The Hills Have Eyes

Nothing says family bonding like blowing off the head of inbred mutants come to attack you and yours.


Dust kicks the screen as the desert makes for a desolate and dehydrating place for a family vacation. The Carters, led by Big Bob (Ted Levine), are out for possibly their last outing as a family unit. Taking on an otherwise handy tip from a petrol station attendant, the family soon find themselves fending for their lives as they're stranded in the hills of desert USA.

Suspense builds from the minute they roll into the station. Subtle and screaming at the same time, the pace of the initial hour is not without pain. The anticipation of the next scene or next horrific image is as great in delivering the breakfast as it is itself. When hell breaks loose and chunks start flying, it's hard not to feel queasy.

The family of mutant freaks hiding out in the hills are what can make projectile vomiting possible in some people. Their appearance is nothing short of the kind polite company warns from staring too deeply into. Swallowing hard is constant and with a dry mouth from the desert air, a hard fought exercise. Their motives and actions just as vile, if not more so, than their abhorrent visage.

Ruby (Laura Ortiz) is a sweet angel, and the only sane member of the mutant family. Even her grotesque appearance is not enough to shine away from the beauty that is inherent. A real gem amidst a see of disgusting freaks (one such being the Big Brain (Desmond Askew) who is something to twist the stomach a few times.)

Frenetic pacing of the action scenes, cutting across the face and with abandon to clarity, intensifies the fear and unknowing of the environment. Creaks in the floorboards of a house on a haunted hill might be a little frightening, but it doesn't compare to the shuffle of dust in a desert home.

The Hills Have Eyes is more than just a cautionary tale for road trippers heeding advice from hillbillies. It's the journey and exploration of a bonding exercise too. The Carters develop from a family barely there in front of each other's faces to one strengthened by the experience of barely surviving against mutants.

A heart-warming tale of horror, family and fighting off mutant freaks by blowing them away before they eat you.

:: The Hills Have Eyes is released nationally on 20 April, 2006.

Soon Van

Published February 2006 at The Program - NSW Film reviews

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