With many of the movies on this list, I
struggle to write enough. But with The Hills Have Eyes, I
feel that I’m going to be unable to deal with all of my feelings,
due to the large number of memorable characters that I could talk
about. The simplest way of expressing my delight at this movie is
simply to say that it scared me. Not merely that I found it scary in
some abstract way, but that I actually felt fear coming from the
screen in front of me while watching this movie.
The premise of the film is that an
extended family, the Carters, (an elderly couple, their two children,
their spouses and a newborn grandchild) take a detour on their trip
to California. They want to search the area of an old silver mine,
thinking it might be fun to try to find some silver for the
grandparents’ anniversary. They’re warned by Fred (John
Steadman), the owner of a desert convenience store to stay on the
main road. But obviously, because this is a horror film, his advice
goes unheeded as they stumble into an Air Force bomb testing range,
go off the road when they’re bombed, and ending up stuck in the
middle of nowhere. Then, they fall prey to a family of cannibals,
led by the vicious Papa Jupiter (James Whitworth).
Before the attack comes, Big Bob (Russ
Grieve) departs the main group to try to get help from the
convenience store. There, he finds out from Fred that Jupiter is
Fred’s son, who burned his own sister to death. Fred beat his son
with a tire iron and left him in the desert to die. However, Jupiter
didn’t die, and in fact kidnapped a woman and started a cannibal
clan living in the desert, preying upon anyone who happened through.
We’re told that Jupiter’s wife (Cordy Clark) is a “whore,”
and thus unmissed. She actually seems quite willing to stay with
him, without any real explanation of why she converted to his way of
thinking. This movie doesn’t really have the best female
characters, so I’m not going to waste my time looking for an
explanation there.
Jupiter attacks the gas station,
killing Bob and Fred as his children attack the trailer. While the
relationship between Jupiter and Fred was probably my favorite part
of this film, I think the decision to kill Fred off was well-founded.
It’s a case of less-is-more. It’s established through Jupiter’s
daughter Ruby (Janus Blythe) that the cannibals were trading with
Fred and that he was covering up their existence. Furthermore, when
telling Jupiter’s story, Fred clearly takes great pains to never
refer to Jupiter as his son. But on at least one occasion, Jupiter
refers to him (posthumously) as “Grandpa Fred” and mockingly
chants “Da-dy” after killing him. I think the way their
relationship developed is something best left to our imagination.
Two of the women in the group are
killed by two of Jupiter’s sons Mars (Lance Gordon) and Pluto
(Michael Berryman), and the grandchild is kidnapped to be eaten. The
assault on the trailer is the most intense part of the film by far.
Berryman’s appearance is often cited as highly effective, but I
actually found Gordon to be more frightening. Mars seems to view the
world purely in terms of physical conflict, berating the Carter
family for being too weak to stop them. I believe Mars actually
serves as a contrast to Jupiter. Jupiter seems much more
calculating, and we understand that he’s someone who was exposed to
civilized life and rejected it. While in contrast to this, Mars
never had the chance to even understand what it is to be human.
I should probably also mention that
Jupiter has another son, Mercury (Arthur King), who seems to be
mentally handicapped... I’ve now mentioned him. He doesn’t play
a big enough role in the movie to discuss further.
The early-to-mid parts of this film
remind me of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There’s fairly
little blood, and much of the horror is implied. We never see the
cannibals kill the Carter’s dog, Beauty. It feels very real, like
the movie knows it doesn’t have to try to scare you, because it
scares you by its mere presence.
After the initial assaults, the movie
does go downhill. Wes Craven apparently considered killing the baby.
However, his entire crew threatened to walk off the set if he did so,
meaning that there are no further deaths in the Carter family after
that point. Ruby eventually turns on her family and helps protect
the baby, and we get a final act that features fast-acting
rattlesnake venom, obviously fake rocks being thrown around, and one
of the most contrived traps in film history.
The move never sinks to the level of
being “bad,” but to go from such a raw, brutal, grisly reality,
to cheese in the final act is a bit of a buzz kill. Notably, the
movie ends merely with the antagonists being defeated. The Carter
family is never shown escaping the desert. I suppose Ruby, now
allied with them, at least knows enough survival skills to keep them
alive walking out. I’m aware there’s a sequel, but I’m also
aware that Craven has publicly apologized for that sequel, so I don’t
really consider it canon.
Of all the Wes Craven films to make
this list (more than any other director), this is probably the
least-good. However, that’s a little like saying “the poorest
Billionaire.” Craven is a Master, and this is definitely a film
that has earned its place in cinema history.
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