THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006)

When people think of horror movie directors, names that most often spring to mind are George A. Romero, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven. However, there are a few other top directors who operate very successfully in the horror game such as Stuart Gordon and some other lesser known names that hardcore fright fans adore, but there really hasn't been anyone new and truly exciting to come along in a while. Saw director James Wan is fresh but overrated, but director Darren Lynn Bousman of the far superior Saw II shows promise. Eli Roth has been severely over hyped and hasn't made a movie yet that fully justifies this media circus. Director Greg McLean is one to watch out for with his visceral Wolf Creek being one of the best horror films to come out in years. Enter Alexandre Aja. Aja made an excellent mainstream debut with his murky, moody, splatter-filled French slasher Switchblade Romance (aka Haute Tension) and now he's crafted an even better film with The Hills Have Eyes remake.
Wes Craven's original The Hills Have Eyes from 1977 is a good horror movie, but it failed to reach the status of timely classics such as The Exorcist, The Shining, Halloween or The Evil Dead to name but a few. It is one of those movies that is shocking the first time you see it, especially if you're young. I was about 11 when I first saw it and found it pretty intense. Over time though it has lost some of it's edge and, although it's still good fun, there was a great deal of room for improvement, so I didn't mind much when a remake was announced. Let me state for the record that I am completely against remakes for Halloween and The Evil Dead which are both supposedly in the works. It is pointless to try and recreate or re-imagine true classics, especially when there are only a handful of directors who could pull it off, none of whom will be hired to do so either. The Hills Have Eyes remake, however, just takes the basic story of the original and ups the ante in almost every facet. It's got more blood, gore, and guts. It's got more style and it's directed better. And it's just more insane and more fun to watch than the original. A film worthy of a remake.

We all know the story by now. A family gets trapped in a remote area of the desert far away from civilasation. Eventually some insane mutated hillbillies start to prey on the poor, helpless family. One of the charms of the original was actor Michael Berryman's performance as the monstrous Pluto. Berryman is one of a kind and there really is no one who can match his screen presence in this remake. That said, the cast is still very good and effective. Robert Joy in particular is fantastic as the insanely evil Lizard. His performance is completely over-the-top in a good, wicked sort of way. Watch him in Land Of The Dead where he plays a subdued, sad good guy and then watch this where he's completely off his rocker and you'll get a good grasp on what an underrated talent he is. Dan Byrd, Vinessa Shaw, and Emilie de Ravin are all very good as the 3 siblings under siege by our mutant hill dwelling psychos. Kathleen Quinlan has a small effective role as the hippy turned conservative mom of the kids. Ted Levine, best known for his awesome portrayal of serial killer Buffalo Bill in The Silence Of The Lambs, does a very good job playing the straight-laced gun toting father Big Bob. The tension between Big Bob and Aaron Stanford's Doug makes for an interesting little side story in the film. Easygoing Doug, who Standford does an excellent job with, is married to Bob's oldest daughter and Doug is obviously a liberal democrat type character while Bob is this gruff Republican, former law officer. So there are some light political elements in that part of the story that are pretty amusing.
Aja continues his love of blood and gore by employing some excellent makeup and splatter effects which are a key element within the film. The films mutants are an area around which Aja and his team could apply some creativity and the final results are completely repulsive, in a good way. Aja has interpreted Craven's 1970's grindhouse ambience very effectively and has ensured that the mix between bleached out desert wasteland and gritty terror remains a potent cocktail of tension through out. In one particular scene, Doug is trapped in a storage container filled with dead bodies and assorted body parts, it's pretty gruesome stuff but a great example of the horrors which can be expected.

Alexandre Aja's style is unique and effective throughout. Even the opening credits are gruesome as we see deformed, mutated babies and other sickening sites. The look of the film is bleak and pessimistic, but it's beautiful in a dark and twisted way as well. However, the film does display a few niggling problems along the way, such as a very patchy musical score which perfectly fits the horrific scenes but when a hero character has a moment of triumph the music goes into this grandly over-the-top hero mode that topples the carefully constructed ambience. Believability also becomes a problem towards the end of the film where we see characters who should be easy pickings for the mutants, managing to escape due to an uncharacteristic slow down or mistake. A couple of annoying horror cliches spring up their ugly deformed faces. Remember the one cliche where the hero in a horror movie puts down his or her weapon after they've dispatched the monster, or so they think? I remember that cliche because I've seen it a billion times before. It pissed me off the first time I saw it and it pisses me off more and more every time I see it. Just stop with that one already. Enough is enough. That said, this is still a top draw horror movie. Alexandre Aja now has 2 fine horror films under his belt and is fast proving to be one of those names that we associate with effective and entertaining horror movies. Aja's style may be bleak, dark and brutal, but his future looks to be pretty bright and sunny.