The Hills Have Eyes

For a number of reasons, the film risks being seen as just another of the countless imitations of Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974). However, Craven’s film quickly reveals its own distinctive personality. More than any other, the single element that stands out is the director’s immense skill in exploiting its scorching location: the desert. Hostile and boundless, it becomes the stage for an agoraphobic nightmare populated by aggressive, monstrous humanoids.

Tense, violent, and without frills, “The Hills Have Eyes” is a film that doesn’t go half way, forcing the family to abandon their civilized ways and get their hands bloody if they want to beat the psychopaths who attacked them in what will be a fight to the death. There’s also a healthy dose of biting sarcasm smeared on a base of social critique.

Craven particularly makes fun of middle-class culture/mentality, of which Mrs. Carter is a prime example. With a prayer to “the good Lord” and a torrent of airheaded observations (such as praising the wholesomeness of the area), the woman demonstrates a complete inability to deal with the crude reality facing them, suggesting improbable explanations or activating genuine defense mechanisms (she denies her husband’s death while refusing to recognize his body, confuses Pluto’s bestial noises with radio static…). The cannibal family (whose members are named after mythological gods) is unforgettable – first and foremost Michael Berryman.

It may not be the director’s finest masterpiece, but it’s undeniably a solid, effective horror film that merits a spot in the collection of any fan of the genre.