Alexandre Aja's "High Tension" was a tense, heavily atmospheric horror film that, despite a completely unnecessary and improbable ending, announced him as bold new stylist in terror cinema. "The Hills Have Eyes" solidifies him as a major talent, and provides one of the best, gut-wrenching, fingers-digging-into-knee horror films of the decade thus far. Rob Zombie accomplished a similar feat last year with the mesmerizing "Devil's Rejects". Both films revolve around families of freakish killers, though their points of view couldn't be more different.
"Hills" gives us the all American family road trip and the subsequent (and convenient) horror movie convention of a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere. But oh, what a glorious nowhere it is! The hills in this movie really do have a life of their own - rolling desert dunes punctuated by huge chasms and valleys, all drenched in toasted sand and lashing wind. The movie accomplishes a rare thing: making the usually safe haven of daytime even more nightmarish than the night. Never mind the lame script or transparent characterizations. This is a movie about monsters and the innocents they draw into their web. A visceral sucker-punch of a film. Horror fans have something to cheer about, a rarity in today's oversaturated yet underwhelming horror film market.
"Hills" gives us the all American family road trip and the subsequent (and convenient) horror movie convention of a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere. But oh, what a glorious nowhere it is! The hills in this movie really do have a life of their own - rolling desert dunes punctuated by huge chasms and valleys, all drenched in toasted sand and lashing wind. The movie accomplishes a rare thing: making the usually safe haven of daytime even more nightmarish than the night. Never mind the lame script or transparent characterizations. This is a movie about monsters and the innocents they draw into their web. A visceral sucker-punch of a film. Horror fans have something to cheer about, a rarity in today's oversaturated yet underwhelming horror film market.