SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: THE INITIATION (1990)

 

(Director: Brian Yuzna. Screenwriters: Zeph E. Daniel, Richard N. Gladstein, and Arthur Gorson)

Review

After a woman’s building-leap, spontaneous combustion death, an aspiring reporter/classified ads editor Kim Levitt (played by Neith Hunter) investigates the story despite her dismissive male boss, Eli (Reggie Bannister, PHANTASM, 1979) and equally dismissive male colleagues at the LA Eye—one of these colleagues is her easy-going boyfriend, Hank (Tom Hinkley, WATCHERS II, 1990).

Kim’s investigation drives her to seek out a book on spontaneous combustion. She looks for it at a feminist bookstore (Bring Down the Moon) in the building from which the flaming woman leapt. While purchasing a book on the subject, she meets Fima (Maud Adams, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, 1974), owner of the establishment, who gives Kim a book, Initiation of the Virgin Goddess by J.B. Beattie, and invites Kim to a feminist-group picnic the following day.

Bizarre stuff happens to, and around, Kim. A filthy, oddly shy, and seemingly simple street guy (Ricky) follows her up to the roof and tries to hand her a hand-plus sized squirming larva. Cockroaches, in large numbers, appear in her apartment. She sees disturbing faces in everyday places (simulacrum). Her dreams and perceptions become life-threatening. All the while, she’s being stalked by Fima and her fellow female cultists who somehow are linked to Lilith, Adam’s rebellious ex-wife who is linked to “things that crawl.” It’s clear that Kim is changing somehow, and the cult has a lot to do with it.

While SILENT 4’s set-up isn’t hard to figure out, it’s a well-made (especially for a low budget direct-to-video film). The actors range from solid to excellent (especially Neith Hunter and Clint Howard, who plays the deranged but somehow tender Ricky), Richard Band’s mood-effective score is perfect, and Peter Teschner’s editing keeps SILENT 4 sharp and tight. Screaming Mad George (and FX company)’s disturbing and icky FX suit the visual-highlight moments of SILENT 4’s already unsettling milieu, all centered around Kim’s evolution, and maybe more—if she can break free of those counting on her sacrificing herself for them.

SILENT 4, a standalone film in the SILENT franchise, is worth watching if you don’t require a big budget to be entertained, and can appreciate an excellent, theme-ambitious cast and crew making the most of out of what little they have to work with, including often icky effects.

 Followed by the standalone SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER (1991).

Deep(er) filmic dive

Brian Yuzna, one of the story sources for SILENT 4, has said that he was “not interested” in focusing on Christmas in SILENT 4, hence its few scenes highlighting the holiday season. Yuzna co-produced its sequel a year later and tried to make up for it by mandating that Christmas should be central to SILENT 5’s storyline.

 

According to IMDb, SILENT 4’s premise was going to be used for the third entry in the SILENT franchise but was rejected by the third entry’s filmmakers.

 

In one scene, scenes from SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3: BETTER WATCH OUT! (1989) are broadcast on an onscreen television.

 

Neith Hunter (who played Kim Levitt in SILENT 4) played a character named Kim in SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER, 1991). Clint Howard, who played Ricky in SILENT 4, played a character named Ricky in SILENT 5. Conan Yuzna, real-life son of Brian Yuzna, played Lonnie (Hank’s younger brother) in SILENT 4—he also played a character named Lonnie in SILENT 5.

According to Brian Yuzna, in a commentary track for a Blu-Ray version of SILENT 4, Yuzna said these recurring-name characters may or may not be the same characters, that he and fellow SILENT 4 and 5 filmmakers were “playing around” with names between the two films. . . He didn’t mention if Howard’s character (Ricky) is a call-back name to Ricky Chapman, younger brother of killer-Santa Billy in the original SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) and the killer in the first two sequels that followed.

 

According to IMDb, the call letters on a television news reporter’s microphone is UZNA, a reference to the film’s director, Brian Yuzna.

 

The giant cockroach seen in Kim’s apartment is a reference to Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The long nose that Ricky wears during Kim’s ritual scene is a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971).

 

According to Brian Yuzna, his son (Conan), who appears in the film as Lonnie, isn’t fond of mentioning/promoting his appearances in this film and SILENT 5. Yuzna mentioned this in his commentary track for a Blu-Ray version of SILENT 4.

JACK FROST (1997)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Michael Cooney)

Review

Snowmonton, California. After a truck carrying vicious serial killer Jack Frost (Scott Macdonald) to his execution collides with a genetics company truck, Frost’s body is bathed in the experimental fluid, fusing his melted body with the snow. The police, thinking Frost dead, declare him as such.

But Frost is still alive. He is a murderous snowman seeking revenge on the small-town cop (Sheriff Sam Tiler, played by Christopher Allport) who arrested him, with a few more killings along the way. Tiler is still jittery about Frost, who to the end of his life, vociferously vowed vengeance on Tiler.

The bodies pile up quickly in this low budget horror comedy─an old man is found frozen to death, with serious spinal damage; a bully picking on Ryan, Tiler’s son, while Ryan builds a snowman (actually Frost, unbeknownst to Ryan). Horrible, quip-punctuated deaths follow. 

As a direct-to-video comedy horror flick, JACK─not to be confused with the 1998 Michael Keaton film─is a golden turkey (“so bad it’s good”): it’s fun, mostly light-toned, and fast-paced, with good cinematography and FX, and intentionally cheesy/well-shot kill scenes (and quips to accompany said killings). One of the murder scenes involving a bathtub stands out for its darkness: a young woman (Jill Metzner) is raped by Frost before she’s covered in frost (while this is shot in a ridiculous, darkly humorous way, it’s obviously still disturbing and unnecessary)─shown in JACK's original trailer, the filmmakers had not intended for Jill to be assaulted that way, just killed, but since her murder scene so closely resembled further violation, they shot additional footage of Frost saying sex puns.

Shannon Elizabeth, billed as Shannon Elizabeth Fadal, played Jill. This was her first role; she appeared in AMERICAN PIE two years later and other bigger budget movies.

There are no wasted shots in JACK and all the players are solid in their roles, making this hour-and-a-half-long B-movie breezy entertainment with an imaginative, laugh-out-loud finish to its villain. Its ending explicitly leaves JACK open for a sequel, keeping with the (mostly) fun spirit of the film. Followed by JACK FROST 2: REVENGE OF THE MUTANT KILLER SNOWMAN (2000).

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

In Andrea Subissati’s article “Massacre Under the Mistletoe” (Rue Morgue magazine, issue 203, November/December 2021, pp. 12-18), she interviewed JACK FROST director Michael Cooney. In it, Cooney said:

—JACK FROST was made in 1994 but not released until 1997, and originally was budgeted as a bigger film with a bigger director.

—JACK FROST  was not intended as a horror film, though it was “influenced by horror films. . . [it was influenced] by Sam Raimi’s THE EVIL DEAD (1981)”.

—Cooney wished he’d shot JACK FROST “on film.” The producers wanted it “shot on digital because that’s how they wanted to promote it. Nobody had lit this camera before, and we struggled. The early digital [cameras] had no depth of field; we were trying to figure out how to make pools of light; the little centre on this brand-new camera picked up every piece of light. . . I think it would have had more warmth if it were shot on film.”

PARTY HARD, DIE YOUNG (2018)

 

(Shudder Original/streaming film. Director: Dominik Hartl. Screenwriters: Robert Buschwenter and Karin Lomot.)

Storyline

Julia and her friends travel to Croatia from Germany to have the “party of their lives”─a celebration that is interrupted by a clever killer who has targeted them.

 

Review

PARTY, a Shudder Original streaming film, is a generic, sometimes entertaining Eurostylish version of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER crossed with a rape story. (At one point, one character sarcastically namechecks KNOW.) While PARTY is visually interesting, has pretty, young people (for those who care about that), and far from the worst thriller I’ve seen, its bland, mostly suspense-less (aside from the rooftop stalk-and-slay scene) film is more of a drama with mostly one-note characters. The filmmakers clearly have the chops to deliver a visually interesting work─it’s Robert Buchschwenter and Karin Lomot’s screenplay that makes PARTY a forgettable, flashy exercise that shows off modern-day technology and attractive youth partying. The end-shot is darkly humorous, so kudos to the filmmakers for that. Worth watching, if you need something occasionally-fun-in-parts flick that you can fall asleep to midway through, without missing anything important.

PARTY is rated R for mild gore, a flash of female nudity, violence, drug use and foul language.

BARBARIAN (2022)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Zach Cregger)

Review

Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) arrives at an Airbnb house (476 Barbary Street) in Detroit, Michigan, in the falling-apart neighborhood of Brightmoor. She’s staying there for a job interview (as a researcher for a documentary filmmaker) she has the next day. When Tess gets there, problems begin immediately—the house key isn’t in the lockbox like it’s supposed to be; the person who rent it to her can’t be reached by cell phone; she discovers that the house has been double-booked.

The other guest is Keith M. Toshko (Bill Skarsgård, IT, 2017), a gentlemanly, friendly but possibly sketchy man who causes Tess’s guard to come up, even after he confirms his Airbnb reservation and does nothing but nice things for her. Her suspicions continue for a little while, then odd things begin to happen, causing her to rethink her situation, like: why is their Airbnb, the only pristine house in the neighborhood, surrounded by such exurb ruins? What are all the weird, whispery noises she hears when she’s trying to sleep?

It’s not long before BARBARIAN, a mixed genre horror film, shifts gears and lead characters—for better or worse, depending on the viewer. The occasionally gory movie, with its deft pacing (hello, editor Joe Murphy) and touches of dark humor, well-timed reveals, effective audio effects and makeup FX, and often smart characters (usually women), initially has the audio and visual feel of a David Fincher work; later, its tone/feel is that of a Sam Raimi flick, something director/screenwriter Cregger (who cameos as Everett) has noted in at least one interview.

BARBARIAN sports some noteworthy actors, beyond its initial leads:

Kate Nichols (DOOM: ANNIHILATION, 2019) played Catherine, a documentary filmmaker Tess wants to work for;

Jaymes Butler (RESIDENT EVIL, 2002) played Andre, a street person living near the strange Airbnb;

Justin Long (DRAG ME TO HELL, 2009) played A.J. Gilbride, an abusive Hollywood actor;

Richard Brake (HALLOWEEN II, 2009) played Frank;

Matthew Patrick Davis played The Mother;

Kate Bosworth (THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, 2002) voiced Melisa, a television executive;

J.R. Esposito (DOOM: ANNIHILATION, 2019) played Jeff, A.J.’s accountant;

Söphie Sorenson (MIDSOMMAR, 2019) voiced Bonnie, a property management employee.

As I noted before, some viewers might be put off by BARBARIAN’s story shift (which comes back to its initial leads)—not only that, some might be put off by brief instances of implied/off-screen rapes and a few over-the-top moments, but given its mostly smart and sometimes clever characters, effective and fresh twists, and previously noted virtues, BARBARIAN is an above-average horror film that ably addresses societal ills (poverty, crime, the police) without speechifying or sacrificing its entertainment value.

SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE III (1990)

 

(a.k.a SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE 3. Director: Sally Mattinson. Screenwriter: Catherine Cyran.)

 

Storyline

A high school girl invites her girlfriends to spend the night at her house, only to have it crashed by a murderous nutjob with a drill motor.

 

Review

In Venice Beach, California, high school senior Jackie Cassidy (Keely Christian) throws a slumber party in her parents’ house. Unfortunately, there are a few male weirdos lurking around the girls, and one of them is a psycho with a drill motor.

Considered the worst entry in the SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (SPM) trilogy, III is an in-name-only, by-the-numbers sequel that recycles a lot of its scenes from the two previous films. III was directed by Sally Mattinson, who said in a later interview she hated horror films─ she made it was because she wanted to direct her first film, and producer Roger Corman offered it to her. She probably hated III more when Corman told her she had to put an unnecessary rape scene in it, one that messes up the continuity of the film and makes the occasionally plucky characters come off as dumb(er), cruel, and cowardly, before they recover their courage.

As with the first two films, III is a brightly lit terror flick, with little suspense, groan-worthy humor, gratuitous nudity, and lots of run-knock-down-killer-run-again scenes, except this time there’s no satirical feminist bent to help III stand out from other slasher works. It does, however, move along quickly, have an impressive body count (twelve), a good, postmortem intestines-ripped-out scene (as well as a don’t-bathe-with-that scene). Not only that, SPM films are the only franchise to be written and directed solely by women (shame on the industry, a plus-point for SPM films).

The cast, who play stock slasher characters (blame the writing), sports some names which appeared in other notable horror flicks:

Maria Ford (NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD, 1993) as Maria;

Hope Marie Carlton (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER, 1988) as Janine;

Maria Claire (SOCIETY, 1989) as Susie;

Brittain Frye (HIDE AND GO SHRIEK, 1988) as preppie Ken Whitehouse;

Michael Harris (SLEEPSTALKER, 1995) as Dr. Morgan Herdman, Jackie’s pervy neighbor;

Yan Birch (THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, 1991) as The Weirdo;

Marta Kober (FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 2, 1981) as “Pizza Girl”;

Wayne Grace (FRIDAY THE 13^th: THE FINAL CHAPTER, 1984) as Officer O’Reilly;

Alexander Folk (FRIGHT NIGHT PART 2, 1988) as Detective Davis.

 

Sharp-eyed low budget fans might notice two other things about III, like that fact that the poster girls for III are not in the film, and that III’s interior set─located in Corman’s Venice Beach studio─were later used in another Corman franchise sequel, SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE II (1990).

Would I recommend III? For most people, no. However, if you’re looking for a generic, video-slick 1990s production (although III enjoyed a successful, limited-release theatrical run) with some T&A and an unnecessary, strange (though not explicit) rape scene, this might be a flick to fall asleep to.

SPIDER BABY (1964)

 

(a.k.a. SPIDER BABY, OR THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD; ATTACK OF THE LIVER EATERS; THE LIVER EATERS; director/screenwriter/uncredited editor: Jack Hill)

 

Review

Bracketed by an introduction and outro by nice-guy Peter Howe (Quinn K. Redeker), “distant cousin” to the Merrye clan, this black-and-white, G-rated (more PG-13) film tells—via an extended ten-years-prior flashback—the story of the last generation of the Merrye family, who suffer from a rare mentally and physically degenerative disease (the Merrye Syndrome), an inherited madness that progressively reduces them to savages as they age. These thrilled-to-kill siblings (Ralph, Elizabeth, and Virginia), in their early twenties to early thirties, are watched by over by their tired old chauffeur, Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.) who promised their dead father (Titus) he’d look after them. Exacerbating Bruno’s efforts to shield them from the world, despite an impending highway near their house, are the siblings’ increasing curious about the outside world.

Bruno’s situation is made more difficult when distant “cousins” (ruthless, money-hungry Emily Howe and nice-guy brother Peter) come to the rundown Merrye residence to become legal guardians of Virginia, Elizabeth, and Ralph, relatives they’ve never met. Accompanying them are their pushy, cigar-chomping lawyer, Schlocker (Karl Schanzer, DEMENTIA 13, 1963), and his kind, twenty-something secretary, Ann Morris (Mary Mitchel, DEMENTIA 13, 1963), later mother to Jessica Howe.

Shlocker and Emily insist on spending the night at Chez Merrye, over Bruno’s polite objections. From there on, it’s fast, onscreen-bloodless slide into disaster for all involved. Dinner—a cooked cat (for the guests), insects, “Soufflé Fungi” and other questionable options—goes badly, and as the night progresses, it becomes deadly for some of the visitors after Schlocker kills one of Virginia’s beloved tarantulas (offscreen), and later, sneaks around the house.

SPIDER, made in 1964 but not released until 1967, is an influential, genre mash-up masterwork on many levels. It’s a rare dark-comedy horror flick where the filmmakers and actors embraced its key elements (terror, madness and humor) with equal, effective fervor—there’s plenty of secret passages, a dangerous basement, spookiness and chiaroscuro, over-the-top acting and sly dialogue (e.g., when Bruno says “There’s going to be a full moon tonight,” a reference to Chaney’s THE WOLF MAN, 1941). SPIDER is further buoyed by its consistently playful tone and offscreen, hinted-at darkness (murder, cannibalism, rape). This is a suspenseful, tightly written and edited movie, with twists and turns and a fun, sequel-friendly finish.

The entire cast and crew shine as well. Lon Chaney, billed as Lon Chaney Jr. and true to form, evinces empathy, sadness, and resignation as Bruno. Jill Banner is entertaining as Virginia Merrye, who “play[s] Spider” with her “prey.” Beverly Washburne is also fun as Elizabeth Merrye, the told-you-so sibling of the bunch. Sid Haig (HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, 2003) is great as their shy, murderous, Peeping Tom older brother, Ralph, who creeps around and has an erotic yen for Emily Howe.

Other non-Merrye clan members include: Carol Ohmart (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, 1959) as the immodest-but-always-dressed, aggressive Emily Howe; and Mantan Moreland (KING OF THE ZOMBIES, 1941) as the wide-eyed, comically scared “Messenger” at the film’s start—by today’s standards his role will likely seem racist, but given his popularity in the 1940s, it was more filmic character trope than conscious racism.

SPIDER’s excellent behind-the-scenes crew includes: director of photographer Alfred Taylor (KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE, 1988); art director Ray Storey, billed as Ray Story (THE TIME TRAVELERS, 1964); and composer Ronald Stein (NOT OF THIS EARTH, 1957), whose spooky-yet-mood-varied cues add to SPIDER’s effective feel.

This is one of my all-time favorite horror comedies, an entertaining balance of humor, terror and quirky characterization, and a great example of both showing and implying its terrors, more implied than shown. Fans of Rob Zombie and THE ADDAMS FAMILY (1964-66) may especially appreciate its charms.

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.

GERMAN ANGST (2015)

 

(Directors: Jörg Buttgereit, Michal Kosakowski and Andreas Marschall. Screenwriters: Jörg Buttgereit [“Final Girl”], Goran Mimica [“Make a Wish”] and Andreas Marschall [“Alraune”].)

Review

This tripartite anthology features “love, sex and death”-themed segments, all of which take place in Berlin. There is no wraparound story in GERMAN, though each segment is separated by footage of Berlin architecture and closeups of the city’s fountains.  

 

Jörg Buttgereit’s sly, melancholic “Final Girl” features extreme close ups, odd camera angles, blurry-image mirrors, and home film footage. Its suburban-set story concerns a teen girl (with a proclivity for cutting), her beloved guinea pigs and a blindfolded, gagged man tied to a bed. Girl (as her character is called) obsesses on guinea pig behavior and the man’s gory pain via household instruments. Buttgereit provides enough visual and dialogue clues to provide the (possible) backstory leading up to the current situation, with a finish that is suitably abrupt and striking (credit editor Michal Kosakowski for that─Kosakowski also edited his directorial segment, “Alraune”). “Final” put me in the mindset of the 1976 American film THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE.

Lola Gave played “Girl.” Axel Holst played “Father.”

 

“Make A Wish,” initially light and romantic, turns malicious and violent after a deaf and dumb couple (Jacek and Kasia) explore an abandoned industrial building where they’re interrupted by racist punks. The couple’s situation parallels something that happened in a Polish village in “late summer 1943” when Jacek’s grandmother, along with her fellow villagers, were rounded up by Nazi tormentors─and, like those long-ago soldiers, the punks don’t know about a two-figured necklace their intended victims have in their possession.

“Wish”’s story is interesting, the camera work is fluid and constantly moving (Kosakowski lacks Buttgereit’s propensity for artsy closeups), and its tones─visual and otherwise─is grimy, contrasting well with “Final”’s almost antiseptic cleanliness. (Credit cinematographer Sven Jakob-Engelmann, who worked on all three segments.) Unfortunately, “Wish” runs long in the middle, though its ending, like “Final”’s, is sharp and satisfying.

Among “Wish“’s standout players: Matthan Harris (FOR WE ARE MANY, 2019) played Jacek; Annika Strauss, Kasia.

Andreas Marschall’s “Alraune” centers around a successful bottle photographer (Eden) who tells his girlfriend (Maya), via flashback, about a mysterious dark-haired seductress (Kira Kutyneko) who inadvertently introduces him to a secret “members only” sex club (Opius), where the powerful Petrus (with his menacing charm and curious empathy) holds sway. There, Eden’s carnal encounters with Kira take on a further, supernatural edge, one that hooks the pushy photographer─he’s blindfolded and told not to lift it under any circumstances (lending a fairy tale-esque morality to “Alraune”). Then, of course, he lifts it, unleashing a nightmare existence.

This is my favorite of the three segments, one that beguiles (with its brief bursts of extremity, humor, rich color, intuitive closeups and effective editing)─a great minifilm with some gory, nasty elements coming to the forefront near its finish.

Milton Welsh, who provided voicework in “Wish,” played Eden. Désirée Giorgetti (ZOMBIE MASSACRE 2: REICH OF THE DEAD, 2015) played Maya. Kristina Kostiv (the upcoming THE CORPSE GRINDERS) played Kira. Rüdiger Kuhlbrodt, with his striking features, played Petrus.

 

GERMAN is a good, memorable film (even with “Wish”’s brief lag-time), one of the better compendium gore-and-shock films I’ve seen in a long time, its execution enhanced by Fabio Amurri’s subtle and effectively mood-fluidic compositions.

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).