The Hills Have Planets
Whilst travelling across the Desert heading for California, a family ends up taking a shortcut where upon their car is wrecked and find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. Whilst two of them head off in different directions in search of help the rest remain at the trailer. But it soon becomes apparent that there are strange things going on in the desert when they are attacked by freaks who live in the hills having become mutants due to some sort of Government testing having gone on in the area.
It has been a few years since I watched and reviewed Alexandre Aja's remake of "The Hills Have Eyes" and had to remind myself of whether or not I rated the movie, I thought it was just an okay modern horror movie reliant on in your face blood and violence to get a reaction. At the time of reviewing the remake I hadn't watched Wes Craven's much loved original and I hoped that when I did get to watch it I would have found it to be an improvement on the remake. Unfortunately I didn't and found it to be just another okay horror movie.
Now I have to be totally honest and say that two things spoiled the movie for me. One of those is that it is a product of the 70s and whilst I am sure many would disagree with me who watched this when it was released but the acting in this is poor. It is for me some thing which a lot of 70s horror movies suffer from and it is just a personal thing. The other thing is that having watched the remake first the surprises in this original are not so, well surprising. But again so much of the movie seems to rely on the shock value of these mutants and the way they attack people with the atmosphere of the situation never really grabbing you. The thing is that at times "The Hills Have Eyes" is still shocking but purely for being disgusting in some places.
What this all boils down to is that "The Hills Have Eyes" is one of those movies which probably does have a special place in the hearts and minds of those who watched it when it was released. But for those who watch it now for the first time it doesn't have the same sort of power or enjoyment especially if you have already watched the remake.
