Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16317 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-26
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Boasting an upgrade in production values, The Hills Have Eyes should please new-generation horror fans without offending devotees of Wes Craven's original version from 1977. There's still something to be said for the gritty shock value of Craven's low-budget original, made at a time when horror had been relegated to the pop-cultural ghetto, mostly below the radar of major Hollywood studios. With the box-office resurgence of horror in the new millennium--and the genre's lucrative popularity among the all-important teen demographic--it's only fitting that French director Alexandre Aja should follow up his international hit High Tension with a similarly brutal American debut to boost his Hollywood street-cred. Working with cowriter Gregory Levasseur, Aja remains surprisingly faithful to Craven's original, beginning with a bickering family that crashes their truck and trailer in the remote desert of New Mexico (actually filmed in Morocco), where they are subsequently terrorized, brutalized, and murdered by a freakish family of psychopaths, mutated by the lingering radiation from 331 nuclear bomb tests that were carried out during the 1950s and '60s. After several killings are carried out in memorably grisly fashion, it's left to the survivors to outsmart their disfigured tormentors, who are blessed with horrendous make-up (especially Robert Joy as freak leader "Lizard") but never quite as unsettling as the original film's horror icon, Michael Berryman. In Aja's hands, this newfangled Hills is all about savagery and de-evolution, reducing its characters to a state of pure, retaliatory terror. It's hardly satisfying in terms of storytelling (since there's hardly any story to tell), but as an exercise in sheer malevolence, it's undeniably effective.-- Jeff Shannon

Synopsis
With his 2006 remake of Wes Craven's 1977 slasher 'The Hills Have Eyes', French director Alexandre Aja manages to accomplish what many directors fail to do by making his film a definite improvement over the original. With Craven on board as producer, Aja sticks pretty closely to the first film's script and storyline, but with the help of a larger budget, special effects, better actors, and slick cinematography, creates a much scarier story. While the film's setting is contemporary, it maintains a 1970s feel in parts, paying tribute to the decade in which the slasher subgenre was born. With an interesting opening-credit sequence consisting of actual nuclear testing footage, we are told that the film's desert setting was the site of nuclear testing during the 1950s and '60s. Warned to vacate, the miners that lived there refused to leave, thus subjecting themselves to high levels of toxic radiation, and breeding mutant babies as a result. It is this generation of now-grown mutants that the poor Carter family has the misfortune to encounter while driving through New Mexico on their way to California. When their vehicle breaks down in the desert, the Carters are too busy bickering with one another to realise they have entered enemy territory. But it doesn't take long for the demented creatures living in the hills to make their presence known. The gore fest that follows is packed with terribly frightening scenes of the deformed killers delighting in the torment and intended kill of each family member, young mothers, teen girls, and babies included. Much of the film is set in a government-created test city in which deteriorating mannequins take the place of actual humans. Posing lifelessly alongside their mutant neighbours, these waxy figures provide a chilling backdrop for the graphic war between the mutants and their victims.

Customer Reviews

Prepare to be chilled
I can remember seeing the original The Hills have Eyes when I was younger, on its cinema release. Since then it has acquired a cult film status and has been a regular must see throughout the years in the horror section of Video Rental Stores. I was really curious to see what director Alexandre Aja would do with his remake. The net result is that he stays very close to the original in terms of plot but adds on more detail and background, to the point that the result seems more of a rebuild than a remake. I wonder if Wes Craven in his involvement in this remake actually had some input into the film itself. I say that because this film is so good that it could almost be the original director, revisiting his film and adding to it. However, don't let that observation detract from Aja's work as the director because believe me, he has made a superb horror film here.

As I have mentioned before, it stays very closely with the plot and sequences of the original film. The cast get well stuck into their roles, and some of them look eerily like the same characters in the original film too.
Aja gives the film a sun bleached look and brings the harshness of the desert environment to life superbly. At times the rocks themselves seem to emanate heat. The plight of the Carter family in this harsh environment is starkly realised, as is the terrifying nature of their assailants - the irradiated mutants.
The remake is even gorier than the original, and at times the pace of this film is breathtaking and relentless. Aja, however, gives us more detail than the original into the background of the mutants, and how they came to be the way that they are.
He also shows us that the horror genre can make serious social comment. The test dummies that are found throughout the houses of the mutants, can also be interpreted as the attitude of the then US Government towards its citizens at the time of nuclear testing....

The audience I saw the film with in the cinema were utterly engrossed in it from start to finish. For the most part they were completely silent, except when screaming and jumping at certain sequences. When leaving the cinema after the film had ended they were all talking among themselves about how good it was.
I was amazed at how good it was and the dvd will definitely be joining my collection.
If you have not yet seen this film then prepare to be chilled.

Wicked Movie
Excellent film from start to finish, won't suit everyone but if you like a well done horror which really does get you engrossed then you have to watch this.
Nothin too silly about it, quite shocking i would say and very entertaining. Also very close to the original although the remake definately has more jumps and shock factor. Can't wait to get it on dvd when it comes out.

Expect alot of gore!
I saw this film in the cinema and every single person was gasping at the incredible gory scenes, it really quenched my thirst for a violent scary movie and seemed to satisfy everyone else. The storyline is very basic which i found to be a good thing as it's just a fun,shocking movie to watch without having to think about the plot. Definetly a must see in my opinion!