The Hills Have Eyes

The death of Wes Craven sent a huge ripple through the film world. Craven, though more versatile than most would think, was still primarily known as a director of horror films. But he didn't just make horror films--he set the tone for horror films in three different decades. In the '80s he created one of the most enduring horror characters of all time, Freddy Krueger. In the '90s he created the meta-horror film, with Scream. But in the '70s he made a pair of the most imitated horror films of all time. One of those was 1977's The Hills Have Eyes.

I had never seen it before, so I didn't know what to expect. It was supposed to be super violent, but I found that most of the mayhem happened off screen and, in the tradition of most great horror, it's the anticipation and imaging of the events that make the skin crawl.

The story, which I learned is based on a real-life incident from 16th-century Scotland, finds a family driving across Nevada on their way to California. They stop at a gas station and are warned by the old coot pumping their gas to stay off the main road. Of course they don't, as they are looking for a silver mine. The father, a former cop, drives the station wagon and trailer off the road, breaking an axle.

Slowly we realize that the family is being watched, and it's by a family spawned by some kind of mutant who is the son of the old coot. They live in the hills and are not very friendly, to put a nice spin on it. The family will match wits with the creepies, and a lot of people will die in very extreme ways.

I really enjoyed the film, appreciating Craven's craft enough to overlook the amateurish acting (the only person of note in the cast is Dee Wallace, unless you count the impressive brow of Michael Berryman, who would become a horror film staple). One actor in particular, Robert Houston, who plays the young son of the family, seems to think he's in a different movie. I also loved/hated his t-shirt, which simply has black letters on blue reading "Ohio State." Clearly it's not a real Ohio State shirt--their colors are scarlet and gray.

What makes the film resonate are the implications of the all-American family violated by the uncivilized. The teenage daughter, Susan Lanier, is raped by one of the hairy sons of the family, and a baby is kidnapped with the intention of being eaten. The baby's father (Michael Speer) ends up being the hero of the film, overcoming his embarrassingly short cut-offs he wears in the beginning of the movie.

The "family-broken-down-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" genre is a basic one in horror--I can think of Breakdown, which was more polished but doesn't have the innate fear of the unknown that The Hills Have Eyes has.