afrodome Man, oh man. I remember 12 years ago when I was a horror-hound junior in High School and the trailer/website for The Hills Have Eyes remake showed up on the internet. Despite my luke-warm response to High Tension (the clunky Lions Gate released a R-Rated english dubbed version left me disappointed) I was excited to say the least. Before I start critiquing, I want to note that I do enjoy a lot of horror remakes; The Thing is arguably one of the best horror films ever made. I found The Ring superior to Ringu, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) was a surprisingly brutal & unsettling experience, The Last House On the Left (2009) shot a dose of family drama into what many were expecting to be a trope-saturated horror flick, and I Spit On Your Grave was a balls-the-wall revenge shocker with no signs of pretentious social commentary. The fact that THHE is a remake is not the problem, it's just a really bad film. The film is so paper thin. The acting is solid, if not lazy at times. The violence is rather overt with no real purpose aside from appeasing to the fans of the vapid Saw franchise. The hillbilly killers look like guys from those high production haunted hayride events; they're costumes, blatantly absurd to look like actual monsters; it feels like you're playing something out of the Mortal Konbat universe. The most 'shocking' parts are nothing other than exploitation in high contrast. The camera work/editing is similar to a heavy metal music video, and the music at one point mimics the National Anthem after an American flag gets stabbed through a skull; I mean, were they serious? Then they try to justify this whole deliberate killfest at attempting to make somencommentary on the injustice of social classes? Kill me now! Horrendous movie.

mwilliamscirca My husband and I watch a horror movie every night of October..."scary movie month"...a thing we copied from my sister-in-law. This was our selection last night, and it made me absolutely sick to my stomach. Instead of putting effort into developing the characters and providing some connection through which the viewer can empathize at least a little with the family of "mutants", a back-pocket cop-out like rape is used. For all the boundaries most horror movies push, most rape survivors don't expect to suddenly be plunged into the horror of our very worst life moment during a flick. I get weary of the use of rape as a cinematic tool to spice up or fill in where writers can't or won't make the effort to do something better, more complex, or that apparently requires more work, and this time...an underage girl....it was absolutely reprehensible. And no, I'm not a "snowflake" and don't walk around being "triggered" by anything and everything in life, but judging from the other reviews here, not many people were appreciative of this scene either. Ruined what could have been a good horror film.

Mike LeMar This is a very cool one except for a flaw early on. Shortly after they crash, the older sister sees a reflection of sunlight up on the distant hill and shows obvious concern and wonder but only for that moment, and then moves on and forgets all about it, which is pointless and unrealistic. She would speak up about it, not just keep it to herself in that moment and then forget about it. Later, the family keeps getting hints of a presence around (dog barking (the mom goes, "Oh...there's...probably just some...rattlesnakes around."), an obscene voice on the radio, and Bobby freaking out about their dad not back yet) and she's STILL forgotten about it. She even snaps at Bobby to get control of him, saying that they're out in the middle of nowhere, and then looks mesmerized with the expression, "Are you serious...?" when he tells her they're not alone. During the part where she's watching the reflection, Bobby startles her as a joke and she gets irritated. What she realistically would then do is tell him to turn around and point it out to him.

Leofwine_draca I've never really been a fan of remakes but I'm pleased to say that this new version of the '70s horror classic is well worth a watch. French director Alexandre Aja (who cut his teeth on the grisly SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE) revels in the bloodshed and pain in this action-packed thriller which is essentially a film of two halves. The first half is slow paced and takes time out to introduce the central characters of the storyline. Camera-work is strong and stylish throughout and great use is made of the eerily desolate desert scenery. Because there's so much going on in the movie, there isn't really a great deal of characterisation; instead the characters of the protagonists are revealed through their actions or in-actions. The film has a 'survival of the fittest' policy whereby the strongest characters find their inner strength while the weaker ones fall by the wayside. Of course there are a couple of exceptions to the rule.The second half of the film begins with a nasty interlude in which mutants invade a caravan, rape a young blonde teenager, suckle a mother and threaten a baby with a gun. This is pretty depraved stuff and not for the squeamish. Afterwards, the last forty minutes of the movie show the human characters fighting back as best they can, and I'm pleased to say this part of the film really hits the mark, as well as in a similar film like HOSTEL. Aaron Stanford, a geeky 20-something, emerges as the film's true hero and the scenes in which he battles the mutants using a combination of luck and skill are tremendously fun. Aja piles on the bloodshed at every stage, with bloody shotgun blasts, axes tearing through flesh, impalings, and all manner of nastiness. The opening shot of a scientist thrown through the air at the end of an axe is a good forerunner to this latter carnage.Special effects in the film are excellent – but then they're by the typically excellent Greg Nicotero, so you'd expect them to be. The mutants are suitably weird looking, although they're nothing we haven't seen before (especially if you're familiar with other horror flicks like WRONG TURN). Robert Joy stands out as the chief mutant, a real psycho of a guy; a natural progression from his deformed character in LAND OF THE DEAD. The other supporting characters are good at being terrified, and I especially liked the sub-plot involving Ted Levine's character, a big tough guy who has the most awful fate imaginable. All in all THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake is entertaining stuff, not really disturbing or as scary as I had heard but instead standing as a great example of the 'survival horror' genre.