See cannibal mutants run amok in the California desert! See an American family on a camping trip brutalized by these deformed victims of atomic testing! See mom (Kathleen Quinlan) and dad (Ted Levine) try to protect their daughters — teen sexpot Brenda (Emilie De Ravin) and new mom Lynn (Vinessa Shaw) — from rape and worse while kid brother Bobby (Dan Byrd) and Lynn's tadpole husband, Doug (Aaron Stanford), watch in horror until they become killers themselves! See the family's two dogs, Beauty and Beast, do their part to kick mutant ass! Guess which pooch survives!

Back in 1977, director Wes Craven (Scream) gave this tale a primitive pow on a shoestring budget of $325,000. The remake, directed and co-written by Alexandre Aja (High Tension), pours more money and gore into the mix. But Aja has a serious streak, drawing dysfunction parallels between the mutant family and the allegedly normal one. Aja also comes out squarely against nuclear testing. How brave. What good is a wallow in sicko sadism if you take all the fun out of it?

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.