In 1977, writer-director Wes Craven (The Last House On the Left, A Nightmare On Elm Street), gave the film world this cult classic, The Hills Have Eyes. Filled with a cast of TV actors/actresses and some unknowns, this film went on to be a major claim of fame for a few of the actors. The cast included; Susan Lanier (The Hills Have Eyes Part II), Robert Houston (The Hills Have Eyes Part II), Martin Speer (The Hills Have Eyes Part II), Dee Wallace-Stone (The Howling, Cujo), Russ Grieve (Foxy Brown), John Steadman (The Longest Yard (1974)), James Whitworth (The Candy Snatchers, Planet of the Dinosaurs), Virginia Vincent (60s 'Dragnet' TV series regular), Lance Gordon (The Hills Have Eyes Part II), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes Part II, The Devil's Rejects), Janus Blythe (The Incredible Melting Man, The Hills Have Eyes Part II) and Peter Locke (Producer, The Hills Have Eyes (2006)).
Bob Carter (Grieve), his wife Ethel (Vincent), their son Bobby (Houston), daughter Brenda (Lanier) and eldest daughter Lynne (Wallace-Stone) and her husband Doug (Speer) along with their infant daughter are all traveling from Ohio to California in a station wagon-camper. Along the way, Bob plans to check out a silver mine, much to the dismay of his younger kids. They stop at a gas station where the owner, Fred (Steadman) hears of their plans and advises the family to bypass the silver mine idea and head straight for California. Prior to the Carter family stopping at the gas station, Fred has a visit from his granddaughter, Ruby (Blythe), dressed in furs and looking a little worse for wear, she begs Fred to take her with him, but Fred tells her that should the family get wind of her desire to leave, she'll definitely be sorry. Once the Carter family is on their way, Fred goes back into the gas station and sees that Ruby has taken off.....
Bob and the family, naturally ignore the warning from Fred and continue on their way to find the silver mine. It seems the area the Carters are driving through is a U.S. Air Force training/bombing range and while the family argues about their whereabouts, a jet flying low causes Bob to run off the road and snap the vehicle's axle. With little choice, Bob decides to head back to the gas station and phone for some help and Doug heads off in the other direction, hoping to find the Air Force military base. The family's two German Shepherds, Beauty and Beast are let loose and Beauty takes off for the hills with Bobby on her heels. Climbing the rocks, Bobby hears Beauty whine in pain and when he gets to the top, he finds the remains of Beauty...ripped and torn. In shock, Bobby returns to the site of the accident and tells the family nothing of what's happened. Meanwhile, Bob finally reaches the gas station and finds Fred about to hang himself. Bob pulls him down and Fred begins to relate a story that Bob finds quite hard to swallow. It seems Fred and his wife had a child several years earlier, Jupiter (Whitworth), Fred goes into some uncomfortable details of the birth of his son and how mutated the child was. The family was later blessed with a daughter and one day while Fred was in town for supplies, the family home burned and both wife and daughter were killed....Fred, blaming his son, tried to kill the child and then left him in the desert to die. Jupiter didn't die, he has a family of his own, now and that family of cannibals has set their eyes and taste buds on the Carter family. From this point on, the Carter family is in a struggle to live or end up on the family dinner table of Jupiter, Mars (Gordon), Pluto (Berryman) and Mercury (Locke).
I first saw this film on VHS, way back and enjoyed it, but I think this is a film that either you like immediately or you dislike. I've not heard anyone say they disliked it from the get-go and then fell in love with it upon further viewings. Many fans consider this one of Craven's best films and it is quite good, I'm just not sure where it ranks for me in the Craven library of films. The Hills Have Eyes is one of those films that you watch and for me, I wonder what audiences thought when this first came out. I'm thinking the violence must have put some folks off and was it a film like, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre where more violence was implied, but audiences still walked away feeling they saw a lot more brutality than they actually did? All I can say after watching this film for the umpteenth time, I'm thrilled my family wasn't big on road trips, because we have the kind of luck and bad sense of direction that I have no doubt, this is how a road trip for us might have ended! If you're a fan of Wes Craven and his films and you haven't seen this film, by all means, give it a rent and I believe this DVD can also be purchased at a very reasonable price.....I have a little cash on hand, I may add this one to my collection, as it's long overdue!
Buy the original Hills Have Eyes on DVD at Amazon.com
Checkout the official website for the upcoming remake of the Hills Have Eyes opening in theaters on March 10th, 2005.
Watch the trailer for the upcoming remake of the Hill Have Eyes.
