DVD Review: Hills Have Eyes, The (C)

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Directed by Wes Craven
Starring Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, Dee Wallace-Stone and Russ Grieve
MPAA: R
Grade: C

Review by Bobby Nashville

Many drive in movie fans over the years have berated me for never having seen The Hills Have Eyes. Okay, now I've seen it, and frankly I don't really understand the big deal.

Basically, this is a low budget horror film with some nice hand held camerawork, but a very ridiculous plot. A cranky ass family is moving to California but as part of a vacation diversion, the father decides to drag them though an Air Force testing range in search of some long forgotten mines. Great vacation, right?

Well, their Air Force testing range picnic doesn't work out so good. They are buzzed by aircraft, they crash their car, their dogs get away and before long, it's dark. Then things get really weird as the "hill people" come down to start rearranging their body parts for them. It's ugly folks and unless you like neanderthal cannibal movies, this might not be for you.

Directed by one of the most widely acclaimed horror directors (Wes Craven), The Hills Have Eyes is a fairly gruesome tale. The acting is second rate and the script is, technically speaking, "sucky". If you like 70's horror films this might work for you, but I found this one a bit overrated.

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