Dir. Alexandre Aja, 2006, US, 107mins
Cast: Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Robert Joy, Ted Levine, Desmond Askew
Review by Kevin Holmes
Hmmm, the remake, Hollywood’s very own sleight of hand. While we’re being either dazzled by its ingenuity or appalled and outraged by its barbarous mutilation, Hollywood has its hand in our pockets and is busily procuring from us our hard earned cash. This is pretty much the same for any film, admittedly, but the remake succinctly and explicitly raises this point because if it’s bad, we feel not only like we’ve just wasted eight quid, but also that a film we treasured and held dear to our hearts has been mauled and tainted for ever. And we live with the fact that we helped line the very pockets of those that perpetrated this most heinous and despicable of filmic crimes.
Which brings me to The Hills Have Eyes. The original was fun, dark, brutal, playful, and, truly shocking. A crucified, burning patriarch, a mother and daughter shot dead, a kick ass mutt called Beast, some baby eating country folk, Michael Berryman, an axe-wielding heroine…it broke taboos like they were a cannibalistic mutants skull and it was only 1977! Can that be bettered? Well, no, I don’t think it can and by the look of this movie, director Aja and partner in crime Grégory Levasseur (fellow scriptwriter), seem to agree.
The film’s pretty much a by the numbers remake, think Gus Van Sant and Psycho, but not quite shot for shot. Scenes are redone exactly like the original and some of the dialogue is pure ‘cut out and paste’ (Bobby’s ‘rattle-snake and Freud’ line is one example). Almost every little detail is copied, their movements, the pacing, even when poor old Bob’s charred bulk is hosed down and left lying there, with smoke drifting from his scorched mouth. This doesn’t make the film bad per se, but it doesn’t improve on or bring anything to the original. There are some gruesome extra scenes added and the reason behind the mutations is given a new, if somewhat dated and pointless angle, but what disappoints is that the film doesn’t hold out on its initial adrenalin-fuelled promise. It begins very encouragingly, with an unnerving opening credit sequence and a couple of ferocious post-credit poundings that leave the viewer flared up and ready for some action. But the movie leaves you short changed and while there’s plenty of blood and some gory, grisly deaths, it never really catches that initial momentum, which seems to vanish, probably running off into the New Mexican hills to join the rest of the freaks, where the action is plentiful.
The direction is slick and competent and the gruesome deaths do liven things up a little. Axes penetrating mutated skulls, screwdrivers stabbing howling jugulars, baseball bats bludgeoning bloated craniums and that’s just the one! But there’s not enough to make the trip worthwhile. If you haven’t seen the original (and I do apologise as I’ve given quite a lot away) or heard anything about it, then you may enjoy this and it might be worth checking out, but it’s still an inferior film and not a patch on some of the other horror remakes, like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead or John Carpenter’s seminal The Thing.
Both the film’s original producers, Wes Craven and Peter Locke, are among those credited with producing this remake. Perhaps with these two heavy-breathing down their necks Aja and Levasseur were too afraid to tamper too much with the original. They don’t want to find themselves alone, screaming, burning alive in the middle of the New Mexican desert after all. The film is more homage, than remake, more machine now than man and it just makes it all a bit pointless and begs the question, one which our terrified protagonists must also surely ask. Sweet merciful God, WHY?
Discuss this film here
Fox Home Entertainment have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of The Hills Have Eyes for 26th June 2006 priced at £19.99.
Featuring additional footage not seen in the cinema (making this the ‘Uncut’ version) features include:
- 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
- English DD5.1 Surround
- English subtitles (Film + Extras)
- Commentary by Director Alexandre Aja, Writer Gregory Levasseur and Producer Marianne Maddalena
- Commentary by Producers Wes Craven and Peter Locke
- Surviving the Hills: Making of "The Hills Have Eyes" (50mins)
- Music Video: "Leave the Broken Hearts" by The Finalist
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