The Hills Have Eyes

The Hills Have Eyes remake is fucking incredible, and it demolishes the original in every way possible. This is the movie that introduced Alexandre Aja to American audience and proved once and for all that outside of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Wes Craven's movie properties are generally better as remakes. The movie stars Aaron Stanford, Ted Levine, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Vinessa Shaw, Kathleen Quinlan, and Billy Drago. This was one of the first in a long string of remakes in Hollywood and it remains one of the best to date. In my opinion it easily beats The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, and Halloween in the remake category.

The Hills Have Eyes tells the story of a family on their way to San Diego for their summer vacation. On their way they deviate from the highway and decide to take some "scenic" back roads that are supposed to be a shortcut. Unbeknownst to them, there is a pack of bloodthirsty mutants residing in the hills around the road they are traveling. Big Bob (Ted Levine) is the head of the family and when the car breaks down he decides to look for help in one direction while his son-in-law Doug goes for help on foot in the other direction.  Big Bob goes missing and that is when the real fun of the movie begins and the mutants begin to brutally attack the family.

This is one of the most graphic movies that you will ever see come out of Hollywood. Most mainstream horror movies tend to shy away from over the top gore these days but this movie embraces it. it also helps when you have one f the best directors in horror movies directing your movie in Alexandre Aja. The cast also does an awesome job with Aaron Stanford being the standout of the movie. Most of the action focuses on him trying to find his kidnapped daughter and seeing him evolve from this meek man to this rabid father that will do anything to save his child is just staggering to watch. He gets in a fight with one of the mutants and just gets brutalized for 90% of the fight and then he realizes that he is smarter than the mutants and finally starts to think instead of just reacting. He takes apart quite a few mutants in horrific fashion and it is glorious to watch. This has become a staple in my collection when I want to see a great gorefest.

This is the best of the horror movie remakes in my personal opinion. The story, acting, and gore are all top notch when compared to any other horror movie. The direction by Aja is just impeccable and this is one of those horror movies that you really can believe because I could see a bunch of psychos picking people off in remote areas. Go see this movie as soon as possible, this is what a modern horror movie strives to be, brutal and scary. This takes all of the great things that the original did and cranks them up to 11, just what a remake is supposed to do. GO. SEE. THIS. NOW.