Review of The Hills Run Red (2009) by Bryan G — 03 Oct 2009

Don't let the title fool you, director Dave Parker's The Hills Run Red isn't a cheap knock-off of The Hills Have Eyes series. Though it takes some influences from films like that, The Hills Run Red has a few tricks up its sleeve that makes it stand above the usual straight to video horror release. Plus with a smaller cast of characters, of which aren't many of the standard cookie-cutter characters that fill these sorts of films, The Hills Run Red is a film that maintained my interest by putting likable characters into some really horrible situations.

The movie is about movie geek Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrink), who has an obsession with a horror film called The Hills Run Red (hence the title of this film), which was pulled from theaters after only a few showings and no copy of the film has been seen since. With the help of his girlfriend Serina (Janet Montgomery), their friend Lalo (Alex Wyndham) and Alexa (Sophie Monk), the daughter of the man who wrote and directed the film, they set out to find the film's director and hopefully a copy of the film.

I kind of wish the film would have switched the actors playing Tyler and Lalo. Alex Wyndham appears to be more like the movie geek sort of guy, and Tad Hilgenbrink comes off more like that jerk friend. Still, Hilgenbrink, who I haven't really liked so far in his career, finally delivers a performance that I did like. The Captain Ahab-like way he leads his friends into danger was a nice change of pace for this sort of film. Usually it is a group of vacationing friends who get targeted by a killer or killers. This time around, this group is walking right into their dilemma due to their leader's obsession.

Babyface is an interesting new serial killer for the horror world. Sure, he isn't as frightening as someone like Leatherface, but the film handles the character in a way that doesn't make him feel like a carbon copy of other horror icons. The film takes the character seriously, and he takes part in some pretty nice kills. Although, for this sort of film I wish that Babyface was done in a more tongue-in-cheek manner.

Willian Sadler, who plays the director of The Hills Run Red film in this movie, was impressive and frightening in his performance. It was great to see a film like this that had an intelligent villain, instead of some inbred monster. And I also liked Sophie Monk as Alexa. She is a very attractive woman, but her talent as an actress (at least in this film) shows that she wasn't only cast for her face and body. Plus, I like how the film handles this character and the direction that she goes in toward the end of the film.

The special effects in The Hills Run Red are hit and miss. At times, the carnage is rather satisfying to watch and creative in certain aspects. But at other times, the film tries to outdo its limitations. This results in the film having a lot of death scenes that look fake, and containing that extremely bright looking CGI blood that I hate so much. Still, there were some moments in this film that shocked me, and I liked that.

The Hills Run Red is a horror film that I enjoyed, but I expect a lot of horror fans probably won't feel the same. If it were a little more like Hatchet, I think I would have enjoyed this one a little more. But this is more of a traditional slasher horror experience, and it doesn't have any reservations with being that sort of film. With all of its mayhem, exposed boobies and the gallons of blood contained within, The Hills Run Red ended up being worth the wait for me.