THE HILLS HAVE EYES

US, 2006, 107 minutes, Colour.
Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Robert Joy, Ted Levine, Tom Bower.
Directed by Alexandre Aja.

A remake of one of Wes Craven’s earliest horror films and something of a classic these days. Craven has co-produced this remake and chosen a French director, Alexandre Aja (Haute Coupure/Switchblade Romance) who has co-written the screenplay.

This one is much better than the similar Texas Massacre derivatives where interchangeable afternoon soap-opera look-alikes spend a lot of time bickering and are picked of in grisly fashion one after the other. This is more the thinking-audiences terror gorefest!

There are several reasons for this. The characters are far better drawn than usual. They are a family celebrating the parents’ silver anniversary, driving cross-country. They do bicker but they seem much more real and we get to know them better. When the nightmare starts, they elicit some sympathy. The other quality is the bigger-budget vivid photography of New Mexico locations – they are, in fact, in Morocco! The makers are obviously fascinated by their desert and mountainscapes. Then it all turns murderously sinister which may be too much for many audiences - all well staged and edited for maximum effect.

During the credits there is a long collage of reportage about the nuclear tests in New Mexico from 1947 to the 1970s. Later dialogue reinforces this with accusations by the mutants living in an abandoned test town: that mainstream America and authorities have made these monsters what they are. This means that there is an invitation to interpret all this allegorically: what authorities and the military do to its own citizens and the consequences. The film gets our adrenalin pumping as the survivors of the family defend themselves aggressively and gruesomely. While the ending is upbeat and seems to glorify self-defence for family values, there is one final image which puts a more cynical perspective on the proceedings, remaining critical of government and agencies.

1.The status of the original as a classic? Of horror? Of terror? A film of the 70s? The value of a remake? The new perspective of the remake? Its quality and potential classic status?

2.The work of Wes Craven, writer-director? Nightmares, horror and terror? Grisly films? Catharsis from the experience of horror?

3.The French perspective of the writer-director? Reinterpreting an American genre?

4.The New Mexico settings, the use of Morocco locations? The film as lovingly photographed, the vividness of the landscapes, the desert, the hills? The musical score, atmospheric?

5.The credits sequence: the collage of information about the nuclear tests in New Mexico, the headlines, the visuals of the bombs exploding, people’s reactions? The closing down of the tests, the abandoning of the towns? The miners remaining? The headlines?

6.The mutants: their presence in the desert, the miners of the past, their being warned to get out, their refusal, hiding down the mines, affected by the contamination? The inbreeding? The tendency to violence? Cannibalism? Their vengeance on the government, on outsiders? Their comment that everybody was to blame for the condition that they were in?

7.The atmosphere of horror, the use of horror conventions? The group isolated and being the prey of an alien group? How well did the film use the conventions? The terror, audiences identifying with the ordinary family, imagining themselves in similar situations? The special effects, the use of gore? Violent and bloodthirsty sequences?

8.The situation: the ordinary American family, the silver anniversary, travelling through the desert, Big Bob and his demands, his expectations, impatience? His relationship with his wife, memories of them in the 60s, the memories of their marriage? Ethel and her devotion, memories of the past, her being very prim, religious and the saying of Grace, the prayer before the difficulties in the desert? Her good manners, her reaction to her children? Her love for her husband? The sadness of her murder? Bobby and his age, the clashes with Brenda? In the back of the car, sparring with each other? Their age, not wanting to be on the trip? Lynne and Doug? Their marriage, travelling together, the baby? Big Bob and his continual criticisms of Doug, Lynne defending him? The bickering? The better delineation of characters for this kind of situation?

9.Stopping at the service station, filling up with petrol? The sinister man at the station? The audience knowing about him before they arrived? Filling up, giving them the advice about the short cut? Audience seeing him with the jewellery, the background of the mines and his going down? In contact with the mutants? Big Bob’s return, finding the jewellery, the encounter, the attack? The man shooting himself? Bob being taken, burnt alive and the family’s reaction?

10.The breakdown, handling the situation, Bob walking back to the service station? Doug walking ahead, finding the village? The abandoned cars, taking the toys for his baby? The return, waiting the night, the attack on Brenda, warding off the intruder? The return, the violence, Ethel’s death? The pathos of her dying, the comfort given her, her remembering her marriage? Lynne and her protecting the baby? The attack, the surprise of her death? Putting the bodies in the van? The three survivors having to cope throughout the night?

11.The morning, the young couple, their staying together, the wire to sound for alarm, the tumbleweed on the wire? Bobby and his being out the night before, searching for the dog, the death of the dog, his collapse? Holding the fort while Doug went to the town?

12.Doug, getting his courage, determined to prove himself? Glasses, considered a nerd? His going to the town, the gun? His encountering the little girl, her having the coat? News of the baby? His sense of being followed? Finding the man in the chair, paralysed – and the irony that he was in central control and command? Lizard and his sinister presence, his being warded off? His pursuing Doug? His encounter with the little girl, and the baby? The violent encounters between Doug and Lizard, the brutality? Doug’s wits, survival? The little girl and the baby, his getting the baby, the pursuit by Lizard, the fight on the top of the cliff, the girl saving him, falling over the cliff with Lizard?

13.The return, the survival, the emphasis on the family getting together, family values? A seeming sentimental ending – with the mutant looking through the binoculars?

14.The social comment on the film, American politics in the past, the present? The Americans victimised by government and secrecy? The government really responsible for the violence in the consequent mutants?