THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006)

 

(Director/co-screenwriter: Alexandre Aja. Co-screenwriter: Grégory Levasseur, billed as Gregory Levasseur.)

Plot: A vacationing family, lost in a desert, are hunted by mutants.

 

Review

Aja’s remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 shocker is a slicker, less raw, more-tightly scripted film. The savagery─malicious violence, rape and killing is still in-your-face and gory, and the underpinnings of national unease are still there. Also: this remake shows more of the nuclear test town and the automotive graveyard; and the remake is more overt in its political-divide commentary, e.g., Big Bob and Doug’s Right Wing/Left Wing exchanges are explicit in their political barbs—Ted Levine (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, 1991) and Kathleen Quinlan, as ex-cop Big Bob and his ex-hippie wife, Ethel, represent Red State thinking; their daughter, Lynn (Vinessa Shaw) and her husband (Doug, played by Aaron Stanford) represent Blue State leanings. Lynn’s siblings, Bobby (Dan Byrd) and Brenda (Emilie de Ravin) aren’t solidly political yet. And of particular interest to the cannibals there’s Lynn and Doug’s baby.

Like Craven’s original film, inspired by Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974), there’s a steady build-up of small-but-unsettling events that, midway through the film, become more overt, terrifying and deadly.

Veteran actor Tom Bower is great as the “Gas Station Attendant”─ Bower, in this excellent cast, stands out in what might be one of the most rewarding roles in HILLS, as a man struggling with his conscience.

The mutant cast: Michael Bailey Smith (Pluto); Robert Joy (the lecherous Lizard); Laura Ortiz (Ruby); Ezra Buzzington (Goggle); Greg Nicotero, HILLS’s special makeup effects designer, played Cyst; and cold-gazed Billy Drago (THE UNTOUCHABLES, 1987) as the family patriarch, Papa Jupiter.

“Remake” is understandably a bad word in many movie-goers mouths, but this second-time-around take on HILLS is a well-made, timely flick worth watching if you’re not an originals-only purist, and willing to judge the 2006 version on its own merits.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2 (1984)

 

(a.ka. THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II; director/ screenwriter: Wes Craven)

 

Review

Seven years after the events of Wes Craven’s 1977 film, two survivors from the previous movie are co-owners of a motocross team: Ruby, now called Rachel, who betrayed her cannibal family to help the Carters in the first film; and Bobby Carter, Rachel’s boyfriend, who’s seeing a psychiatrist to try and shake off his HILLS-related trauma. A racing event is set to take place in the desert area where Rachel’s tunnel-dwelling family attacked the Carters, and Robert, still traumatized, refuses to go. Rachel goes in his place, riding in a bus with the late-adolescent, horny and feckless motorcyclists.

The bus breaks down, stranding the Rachel and her team near the site of the original massacre. Surviving members of Rachel’s family─some of whom weren’t seen in the 1977 flick─assault and slay many of teenage riders, the remainder of whom (along with Rachel) fight to stay alive.

Released in 1985, HILLS PART 2 is a bad, choppy-edit film, more a desert-set-FRIDAY-THE-13^th knock-off than a follow-up to its potent-themed prequel. This is borne out by this sequel’s heavy, shoehorn-recycling of original-film footage and its FRIDAY-esque stalk-and-kill scenes as well as composer Harry Manfredini’s recycling of his iconic FRIDAY (1980) soundtrack here. What makes HILLS PART 2 worse is that none of the young characters, aside from Rachel, are worth rooting for. They’re obnoxious, begging to be taken out.

There are also inconsistencies with the second film.

One of them is the presence of the unscarred Pluto (Michael Berryman, reprising his iconic role)─in HILLS, Pluto appeared to be killed; even if he survived, he would’ve been horribly scarred. A further franchise contradiction is the presence of The Reaper (John Bloom, not Joe Bob Briggs), Jupiter’s brother and current head of Ruby’s inbred kin. In HILLS, it was stated by a reliable source that Jupiter (James Whitworth) only had a sister, who was killed in a house fire started by Jupiter. (It’s also worth noting that The Reaper’s voice was dubbed by Nicholas Worth.)

Shot before Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984), Craven, who later disavowed HILLS PART 2, said he was two-thirds through making HILLS PART 2 when the studio halted its production because of its cost. Craven went on to make NIGHTMARE, and when it was a huge hit, the studio (Hills Two Corporation VTC) wanted Craven to finish HILLS PART 2 (which Craven already wasn’t a fan of), crafting it with only its existing footage─the legendary filmmaker was forced to use many of the scenes from HILLS to make it long enough to qualify as a feature-length work.

Michael Berryman was not the only returning HILLS actor. Janus Blythe came back to play Ruby (now Rachel). Robert Houston, seen briefly at the film’s start, reprised his role of Bobby Carter. Also, the canine character Beast (one of the two German Shepherds seen in HILLS) appears in the second film.

Kevin Spirtas (billed as Kevin Blair, FRIDAY THE 13^th PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD, 1988) played Roy. Williard E. Pugh (ROBOCOP 2, 1990) played Foster. Peter Frechette (GREASE 2, 1982) played Harry. Penny Johnson Jerald (billed as Penny Johnson, FREDDY’S NIGHTMARES, TV series, 1990 episode) played Sue.

HILLS PART 2 is far from the worst film I’ve seen. Its behind-the-scenes crew did a good job with its technical aspects, a few of the scenes jump scare-worthy. Otherwise, it feels like a bland, disembodied-from-its-source-film-FRIDAY-THE-13^th-structured work, one you can skip without missing much. Recommended for HILLS completists or super die-hard fans of any of its players.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)

 

(Director/ screenwriter/editor: Wes Craven)

Review

The bleak, violent HILLS begins with the Carter family road tripping through an American desert. The Carters include: “Big Bob,” a no-nonsense, politically conservative ex-cop; his traditional wife, Ethel; their liberal daughter, Lynne Wood, mother to baby Katy and wife to also-liberal Doug. Lynne’s slightly younger apolitical siblings, Bobby─wearing an Ohio State T-shirt─and Brenda, accompany them on this politically and socially frayed adventure.

The Carters, with Bob at the wheel, stop at a middle-of-nowhere gas station where its old-man attendant (Fred), concerned for their safety, warns them to keep to the main highway. Bob ignores Fred’s advice and takes a desolate “short cut” side road, setting into motion the savage back-and-forth between the Carters and a tunnel-dwelling, cannibal family.

HILLS, which has a gritty, unsettling tone to it from the get-go, takes little time in cutting to a shocking cycle of rape, torture, murder, vengeance, and other territorial violence. Its tone and intensity is appropriate given its themes (racism, class warfare, militarism, and other social problems)─Jupiter’s cannibalistic-by-necessity clan represents the desperate poor, while the Carters are materialistically comfortable middle class.

According to Craven (and IMDb), the film was inspired by three things. The first was the fifteenth-century, Scottish legend of Sawney Beane and his feral family (a wife, fourteen children) who attacked and chowed down on unlucky travelers. Eventually, the Beanes were caught, judged as crazy and executed when they were found. The second was a real-life encounter Craven and his wife had in the state of Nevada, when three locals shot an arrow in his direction; when he protested, they told him they could murder him, leave his corpse in a mine, and get away with it. The third: HILLS is a partial homage to Tobe Hooper’s 1974 movie THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, which HILLS is spiritually akin to (some of Jupiter’s family’s belongings seen in HILLS were props taken from TEXAS).

HILLS has great behind-the-scenes crew and players. Cinematographer Eric Saarinen (DEATH RACE 2000, 1975) imbues HILLS with a harsh, dirty tone, perfectly suiting director/screenwriter Wes Craven’s blunt editing and restless POV shots, giving HILLS further edginess.

The actors who gave form to the Carters/Woods include: Russ Grieve (FOXY BROWN, 1974) as “Big Bob” Carter; Virginia Vincent (THE RETURN OF DRACULA, 1958) as Ethel, his fussy wife; Dee Wallace (THE HOWLING, 1981) as the fiercely protective and maternal Lynne Wood; and Robert Houston (THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2, 1984) as the action-oriented Bobby Carter.

John Steadman (SUMMER OF FEAR, 1978) played Fred, the grizzled gas station attendant with a profound sense of sorrow, caution, and fear.

James Whitworth (PLANET OF DINOSAURS, 1977) played Jupiter, barbaric patriarch of his Roman mythology-monikered clan. Horror icon Michael Berryman (ED GEIN: THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD, 2007) played the opportunistic and sometimes terrified Pluto. Janus Blythe (THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2) played the not-as-feral-as-her-kin Ruby.

HILLS is a taut, sharp, nasty, and landmark work, one that inspired a Craven-created 1984 cinematic sequel, as well as a 2006 remake and its 2007 sequel. The first HILLS is worth your time if you can appreciate unsettling, sexually and violently graphic exploitation pieces that embody and transcend the primary genre(s) they’re often lumped into─while there’s no explicit nudity in HILLS, its brief assault/sex scenes are disturbing (though not as off-putting as those seen HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, 1986).

THE CALL (2020)

 

(Director: Timothy Woodward Jr. Screenwriter: Patrick Stibbs.)

Storyline

October 1987. After the woman they’ve been prank-terrorizing commits suicide, they inherit her money. When they come to claim it, her husband tells her they’ll get it immediately─but first each of them must make a phone call.

 

Review

CALL is an initially solid, interesting story that melds Leigh Whannell and James Wan’s SAW (2004) and Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) within a 1980s, EC Comics-style revenge tale.

The first third of the film is solid and entertaining, with a strong set-up and fresh elements (kids inheriting a witch’s wealth). It is bolstered by tight editing, a concise screenplay and a synth-driven soundtrack (courtesy of Samuel Joseph Smythe) that recalls the work of John Carpenter. One of the elements that elevates CALL from being a waste of time is its excellent players: the key actors, especially horror veterans Lin Shaye (DEAD END, 2003) and Tobin Bell (the SAW franchise), keep CALL semi-interesting even as the storyline devolves into visually solid but not particularly scary genre tropes, with CALL becoming a series of ELM STREET-esque, surreal mindfrak scenarios, customized terror-mazes for the teenagers. All the while, Edith’s angry-but-restrained husband (Edward, played by Bell) lurks elsewhere in the house. Bell, like Shaye, is especially fun and scary in his role, channeling the dangerous, soft-spoken undertones of his iconic Jigsaw character, mixed with the sorrow of a grieving spouse.

CALL is not a bad movie, it’s just disappointing. It has so much going for it: good overall filmmaking (with the feel and editing of a waste-no-time-or-footage 1980s video gem); great acting by its principal actors; a memorable storyline (in its first third). What brings it down is its too-familiar head-trip hell-mazes (thoroughly strip-mined of its scary veins by the ELM STREET franchise) and its ending, which─even with its twists─makes the prankster’s punishment feel too fated, almost pointless.

You might enjoy this if you keep your expectations low. If you’re a fan of Shaye and Bell, who consistently shine in their work, this might also be worthwhile. Not only that, CALL‘s filmmakers’ impressive capabilities and love for 1980s video B-movies imbues the film with a nostalgic feel even when its fright-cliched events make it less-than-viewer-involving.

DEADLY BLESSING (1981)

(Director: Wes Craven. Screenplay by Glenn M. Benest, Matthew Barr and Wes Craven.)

Storyline

A rural woman is menaced by her ultra-religious neighbors after her husband dies under strange circumstances.

 

Review

After her husband (Jim) dies under questionable, horrifying circumstances in their barn, Martha Schmidt (Maren Jensen, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, 1978-9), finds herself targeted by a killer or killers who are also knocking off other people in the small rural community.

Is it one or several of the Hittites, an Amish-like cult, who view her as a devilish modern-day woman sent to steal one of their sons (her husband)? Led by the stern-countenanced Isaiah Schmidt (Ernest Borgnine, THE DEVIL’S RAIN, 1975), Martha’s father-in-law, their fervent hatred of the non-Hittite “succubus” is possibly pushed to the point of violence─it seems that Isaiah, furious at his eldest son’s marital apostasy, wants the land she and Jim owned.

Whoever’s doing the killing, they’re playing no favorites. Hittites and non-Hittites alike are being offed in slasher flick style, shown in suspenseful scenes that effectively provide an atmosphere of paranoia, death, and effectively underscore (and provide release for) DEADLY’s twisty sexual/religious repression themes─that DEADLY succeeds in a distinctive-within-its-subgenre way makes it a surprising high-mark film, further buoyed by its well-written mystery element. You may spot who’s doing the murders, but it could easily be any of the residents of this tense farming community.

Composer James Horner ups DEADLY’s tension with music that weds elements from Harry Manfredini’s FRIDAY THE 13^th (1980) and Jerry Goldsmith’s choral-doomy THE OMEN (1976) soundtracks, heightening DEADLY’s fast-paced build to a shocking, final conclusion; this says a lot, given how over-the-top the film sometimes is.

No doubt fans familiar with the FRIDAY franchise will recognize the influence of the iconic series on DEADLY (it also later provided a major influence on Craven’s 1984 film THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II). Fans of Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) may also appreciate a bathtub scene that is variably mirrored in the later film.

Beside Jensen and Borgnine, there’s other notable actors in the cast. Sharon Stone (COLD CREEK MANOR, 2003) played an excitable Lana Marcus, one of her two visiting friends. Jeff East, also seen in Craven’s SUMMER OF FEAR (1978), played John Schmidt, Martha’s easy-going brother-in-law. Colleen Riley (THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II, 1984) played John’s cousin and arranged marriage fiancée. Michael Berryman (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, 1977) played William Gluntz, a mentally challenged member of the Hittite cult.

If viewed as a modest-budget, entertaining, odd, and overtly piecemeal-influence slasher flick, you might enjoy DEADLY.

SUMMER OF FEAR (1978)

 

(a.k.a. STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE; director: Wes Craven. Teleplay by Glenn M. Benest and Max A. Keller, based on Lois Duncan’s 1976 YA novel Summer of Fear.)

Review

When a California family, the Bryants, take in a tragedy-struck, teenage relative (Julia Trent) from the Ozarks they have no idea who they’re harboring. Strange things happen, often to Julia’s cousin, adolescent daughter Rachel Bryant, prompting her to suspect something is off with Julia: why is every male within Julia’s range obsessed with the young new arrival’s every whim? Why does Rachel’s horse, Sundance, act spooked, skittish, around Julia, who quickly evolves from wallflower to beauty in record time?

Rachel’s jealousy and suspicions become alarm when she─suddenly sick and nightmare-stalked─finds odd, crudely made objects and marked up photos of herself hidden amongst Julia’s things. Then those who displease Julia begin dying in rapid succession. Is it too late to stop Julia, who is most assuredly a malefic witch?

Based on Lois Duncan’s 1976 young adult novel, Summer of Fear, this made-for-television movie─then titled STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE in the US─originally aired on NBC on October 31, 1978. (In Europe, it was released theatrically under the title SUMMER OF FEAR.)

As television works go, this is a mostly solid, predictable PG-13 flick (back then it would’ve warranted a PG rating). Wes Craven (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, 1977) helmed this bloodless, often brightly lit movie, with the rest of his cast and crew matching Craven in their competence. I write “mostly solid” because of occasionally clunky dialogue and Plot Convenient Stupidity (PCS) that makes up some of the dialogue and actions of certain characters (e.g., Rachel bluntly confronts Julia, broadcasting how she intends to stop Julia’s dark magick, further endangering Rachel and those she loves).

Fortunately, these are minor nits, given the talent involved in the project, contributors like John D’Andrea and Michael Lloyd (DEVIL’S DEN, 2006), whose spooky soundtrack is impressive for its medium.

Just as impressive is SUMMER’s cast. Linda Blair (THE EXORCIST, 1973) is her usual excellent self as Rachel Bryant. Jeff East (PUMPKINHEAD, 1988) played her brother, Peter, and Jeremy Slate (THE DEAD PIT, 1989) played Tom, her father. Fran Drescher (HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, 2012) played Carolyn Baker, Rachel’s best friend.

Lee Purcell (NECROMANCY, 1972) played Julia Trent. John Steadman (THE HILLS HAVE EYES, 1977) played a “Veterinarian.”

SUMMER is an entertaining work if you don’t expect much and can overlook its sometimes-clunky writing and PCS-character moments.