"That's a nice-a donut."

Friday, July 28, 2006

The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Continuing the trend of remaking every horror film ever made, from the classics to the more obscure genre pictures, is The Hills Have Eyes - a remake of one of horror legend Wes Craven's first films. Director Alexandre Aja (High Tension) had his eyes set on duplicating the prior success of another horror classic remake in Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead by infusing the modern update with more style, more blood and gore, and more fun.

The story begins as a typical American family on a road trip pulls into a gas station somewhere in the middle of New Mexico. The group includes dad Bob (Ted Levine) and mom Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan), daughter Lynn (Vinessa Shaw), her "liberal" husband Doug (Aaron Stanford) and their baby, younger daughter Brenda (Emilie de Ravin), son Bobby (Dan Byrd), and the dog. The creepy gas station attendant tips them about a short cut, but this has disastrous consequences. As it turns out, this secluded desert area was once used by the U.S. government for secret nuclear testing between 1945 and 1962 (which we are told at the very beginning) which resulted in a town full of grossly deformed and mutated humans. And, well, these creatures have a taste for other people. This soon results in a bloody massacre, and the remaining survivors must fight for their lives with little chance of being saved.

The lonely desert setting plays a vital element in the story, and Aja knows this. He stylishly highlights the barren landscape with its dirty tans, browns, yellows, and oranges coming directly into focus. The film effortlessly moves from one scene to another, and manages the directional shift about half way through very capably.

The acting obviously isn't the attraction of the movie, and it doesn't need to be. The actors mostly just need to scream, cry and shout a lot, and they do well enough at that. But there is of course the requisite stupidity by the characters; if there were a staircase in the middle of the desert, one of them would have undoubtedly gone up it. Another Hollywood trademark is that one of the demented mutants (i.e., a bad guy) is treated sympathetically.

One thing that does stretch credibility of the plot (though perhaps owing to their origins) is that several of the mutants, and at least one of the family members, have a remarkably high tolerance for pain and testing the human limits of physical suffering. Let's put it this way: they manage to make Die Hard's Karl (the main henchman of Hans Gruber) and his multiple comebacks appear to be a spineless wimp in comparison. Sure, it may add a tiny bit more suspense, but it just ends up being somewhat laughable. I also could have done without a short scene where an older, crippled mutant tries to explain why they are the way they are and that, basically, it's all everyone else's fault.

Other than that though, there are few laughs and many scares, with some of the violence being rather unsettling - especially true if you aren't typically a horror aficionado. And despite some of the small flaws or the fact that it is very violent at times (which is certainly a good thing to many horror fans), for the most part it succeeds and becomes a worthy edition to the growing resurgence in horror of the last few years.

The Verdict: B-.

Michael Bentley 2:18 PM

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