Hills Have Eyes new

Low-budget horror hit a peak in the 70’s with films like Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes breaking the barriers of good taste and the heretofore predictable rules of scary movies audiences came to expect. These were the pioneers of the “anti-Hollywood” horror movie. Despite its rabid cult following, Hills isn’t the most accomplished film of Wes Craven’s career. The editing is clumsy, the acting is weak and the make-up is corny (actor Michael Berryman’s misshapen bald skull makes him the only convincing inbred hick in the bunch). At best, Hills is a jury-rigged minor masterpiece, held together by sheer brute force and an overwhelming sense of dread. The film feeds off the momentum of its stripped down story about a family of whitebread vacationers fighting for survival in the desert against a family of cannibalistic madmen (and women). The set-piece scene - and the one that likely earned the film its reputation - is a disturbingly violent attack at the family RV which includes one rape, two shootings and a kidnapped baby saved for dinner. Almost 30 years later, it still has the power to shock. And Hills’ success (there have been two sequels and one remake so far) is a testament to the power Craven tapped into exploring the animal instincts of savage and civilized man. Image Entertainment’s blu-ray doesn’t provide much of a hi-def upgrade. Shot on 16mm, the movie is stuck with the grainy limitations of its original material. But the soundtrack has been amped up and the disc does include an hour long documentary, “Looking Back on the Hills Have Eyes,” plus alternate ending.