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The Hills Have Eyes

Briefly:

- It's more gory than the original.
- It's more glossy than the original.
- It's less effective than the original.

It's not a bad film, but it's pretty much a scene by scene retread of its predecessor, with some additions (a tacky back-story for the cannibals, who are now mutants) and minor changes (the cannibals' hide-out, details of the climax). As such, there's not much here for those who've already seen Wes Craven's nasty little 1977 shocker, beyond prettier faces, smoother photography and goopier blood.

Like the original, the thing takes its time to get up and running, although unfortunately the attempts to build tension in the first half are never particularly successful. The characters are by and large uninteresting (not that this wasn't true of its predecessor), and the cannibals are devoid of personality (which wasn't true of the original - where's Michael Berryman when you need him?). It's also unintentionally funny in places, and the monster make-up is decidedly hokey, looking more like the cannibals are wearing rubber masks than actually disfigured.

Given the promise director Alexandre Aja showed with Haute Tension, it's something of a disappointment that his first feature in the US is a remake, and a rather uninspired one at that. It's about the same standard as 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake, and if you enjoyed that, you might get a kick out of this. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot on offer here. For my money, Wrong Turn did a slightly better job of taking the "backwoods cannibal exploitation" format and applying it to the 21st century.

6/10

By the way, the transfer on this DVD blows serious donkey balls, despite what the "reviewers" at the likes of IGN and DVD Talk will tell you. In this day and age, a DVD should not be this devoid of detail and edge enhancement ridden.

21:59