The Hills Have Eyes Photo

Hills Have Eyes

Starring: Aaron Stanford, Ted Levine, Dan Byrd, Emilie De Ravin, Kathleen Quinlan

Directed by: Alexandre Aja

RS: 2of 4 Stars

2006 Fox Searchlight Pictures Family

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?