In the 1950s, atomic testing was done in the desert of New Mexico and some people who lived there refused to leave and were caught in the nuclear explosions. The people became mutated sub-humans that was no longer part of society and lived in the mountains till present day. The Carters, an American family on their way to California takes a shortcut through the desert but their vehicle's tires blow and the family finds themselves stuck there. Soon they discover that they are not alone, and that there are something horrible living in those mountains, something they'll soon be aware of.
This is exactly what a remake should be like. You take a movie that is good and then you improve it and make it even better. You stick with what the old movie had, but you also have to add something new, whatever it might be. Because otherwise, what's the point of remaking movies at all? Alexandre Aja sure knows how to do it, and having created the great Haute Tension before, I had complete faith in him that he would deliver with 'Hills' as well, and he sure did. In the huge flood of remakes that come out these days, it's easy to get sick of the whole scene, but once in a while something good actually comes out of it and manages to top the original movie as well, like Dawn of the Dead and now Hills.
It seems as Hollywood has not too many ideas these days so they are willing to do remakes on anything they can get their hands on. But I think that the movie you wanna remake has to be a good movie originally. Take The Fog for instance which is an ok flick but really nothing special, so no reason to remake that or The Amityville Horror etc. Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes was a good movie to begin with and I'm a big fan of the original, but honestly, this new remake is much better. It has everything the original version had, only that it has more, it's more raw, more intense and looks f**kin awesome to say the least.
The acting is great, I couldn't find one character that I didn't care for (I'm talking about the Carter family here). This is a normal family that I guess a lot of people can relate to, and that's what makes it even harder to see when they get tortured and terrorized by these mutated cannibals. One thing that really hit me when watched The Hills Have Eyes was that you know exactly what's gonna happen. You know that this family will have to face the people in the hills, and you know that some of them will die and get tortured for sure. Still, when it actually happens it comes like a shock, and that's pretty amazing when you think about it.
Since this family is easy to relate to, it also hurts more to see what they have to suffer through. There's no real character development at all and we don't really get any background info on the family characters. So you don't know them, but still it hurts to see them get hurt. It's good and bad at the same time, but with the bad actually being something good as well since you are watching a horror film. And that's what makes this movie so great, the family members are easy to root for, you know what's gonna go down but still you're surprised when it actually happens. It's just very cool.
Also the feeling of the 70's has been captured perfectly and gives the movie a great overall feel. Add to that a good score, plus hearing California Dreaming that really fits into the whole thing perfectly. The gore is there for sure, but never too much so it becomes something else. It's serious gore and it's a serious movie. The suspense is delivered perfectly and the movie carries so much tension it at times feels like you can cut through it.
I'm happy to have seen it. The Hills remake was a great flick with great directing, a good score, great acting and that has so much tension to offer. It's easy to get drawn into the movie and sit on the edge of your seat till the very end. It's not scary in the way that'll make you jump, it's more that it's at times very gruesome, nasty and it's hard having to see this family having to go through so much shit. Still it's a great flick and if you're a horror fan, this is surely a must see.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Alexandre Aja
WRITING CREDITS: Wes Craven, Alexandre Aja
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Tom Bower, Ted Levine, Emilie de Ravin
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 107 min
RATING: 9/10
Hills Have Eyes, The Website/IMDB Click here
Hills Have Eyes, The Trailer Click here
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