The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

June 8, 2024 11:51 AM

[TRAILER] Based on Wes Craven's 1977 original, The Hills Have Eyes is the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone. Miles from nowhere, the Carter family soon realizes the seemingly uninhabited wasteland is actually the breeding ground of a blood-thirsty mutant family...and they are the prey.

Starring Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Robert Joy, Ted Levine.

Directed by Alexandre Aja. Screenplay by Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, based on the original screenplay and film by Wes Craven. Produced by Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena, Peter Locke for Craven-Maddalena Films/Fox Searchlight. Cinematography by Maxime Alexandre. Edited by Cainan Baxter. Music by tomandandy.

52% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

Please imagine my surprised face when I tell you I watched this and the original within a week of each other, I hate remakes, I love Wes Craven, and I nevertheless think this is far, far superior.

Mean-spirited and nasty in a way that is a real ride. Considering this writing team also did High Tension, maybe I should be less surprised.

This isn't some Platinum Dunes bullshit where they made a crass, stupid retread of the original. This feels more like Craven knew exactly what the shortcomings in his original were, how he'd made it before he was at the top of his game. And so, he hired a team at the top of their game and gave them the license and the budget to blow his original away.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:52 AM on June 8 [4 favorites]

This does have the trigger warnings that come along with 2006 going hard, though. Sexual violence, harm to animals, ableism.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:04 PM on June 8

Please imagine my surprised face when I tell you I watched this and the original within a week of each other, I hate remakes, I love Wes Craven, and I nevertheless think this is far, far superior.

To be fair, the orignal is an early work and has a lot of the old school drive-in vibe (which I really like) but it really isn't as an accomplished film as Wes Craven's later work. But saying that, Aja was totally on fire after his previous film Haute Tension and I think that skill & inspiration carries forward in this one (tho I think he begins to peter out after this). Very watchable. On a side note. the sequel to this I've never seen nor have I ever heard good things about but it does have, what I think, is a better than average trailer.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:14 PM on June 8 [1 favorite]

I know Haute Tension can be polarising in some crowds (apparently Metafilter based on that Fanfare post) but I do think it is an accomplished work and it carries on in this film. It can be hard to bring something new to the horror genre that doesn't come off entirely stupid or derivative.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:20 PM on June 8

I remember thinking the politics of this film were a bit on the thuddingly obvious side, but I wonder if that aspect has aged well; it's hard to get more thuddingly obvious than President Donald J. Trump, as a plot point. Maybe the dude getting the sharp stick with the mini American flag on it jammed through his skull seems subtle now.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:20 PM on June 8 [1 favorite]