The Hills Have Eyes (2006) - Actually quite good – by remakes’ standards

Yes, ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ is a good film.  Doesn’t that mean it’s a classic?  No, it’s a remake.  And, seeing as – seemingly – every film needs to remade/re-imagined or have Spock home back in time to create an alternate timeline, most of them fall nowhere near ‘okay.’ Therefore, remakes need to be judged through more lenient eyes, so it may not be a good film, but it’s a damn fine remake!

The plot from the 1977 original remains the same – a nice, happy family gets stranded in the middle of an American desert and is slowly picked off by the local mutants who generally want them dead for varying reasons.  Nice and simple.  The family must therefore fight to survive. 

And that’s all there is to it.  With a plot so simple, it could be great or it could fail.  Luckily, the cast of actors save it.  They work pretty well together and generally annoy each other (as most real families do).  They bicker, they moan and get at each other, but ultimately come together to overcome a greater threat.  Plus, most importantly, they don’t make too many ridiculous judgements meaning they’re the architects of their own demises.  There’s nothing worse than yelling at the TV screen to the protagonist because they’re making ridiculous calls which simply further the plot.  Here, the family do basically what we’d do in such a grisly situation.

And it is grisly.  First of all there is gore (and strong violence) aplenty.  Not only are the kills pretty extreme, but the make-up on the mutated locals is suitably gruesome. ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ certainly isn’t for everyone.  Its strong gore and adult content will certainly put some people off.  It’s not for the squeamish, but if you like your horror films brutal and violent then this one is for you.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that