The Hills Have Eyes (1977) Movie Review
Written By: K.M.C.
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Wes Craven
Producers: Peter Locke
Writers: Wes Craven
Date Released: July 22, 1977
Cast:
Russ Grieve as Big Bob Carter
Virginia Vincent as Ethel Carter
Susan Lanier as Brenda Carter
Robert Houston as Bobby Carter
Dee Wallace as Lynne Wood
Martin Speer as Doug Wood
Brenda Marinoff as Baby Katy Wood
et. al.
Rating = 2.5/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Bob and Ethel take a family road trip from Ohio to Los Angeles with their teenage kids Bobby, Brenda, and the older daughter, Lynne, Lynne’s baby and husband, and the two family dogs Beauty and Beast. Avoiding what Fred had advised them, the Carters decide to vear off the main road and take a different path where the car carrying the trailer crashes. Stranded in the middle of the desert, Bob and Doug set out for help in separate directions. Bobby goes off to find Beauty who ran off barking into the hills who he later finds gutted and left for dead. Soon after many horrific incidents involving the deaths and rape of their family memebers, what’s left of the Carters shortly realize that a family of deformed cannibalistic misfits living amongst the hills are hunting them down.
Gore Factor
The significant moments of gore in this film are few but also intense enough to make you squirm. You’ve got Pluto’s achilles tendon/area ripped out by a dog, a finger in Mars’s thigh wound, and a gutted dog. There’s a few minor gorey moments as well, but those aren’t big enough to be noted with lots of bloodshed.
The Grave Review
The two and a half star rating may come to a shock for those of you who consider The Hills Have Eyes to be a pioneer in horror. Although it did set the premise for horror movies revolving around post-nuclear horrors and cannibalism, it sure was not up to par with others of its kind. Alone, the movie is filled with plot twists and crude humor that tend to relieve certain aspects of the many tense moments. The plot is one we have seen time and time again. A group of individuals all having a core connection get stranded in the middle of a monster(s) territory and are picked off one by one. What really saved this film is the location of the set, which helped make the film more real and appealing, and the given fact that this family is done from the beginning.
The acting was surprisingly decent aside from the incessant screams of Lanier who put a fine layer of annoyance towards the end. Ironically, Lanier, alongside Vincent, take the prize for a standout performance. My respects to these two fine women, as they were talented enough to portray the true horrors of insanity after extreme trauma through their roles. The effects and makeup artists deserve some credit for making Jupiter and his family have realistically unsettling features.
What really gave its half star is not for the plot nor for the actors, but for the message that lies behind The Hills Have Eyes. If one strips the meaty horror aspect of the film, they are left with the reflection of society that structures the film. The Carters represent those who are privileged in society and have the social/financial means of living well while Jupiter’s family represents the opposite or have-nots. Craven emphasized that he wanted the film to express rage against American culture and the bourgeois. He intended Jupiter’s family to represent more than just those who are underprivileged by encompassing minorities and indigenous people in the US. To shine light on how the US holds class conflict, racism, and other ills with a tight fist. The message may not be all too clear at first, but when watching The Hills Have Eyes through this lens, one might start to piece together exactly this message that Craven is trying to send.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives The Hills Have Eyes (1977) two and a half graves out of five graves.
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