The Hills Have Eyes Reviewed by: Philip "Pocket Squirrel" Wesley Presented by: Anchor Bay/MANGA Entertainment Released: 2006 Format: UMD Rating: R Genre: Horror Quick Opinion: Own if you love older horror films. **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: I admit that I rather enjoy the horror movie genre. Well, to a certain extent. I actually find that I prefer horror films where the damage done is shocking or disturbing in some way. I like it when a good horror film makes you feel claustrophobic or somewhat upset by the outcome of the horrorific event. I also prefer a horror movie to have a reasonable amount of purely gruesome moments. That said, I have started to lean toward Japanese and Korean horror films as of lately. Not that I do not like the American additions; but something about American horror movies feels over polished or expected these days. I like movies with a little bit of just nastiness grit to them. If you are going to be a horror movie, it is okay to be a little sexy, or to kill off your main characters. The good people do not always have to win. Also, I like it when the characters are not just meatbags waiting to be slaughtered by random generic monster number seven. That said, the offering for dinner today is: The Hills Have Eyes. This is one of Wes Craven's first films. People know Wes Craven from Scream and a few of his other films. There is a remake of this film coming out and its release on the PSP is both timely and needed. Let us see if this movie has aged well, or if it was worth it to begin with. **************************************************************************** *TECHNICAL DETAILS* EXTRAS: There are no extras in this release at all. The movie just has the "Play Movie" option and that is all. A bit of a missed opportunity as I would definately have loved a director's commentary or at least a trailer for other movies in the genre or for the remake. MUSIC/SOUND: The music and sound are fine. Music is reasonably sparse and does well to enhance the "stuck in the desert" feel that the movie has. One of the odd audio errors that had to do with one of the lines is still intact on this print and that works fine. Through headphones the sound is fine and every little scream of terror, or explosion is reasonably audible. One thing I noticed about the movie is the lack of squemish sound effects. There are some movies -for example Ichi The Killer or Suicide Club- that have some of the most "Oh My God, OUCH" special effects. The Hills Have Eyes is not one of those movies. The film almost feels like an "on the cheap" production in the same way that El Mariachi does. Maybe it might be because the film is pretty old? Well, it works for the movie. I think the impact of the film could have been helped by some nastier sound effects. VISUALS: Wes Craven found some of the best looking desertscapes to film his movie in. Aside from some age related errors, this film looks reasonably sharp and non-muddy on the PSP screen. Since there is a lot of action at night time in this movie, the inherent inability of the PSP to do proper black levels is not the fault of the UMD. On a technical standard, the film does not feel high defination or even close to being remastered as well as some films. It is not the best looking UMD, nor is it far from the worst. In short, the visuals are just fine and I have to dig pretty deep to complain about them. Liked: The desertscapes in this movie lend themselves to hitting that pause button. For such an old movie, The Hills Have Eyes has aged fairly well in the visual aspect. Hated: The terrible fashion sense of the main "heroic" characters is coupled with a lack of squeamish sound effects, and extras. I would have rather wanted a few extras. **************************************************************************** *PERSONAL OPINION* POSITIVE: The plot of the movie is a bit like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in that it involves a family getting lost and being hunted by cannibalistic evil people. The family is generally irritating; but at least they attempt to fight back in a competent way. They stray off the road and end up out of gas, nearly out of ammo, and out of luck. The cannibal family is far more entertaining than the milquetoast family victims. There is a bit of uncomfortable bits that put a young baby in peril; but I found myself hoping the cannibals would eat the baby or something shocking like that. Not sure if that was what Wes Craven wanted his audience to think or not. The cannibals are a fairly clever lot in a Deliverance sort of way. In particular, the villan Pluto (played by the ever so perfect Michael Berryman) is fantastic in this. The leader of our merry band of poor, putrid people eaters is played by James Whitworth. One of my favorite parts of the film is where he's talking to the corpse of one of the characters and is chiding the corpse for being rich and middle class. Who knew that all hurtful, murderous cannibals were liberals! Wes Craven obviously gave the villans the most attention as they have some really nice lines. In a way, it makes me think of the last twenty minutes of the original Stepford Wives, where you just HAVE to cheer the bad people on as everything unravels for the "good people." The movie is pretty damn cool for being made in 1977. Not as brutal as it could and should have been; but it works just the same. The plot may have been a little stale; because it came out while similar movies were still popular and it had to live under the shadow of Tobe Hooper's immortal addition to the slasher horror genre. But it works for Wes Craven on a huge majority of levels. Sadly, I feel he pulled some punches here and there. The movie could have used some more shock. The villans are extremely hostile though and it helps the movie immensely. Berryman and Whitworth just take this movie and put it into a level it would never had ascended to on its own. A few reasonable frights here and there in a good example of how to make a low budget horror movie. NEGATIVE: Well, the family annoyed me and the ending of the movie is more of a discussion point than an ending. Sadly, the pacing in the film is far from perfect and I feel that the movie should have pushed a bit further than it did. That said, this is not a movie for casual movie watchers. You have to be a fan of horror movies to appreciate it. **************************************************************************** Improve: I would like to see a remaster of the film with some commentary added to it. RIYL: Avoid the sequel. If the remake is as good as this one, then people who like horror films will be in for a treat. **************************************************************************** Final Words: "You're fat... fat and juicy." This movie is indeed a fairly juicy horror film and the UMD can be obtained for a reasonable price. If you think of yourself as a horror movie collector, you should definately pick this one up. While the lack of extras is a bit disappointing, the movie makes up for it. If you are in the habit of buying PSP UMDs, you pretty much buy them for the movie as it is. The Hills Have Eyes is a worthy purchase for some old school horror. It also has one of the best movie names I have seen in a while. I mean, THE HILLS HAVE EYES is a brilliant title for a movie. See that hideously evil looking guy on the cover? That is Berryman and he is one of the main reasons that you should pick this up. Buy some headphones, pop it into your PSP and sit back and watch this movie if the remake bores you to death in the theatre. **************************************************************************** Score Final Score: 89% Final Grade: B+ **************************************************************************** SECRETS: None.