's daughter. He helps the daughter overcome her serious drug problems and soon they are on their way to fame. But there's just one catch. These happy campers are not the only ones in the woods. The film's supposedly "fictional" killer, Babyface, is stalking the characters and ready to kill. But why? What of his motives? What of his origins? What of...anything? Soon, the characters discover first hand why such a film was pulled from the cinemas almost instantly. I'll reveal to you that they find the director and are subjected to what seems like endless minutes of sadistic torture. Does that sound remotely fun to you? Before you answer, let me tell you that the film ONLY focuses on the sadism, and none of it is particularly inventive. None of it is done with the least bit of inspiration (well, sadism is never really inspired anyways). So if you're a gore-hog, then watch out, because even though the film has loads of blood, all of it looks pretty damn ugly. The film consistently tries to be disturbing by getting characters to say things such as "That's real blood that they used" and the like. But let me tell you; it's not disturbing. The only thing it is...is stupid. And that's why "The Hills Run Red" is a failed experiment on most fronts. The surprising lack of scares is merely an add-on to the pure cheesiness of the movie, and when it's over you don't have much to think about. If you think about anything, it will be what the film did wrong. Such things would be: "Does Babyface have emotions?" or maybe even "Does it matter"? So many questions remain unanswered that you soon loose the ability to care.

A perfectly incapable cast in a perfectly incapable movie. It was a match made in heaven...or perhaps even hell. What matters is that the cast, like the rest of the film, is uneven. Nobody works together greatly and nobody displays considerable depth. Sophie Monk, for some, may be fun to look at, but that's virtually all there is to here. While not as bad as she usually is, Monk still lacks the ability to do some real acting for once. She displays no intelligence or understanding whatsoever on-screen but seems to be comfortable with both her dialogue and herself. I find that to be less surprising than it should be. Tad Hilgenbrink seems a bit fitting for the horror film although that doesn't make him good. He's an unconvincing and rather uninvolving leading man all and all. William Sadler is kind of decent as a psychotic filmmaker, and the people who managed to play Babyface don't utter a whole lot of words so...kudos to them, right?

Slasher flicks nowadays don't usually look that bad on a visual level. Not even those good old direct-to-video ones, such as "The Hills Run Red". Sadly, I'm only speaking for the cinematography. I'm not speaking for the gore or anything else. The quality of the picture is pretty solid considering this is 2009 release, and the camera angles are often times decent enough to suffice. However, the film lacks in the gore department. Like a lot of modern slashers, the filmmakers have a lot of gore but don't know how to make it look good. If you're going to have ridiculous looking gore in ridiculous amounts, then please go all-out with creative ways to kill of teenagers. "The Hills Run Red" could have been that one film to do that, although alas it is not. The gore actually looks worse here than it should. The dismemberment scenes are hideously dumb, and the torture scenes and horrifically uninspired. What has entertained me about kill scenes in the past is apparently not present in "The Hills Run Red", making it an un-engaging film. Even the score is a little-below-average. Hell, I say it's below-average all the way. That's why when it's all said and done; it doesn't work enough to entertain. It's just another generic, boring, and stupid horror film lacking both scares and wit.

Babyface makes for a decent new killer, although he has the same problems (aside from the psychological stuff) that all horror villains seem to have: A lack of depth, a lack of style...everything from the rise of the slasher flick to now. Babyface isn't well fleshed out even though the film makes attempts to give him a background. In the end, it's really a question of how much time was put into the film. Apparently, not much, and it shows. A good film can often times take either a short amount of time or a long amount of time. Do I care when it comes to this movie? Do I want to get confirmation? No, I don't give a damn. I'm going to forget "The Hills Run Red" for the corny-ass horror flick that it is. Some say that it's disturbing enough to be good, but I disagree. It's difficult to be disturbed by a film when you're laughing at it one moment and scowling at it the next. That's an unholy mix that has been tempered with before, and has been tempered with even further here. More proof that the slasher genre is seriously dead, and even the slightest hint of light can't save it. It's gone. And if they keep making bad films out of it, hopefully for good.