"The Hills Have Eyes"
Starring: Aaron Stanford, Ted Levine, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd
Directed by Alexandre Aja
2.5 out of 5 stars
This gruesome gorefest is nothing you haven't seen before: A group of people unsuspectingly falls into the clutches of a morbidly deranged clan of bloodthirsty killers.
This remake of Wes Craven's 1977 horror classic follows the Carter family as they drive to California.
As with most movies of this caliber, the family makes all the wrong decisions.
Instead of sticking to highways, or even flying across the country, they decide to trek across an endless expanse of Nevada desert.
They trust the advice of a blatantly crazy gas station attendant (he smokes a cigar while pumping their gas) and head down an abandoned road that's not on their map.
The sun starts to set and as anyone could guess, their car just so happens to break down and leave them vulnerable in the middle of nowhere.
This is where the fun begins.
An onslaught of radioactively deformed people arrive and attack, murder and rape members of the family.
From this point on, I don't believe there is a scene where someone isn't gushing blood or crying.
After the initial sweep of carnage, only a few family members are left standing and they begin to fight back against the hideous cannibals using knives, axes and even an American flag.
This battle goes on for the rest of the movie until it abruptly ends in a cliffhanger ending that eagerly encourages a sequel.
This film has a few well-done scenes, such as when one of the disheveled family members stumbles into a desert town filled with wide-eyed mannequins.
However, aside from the clever title of the original, the movie lacks any sort of uniqueness when compared to other recent horror flicks.
The gore is decent, but not as well executed as in "Hostel."
The character development is flat and doesn't compare with the in-depth and engrossing characters in "The Devil's Rejects." The acting is believable, but just not as good as "Saw."
This movie is perfect if you're bored on a Friday night and you want to be scared, but in all honesty, it's nothing special.
