[Tom4784]

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.

[Jake.]

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.

[Amy Jade]

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.

[Lostie!]

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.

[Amy Jade]

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.

[Lostie!]

Originally Posted by Amy Jade

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.

Yeah I got that but I just think his whole relationship with them was pretty vague in general (and my assumption the whole time was that he was the father to some of them, probably Jupiter, partly because of the original but also because of what he says about "the children" before killing himself and also the newspaper cuttings).

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.

[Amy Jade]

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.

[Jake.]

yeah that's one of my gripes with the film as well, some more time could have been invested in the cannibals themselves

[Drew.]

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

[Cal.]

Yeah I was just going to say perhaps if we'd seen more of them they would have become less scary.

[Jamie89]

I'm going to watch it now

[Lostie!]

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.

[LukeB]

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.

[Cal.]

Thank you for all your reviews!

[Jamie89]

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.

[Jason.]

Originally Posted by Jamie89

-
Charlie from Lost isn't in it

Good!

[Jamie89]

So excited to watch The Shining again

Originally Posted by Jason.

Good!

[Cal.]

Wednesday 5th October- The Shining (1980)



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.

[Jason.]

The Shining is a classic

[Cal.]

It really isn't

[Jason.]

Originally Posted by Cal.

It really isn't

Why don't you like it?

[Daniel-X]

I'll watch ms hills tonight I promise!

[Cal.]

Watching The Shining today again.

[Lostie!]

Will watch this later

[Lostie!]

Watched The Shining tonight but I'm shattered so I'll do the review tomorrow