The Hills Have Eyes

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.          

Shot on 16mm, the movie is always going to be stuck with the limitations of its original material.  But that didn’t prevent Arrow Films from giving it the 4K treatment with a new restoration, viewable with both original and alternate endings.  How does it look?   Pretty damn amazing!  The HDR helps to bring down some of the brightness, providing an overall pleasing appearance that belies its rough origins.  The extras are mostly archival, but some of the perks include a fold-out poster and collectible booklet.            

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembo...
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there...
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annab...
Read more