|
Hills Have Eyes 2006 10/10
Really glad everyone seems to be enjoying this This movie brings back so many memories. It was the first horror movie I owned and one of the first horrors I ever watched. It's probably one of my favourite horror movies too. I've always found the horror movies I watched at a young age have gone on to haunt me and scare me more than any horror movie I watch now. Watched this for the first time on DVD when it first came out about 10 years ago and I hid behind a magazine for most of it. Said to my mum last night I couldn't remember why it was 18 rated before it started but now I can remember why. It's a pretty unique horror movie, can't think of many other films I could compare it to. The characters are great and the fear they showed throughout was really well acted. It has the perfect mix of graphic scenes, gore and suspense. The mutants themselves are freaky as ****, I know he played a minor role but the one that was dragging the body in their town with the neck brace thing on is the one that haunts me the most and those two mutant kids asking Doug to play with them was one of the most haunting scenes. Think there might be one or two movies that could rival this but overall I think this could be hard to top. |
The Hills Have Eyes 9/10
Such a great film, one of favourites I've watched in recent years. It's really graphical and very entertaining throughout, the whole setting and feel to the film is brilliant. Some of the scenes are really gory and it does scare me sometimes, they really are disturbing. The build really helps the film and works well, I didn't really get bored of it. The scenes with Doug are really haunting and It makes you root for him so much, I loved the testing houses, really creepy. The characters are really good and they did a great job with them. Overall a fantastic movie, really enjoyed it. |
The Hills Have Eyes I'm just going to admit it - I think this is probably the first time I've actually watched this film in full? I've seen various scenes on TV years ago but I've never actually sat down and watched it properly. The only thing I remembered was that it had Claire from Lost in it. Now having seen it, I absolutely loved it. God knows why I've been holding it back for so long but it's definitely one of my favourite horror remakes, even though I've yet to see Wes Craven's original. Alexandre Aja did an amazing job with this as he did with High Tension and I also learnt that Wes Craven returned for the remake as producer which I'm sure contributes to how great of a remake this is. I don't really mind slow burners as long as they serve a purpose and this film does exactly that. Similar to Wolf Creek, I think it sets the tone for the film and makes room for some character development as it allows us to get to know the characters before they eventually get picked off. I only found the first ten minutes boring but even then we weren't introduced to any of the characters at that point so that doesn't really bother me. Speaking of which, one of the reasons this film is so good is because of its characters. I liked pretty much the whole main cast and I even found myself feeling sorry for the character's when they were getting their demise, particularly Lynn and Ethel. Doug's character was brilliant and Aaron Stanford did a good job playing him. I love how gripping the film was and how you were actively rooting for Doug at the end whilst at the edge of your seat at the same time and the ending makes it all the more satisfying. Him and Lynn are my two favourite characters even though I liked them all. Bobby was quite annoying at times but nevertheless I still appreciated him. For a film that takes place mostly in the daytime as opposed to the night, I love how suspenseful and tense it is. It doesn't need to rely too much on the death scenes in order to be creepy and suspenseful - it just is. Although my favourite scene in the film would probably have to be the trailer attack during the night, the combination of the sheer brutality and sadism coupled with your empathy for the Carter's makes it an all in all strong scene for me, although the rape scene was uneasy viewing. I think the part that sticks out the most for me is after when Doug finds his wife's lifeless body bleeding out and then watching her mother die moments later. (</3) Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It has a good plot, good acting and a really good atmosphere. It's like Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Wolf Creek meets Wrong Turn. Like I said at the beginning of the review, god knows why I've been holding this one back so long but I will definitely be checking this one out again. I'm going to watch the Original too. (Justice for Beauty) 8/10 |
|
Thank you for all your reviews so far!
|
Quote:
|
I had seen the original so had a feeling Lynne was going to die in the trailer but Vinessa sold her enough that I second guessed those thoughts - in the original she's not at the center of the action as much and you don't warm to her like you do in the remake.
Another thing vastly superior to the original are the cannibals, the original ones weren't even scary they looked like cast offs from Mad Max and Ruby was gorgeous which was odd considering she's meant to be inbred. |
Is the original good?
|
|
The Hills Have Eyes - Passable but forgettable. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't watch it again.
6/10 I'd do a fuller review but I'm knackered. |
The Hills Have Eyes (2006) - 8/10
In similar vein to the events in the film, what starts off as a slow and seemingly mellow watch soon turns into a gore-filled, frantic affair. I must admit to never watching the original, but this remake seems to have the basics covered: mutants, blood and a very inconic rape scene. Even after multiple viewings, it never seems to become easier to watch; essentially the centrepiece of the movie, a manner of all horrific things happen to the Carter family. It's because of this scene that the film loses a couple of marks; not because it isn't a fantastic, unnerving one, but because the rest of the film seems to lose some pace afterwards. However, credit where credit is due, the unexpected happens and the characters you believed would pull through perish, which is always refreshing in the horror genre. Oh, and the ending is enough to send a shiver down your back. |
Quote:
I would give it a solid 6 but it's not scary or creepy at all. |
Maybe I've become desensitised but I didn't find the rape in THHE very shocking or graphic. Definately hard to watch and extremely well acted but I've (sadly?) seen way worse.
|
The Hills Have Eyes: 7/10 Considering I'd read that the reviews were pretty negative, I found this much better than I expected. The music at the very start (and used a few times throughout) was really effective for building an atmosphere and getting me interested right off the bat. I also liked the opening sequence with the shots of bombs exploding and people with deformities with old music played over the top. I think the film was effective in really making you worry about the protagonists and want the villains to get their comeuppance and that's something a lot of horrors don't manage, or flat out don't bother, to do. One gripe would be that I don't think enough focus and clarity was given to the mutants. For example, we hear Jupiter mentioned early in the movie but I had no idea the one in the long coat near the end was him (I actually assumed the one with the expanded head and bloated throat was Jupiter from his apparent authoritative role but apparently not). Actually, I only found out most of their names from Wikipedia afterwards, perhaps these things were obvious in the movie and just went over my head, I don't know. Oh, and what happened to the big bald woman? I also don't think the gas station attendant's role in everything was made clear. Also, in the context of this movie alone I do think the token twist at the very end was unnecessary but since we know there's a sequel and therefore obviously more mutants out there it doesn't bother me as much as it would in a standalone movie Overall, it was a decent movie and exceeded my expectations. Nothing particularly new or special but perfectly fine for what it is, if a little underdeveloped on the side of the villains. |
I thought the gas station attendants role was pretty clear (no shade) he had come to some kind of agreement with the cannibals to send people in their direction to trap them in return for money and belongings from the victims.
I think his suicide was out of guilt from sending the Carter's to their demise. In the original the gas station attendant is related to the cannibals and is the father to the leader (Papa Jupiter) he tries to hang himself but fails and is killed by them. |
I want to recommend a movie I just finished watching and enjoyed a lot called Fender Bender, it's about a girl who has just passed her driving test and has a minor accident in her mums car so gives her insurance details and phone number to the guy who hit her and her parents are pissed so ground her from going on holiday with them. Later that night she receives a phone call from her mums friend who works at her insurance place to say the details were false and worse the details he gave were from a teenage girl who had been murdered just a few days ago.
It wasn't perfect but it felt very 80's slasher which I really liked about it. |
Quote:
I just would have liked more focus on that side of things and their history really, I liked that they gave us time to get to know the Carter family but I do think a bit more of that was needed for the villains too. |
yeah that's one of my gripes with the film as well, some more time could have been invested in the cannibals themselves
|
I kinda liked that you don't see much of them, it leaves you in the dark and makes things a bit more unpredictable/tense. Knowing less about them makes things creepier
|
Yeah I was just going to say perhaps if we'd seen more of them they would have become less scary.
|
I'm going to watch it now :worry:
|
I didn't mind them being kept vague in the build up parts before they were fully revealed, I think that was all quite effective actually (even though there wasn't really a "reveal" since their nature was heavily telegraphed in the opening credits for even people who aren't familiar with the story) but I think they definitely could have used a bit more focus once they were out in the open just to flesh them out more as characters rather than just having them be generic horror baddies (which, if anything, makes them less scary for me).
The most interesting villain for me was the gas station guy because he was the one through whom we got the most insight into their backstory (however brief) so this is why I think he in particular was underutilized as a character a bit. And of course Ruby was a great character and the most interesting of the mutants by far. |
I'm looking forward to watching The Shining. I have not seen it since I was 8.. my friends dad let us watch it lol, I have no memory of it at all.
|
Thank you for all your reviews!
|
The Hills Have Eyes - 6/10
+ Well acted Stylish Claire from Lost is in it - Gore-heavy Underdeveloped cannibals Charlie from Lost isn't in it It was alright. I think I probably would have loved it if I'd seen it 10 years ago but I feel like I've seen this kind of OTT gore movie so many times it just doesn't have much impact now in terms of being scary, the 'scary' bits were more gross than anything. There was nothing too imaginative in the scares (trailer scene being the exception), a lot of them were jump-scares which I found kind of dull. The best thing (potentially) about the movie was the cannibals but I feel like they wasted a big opportunity there. The Cannibals - I agree with Lostie, I really would have liked to know more about them. I think because essentially it was a 'monster movie' except these monsters weren't mindless zombies or aliens or creatures, they were mutated humans, which gives them so much more potential in terms of how they could have been portrayed, showing more about how they think, how they relate to each other and how they perceive us. All things that would have made them more interesting because we'd be able to relate to them. The makers obviously didn't want to take advantage of that though and wanted emotional distance between us and them so that being the case, I couldn't help wonder why they didn't just make them zombies or something. By the end I was just kind of frustrated whenever they featured (and I wouldn't have felt that frustration if they were zombies because I wouldn't have had any deeper expectations of them). But by deciding to make them humans (and make the whole opening titles a reference to their backstory) they committed themselves to the usual expectations of developing them as characters, and they failed to deliver on that. Ruby/The ending - Why did Ruby want to save the baby but none of the other mutants did? What's so different about her? She even sacrificed herself to save it. What must it have taken for her to do that?... I have no idea because I don't know anything about her life. But anyway, Ruby was clearly the hero of the movie imo and then it just cuts away after she falls to her death, shows the protagonists doing something typically hero-ish but uninteresting, then reunites them with that other guy and the baby, and treats him as if he's just saved the day. I know he did a lot in the finale but justice for Ruby much! Really unsatisfying ending for me. Next time they remake it I want all the slow parts of this film replaced with Ruby's story and I'll give it an 8! Best scene - The whole sequence from the dad being on fire through to the girls and the baby being attacked in the trailer was horrifying/creepy/scary/intense/upsetting, just really well acted/directed etc. It took me COMPLETELY off guard and I was so impressed, I didn't expect that to happen at all. |
Wednesday 5th October- The Shining (1980) http://www.asset1.net/tv/pictures/16...Shining-KA.jpg Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer's block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack's writing goes nowhere and Danny's visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel's dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family. |
Quote:
|
The Shining is a classic :love:
|
It really isn't :bored:
|
Quote:
|
So excited to watch The Shining again :love:
Quote:
|
I'll watch ms hills tonight I promise!
|
Watching The Shining today again.
|
Will watch this later :spin:
|
Watched The Shining tonight but I'm shattered so I'll do the review tomorrow :laugh:
|
So is this over or something because I need to know whether to bother with my The Shining review :whistle:
|
I'm going to watch The Shining tonight.
|
Cal's at a party.
|
Okay so no idea if anyone else is watching it but I didn't watch The Shining last night when I desperately needed sleep for nothing so
The Shining: 8/10 The Shining's main strength is the uncomfortable, tense undercurrent running throughout the entire film. Even when something bad isn't happening, it doesn't feel completely "right" and I put a lot of that down to the atmosphere established right out of the gate. The opening sequence is one of my absolute favourites from a movie, it's simple but so effective with the foreboding music and sweeping camera pans. The score throughout the whole movie is brilliant actually and never fails to set me on edge. One thing I wasn't hugely keen on was how cryptic they made the plot points with Charles and Delbert Grady and Jack appearing in the photo at the end. It's not that I need everything spoonfed to me but I'm never a big fan of these big mysterious moments that are hard to make sense of never getting actually explained. I have read theories and so I have a couple of ideas of what I think the whole deal was but I think more actual clarification on it in the movie itself would have been more rewarding rather than the whole "Leave it up to the viewers' imaginations" thing. Also, I wish Jack was portrayed as more likeable before his descent into madness (as I believe he was in the novel if I'm not mistaken), that would have made his personal story more powerful. But yeah, on the whole I think The Shining is one of the most effective horror movies at creating a genuine feeling of unease and dread but I can see why it's not for everyone. Everyone has their own personal tastes when it comes to what works as a horror film and if the slow build isn't your taste, this movie will probably not work for you. But for me, it does. Ranking: 1. The Shining: 8/10 2. The Hills Have Eyes: 7/10 |
I've been so busy lately and I haven't gotten around to watching this yet. :worry:
|
| All times are GMT. The time now is 08:48 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
User Alert System provided by
Advanced User Tagging (Pro) -
vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2025 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.