Susan Granger’s review of “The Hills Have Eyes” (20th Century-Fox/Fox Searchlight)
Back in 1977, Wes Craven concocted a scare story about a typical American family on a camping trip being harassed by savage, cannibalistic mutants. Now the cult horror-classic has been remade for a new generation.
This time, gun-toting Ted Levine and devout Kathleen Quinlan play a squabbling couple from Cleveland who are celebrating their 25th anniversary with their extended family: two teens (Emilie de Ravin, Dan Bryd), a twentysomething daughter (Vinessa Shaw), her wimpy “liberal” husband (Aaron Stanford), their baby and a couple of German shepherds. Towing a Gulf Stream trailer through the Southwest en route to San Diego, they decide to take a scenic shortcut – until their tire blows out, not by accident, mind you, but from spikes deliberately placed on the lonely back road.
Remember that nuclear testing conducted in New Mexico during the Cold War era of the ’40s and ’50s? Layers of radioactive dust have wreaked havoc with the gene pool of a multigenerational family of nasty, savage mutants who live in the surrounding hills.
Directed by Alexandre Aja from a screenplay by Aja and Gregory Levasseur and produced by Wes Craven, it’s less inventive and far more graphically brutal than its predecessor, although that’s probably to be expected from filmmakers who achieved success from “High Tension,” a vicious French slasher picture. Aja confuses suspense with shock, sacrificing the former for the latter. And it seems that depravity has gone mainstream – without so much as a slap on the wrist from the MPAA. While it’s R-rated in theaters, you can bet the upcoming DVD will be sold to anyone and everyone. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Hills Have Eyes” is a tense, toxic 2. It’s a radioactive waste of time.
