THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)

A Nightmare on Elm Street really opened my eyes to horror when I saw it at the cinema back in the 80s. I took one of my early teen dates to it in Sydney, she got a lift home with her dad and I had to catch the train home solo and then walk a good 40 minutes home from the train station so it made for a thoroughly scary experience for a mid teen boy.

What that night did though, was make me really look at directors and what they made, and a lifelong admiration for Wes Craven started then. I didn’t actually see this film until much later (along with Last House on the Left) but, and this kind of buries the lead, but liked it, and also started a love of that hillbilly horror subgenre of horror.

I have a special relationship with 1977’s The Hills Have Eyes insomuch that my second favourite movie poster of all time is the Italian poster for the film, and I have one hanging in my house next to my record collection, which I think is pretty damned cool.

The Hills Have Eyes tells of the Carter family, on holidays and making their way to California with a nice big caravan on the back of their vehicle. Unfortunately for them, they take a wrong turn, and end up in an area forbidden to public access.

After the car breaks down, Big Bob (Russ Grieve) and Doug (Martin Speer). They venture off in opposite directions leaving the family abandoned in the middle of the desert, and one of their dogs goes missing.

Doug returns but Big Bob has been captured by a mutant family living in the hills, and they set fire to him in front of his family before attacking the rest of them, raping, killing and kidnapping the baby.

Will Doug and the surviving family members be able to save the child… or even save themselves?!?

I like this movie mainly due to its theme which asks how far can you push a person until they snap, and maybe they response to pressure changes them permanently and in a way where they may not recognise themselves, and no longer like what they may have become.

I also admire the choice in making the hill people more like a force of nature, a natural disaster that descends upon a normal family who have to go above and beyond, both in inventiveness and ruthlessness to survive. Even down to their ignorance of the sanctity of human life may be revealed in the choices of names: Mercury, the god of travellers, trickery and thieves, Jupiter, the god of thunder, Pluto, the god of the dead and Mars, the god of war.

It’s almost like the cast were cast for two separate films and a calamity brought them together. The hill people are an extreme parody of what we city folk imagine hillbillies to be like, and the city folk are played completely straight. It makes me think of movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where the animated cast are so extreme they don’t seem to fit except for the fact that the story and the direction are so finely tuned to suit them both. That alienation is what makes these sorts of films so much fun, I suppose.

The location is such a character of this film as well. The dry, obtusely horrible terrain makes survival appear harder that what it could ever possibly be, and like Tobe Hooper’s visual eye for Texas Chainsaw Saw Massacre, one almost feels like they need to be rehydrated after spending anytime in the environment.

All in all, every hillbilly horror I’ve enjoyed, from Wrong Turn to Hosue of 1,000 Corpses can be tracked back to my enjoyment of this film. I probably dig the remake even more, but that might be for budgetary reasons, which allowed the mutants to be more mutated.

Disc:

Before I look at the extras on the disc, there are a few other extras in the slipcase edition of the film from Arrow Video. First there is a series of 6 postcards with movie posters for the film from all over the world… including my aforementioned Italian one. There is also a double sided poster of the film depicting two of the American posters, and finally, a small book with two essays, one by Brad Stevens and one by Ewan Cant, and a small blurb about the film’s transfer.

Now let’s look at the extras on the disc:

Looking Back at The Hills Have Eyes is a general making of style thing but it goes for a solid hour and has extensive commentary from Craven which is fantastic.

Family Business is a new interview with Martin Speer who played Doug, and he discusses his memories of the making of the film.

The Desert Sessions is a 2016 interview with composer Don Peake who wrote the score. He has some really nice recollections on Craven and how they approached the soundtrack.

Alternate Ending is an interesting curio but little more than that. I like the choice that was made instead,

I’m not sure who the Outtakes are for, but the filled up the disc?

Trailers and TV Spots features a U.S. trailer, a German trailer and some TV advertising.

Image Gallery which I’ll actually compliment for the first time as it is even MORE movie posters from the film!

Audio Commentaries, which are only available to watch with the ‘regular’ release of the film, and there are three of them, one with the cast, with with Wes Craven and Peter Locke, and finally, one with Mikel J. Koven. Having the three different commentaries in pretty amazing as it offers so much information from different points of view.

Film: 7/10

Extras: 9/10

Rewatchability: 7/10