When it was released last year, "High Tension", French filmmaker Alexandre Aja's highly visceral ode to '70s American horror movies, got the clammy, dread-soaked atmosphere down cold, but it was ultimately done in by glaring plot logic issues.
The result was still potent enough to impress terror meister Wes Craven, who hired Aja to remake his low-budget 1977 cult classic, "The Hills Have Eyes" (as opposed to his vastly inferior 1985 sequel), a particularly gory bit of business about a vacationing American family who is targeted by a clan of cannibalistic mutants.
Working with that ripe Craven script and a bigger budget, Aja and his writing partner Gregory Levasseur have layered in a nifty historical context involving fallout from nuclear testing, kept the performances reasonably naturalistic and have come up with that rare remake which actually manages to validate its existence while very much retaining the spirit of its predecessor.
Although the intensely graphic upshot might be tough to stomach for the average filmgoer, the "Eyes" should have it for hard-core horror buffs and Fox Searchlight.
Effectively setting the scene with an opening credit sequence composed of archival bomb-testing footage and a generous sampling of human anatomical mutations, the tale of The Carter Family's ill-fated road trip neatly shifts into high gear.
En route to California with an '88 Airstream trailer in tow, retiring police detective "Big Bob" (Ted Levine), wife Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan) and their three grown children, Lynn (Vinessa Shaw), Brenda (Emilie de Ravin) and Bobby (Dan Byrd), plus Lynn's mild-mannered pacifist husband, Doug (Aaron Stanford), their new baby and German Shepherds Beauty and Beast, take a detour that strands them in the middle of the desolate New Mexico desert (played by the desolate Moroccan desert).
They may be miles away from potential help, but it turns out they're definitely not alone, having invaded the turf of the crazed, mutated progeny of irradiated miners caught in the nuclear-testing fallout of the '40s and '50s -- darn Mapquest!
Needless to say, The Carter Family count is about to become seriously diminished.
Sharing sociological themes with David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence", "Hills" has more on its plate than your average slasher flick even as it breathlessly pushes the R-rated envelope when it comes to nonstop, gruesome gore.
In the aftermath of a queasy, tautly calibrated build, that crowd-pleasing release known as "payback time" does tend to grow a bit repetitive. To be honest, there are only so many times you can see a medieval-looking ax embed itself in a mutant skull before a certain ennui sets in.
But for the most part, Aja, Levasseur and their refreshingly nonwhiny cast of victims and survivors deliver the goods, as do visual effects supervisor Jamison Goei and special make-up effects vets Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger, who have outdone themselves with those truly hellacious hillbillies.
The Hills Have Eyes
Fox Searchlight
Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a Craven/Maddalena Films and Peter Locke production
A film by Alexandre Aja
Credits:
Director: Alexandre Aja
Screenwriters: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur
Based on: "Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes"
Producers: Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena, Peter Locke
Executive producer: Frank Hildebrand
Director of photography: Maxime Alexandre
Production designer: Joseph Nemec III
Editor: Baxter
Costume designer: Danny Glicker
Visual effects supervisor: Jamison Goei
Music: Tomandandy
Cast:
Doug Bukowski: Aaron Stanford
Ethel Carter: Kathleen Quinlan
Lynn Carter Bukowski: Vinessa Shaw
Brenda Carter: Emilie de Ravin
Bobby Carter: Dan Byrd
Gas station attendant: Tom Bower
Papa Jupiter: Billy Drago
Lizard: Robert Joy
"Big Bob" Carter: Ted Levine
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 107 minutes...
The result was still potent enough to impress terror meister Wes Craven, who hired Aja to remake his low-budget 1977 cult classic, "The Hills Have Eyes" (as opposed to his vastly inferior 1985 sequel), a particularly gory bit of business about a vacationing American family who is targeted by a clan of cannibalistic mutants.
Working with that ripe Craven script and a bigger budget, Aja and his writing partner Gregory Levasseur have layered in a nifty historical context involving fallout from nuclear testing, kept the performances reasonably naturalistic and have come up with that rare remake which actually manages to validate its existence while very much retaining the spirit of its predecessor.
Although the intensely graphic upshot might be tough to stomach for the average filmgoer, the "Eyes" should have it for hard-core horror buffs and Fox Searchlight.
Effectively setting the scene with an opening credit sequence composed of archival bomb-testing footage and a generous sampling of human anatomical mutations, the tale of The Carter Family's ill-fated road trip neatly shifts into high gear.
En route to California with an '88 Airstream trailer in tow, retiring police detective "Big Bob" (Ted Levine), wife Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan) and their three grown children, Lynn (Vinessa Shaw), Brenda (Emilie de Ravin) and Bobby (Dan Byrd), plus Lynn's mild-mannered pacifist husband, Doug (Aaron Stanford), their new baby and German Shepherds Beauty and Beast, take a detour that strands them in the middle of the desolate New Mexico desert (played by the desolate Moroccan desert).
They may be miles away from potential help, but it turns out they're definitely not alone, having invaded the turf of the crazed, mutated progeny of irradiated miners caught in the nuclear-testing fallout of the '40s and '50s -- darn Mapquest!
Needless to say, The Carter Family count is about to become seriously diminished.
Sharing sociological themes with David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence", "Hills" has more on its plate than your average slasher flick even as it breathlessly pushes the R-rated envelope when it comes to nonstop, gruesome gore.
In the aftermath of a queasy, tautly calibrated build, that crowd-pleasing release known as "payback time" does tend to grow a bit repetitive. To be honest, there are only so many times you can see a medieval-looking ax embed itself in a mutant skull before a certain ennui sets in.
But for the most part, Aja, Levasseur and their refreshingly nonwhiny cast of victims and survivors deliver the goods, as do visual effects supervisor Jamison Goei and special make-up effects vets Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger, who have outdone themselves with those truly hellacious hillbillies.
The Hills Have Eyes
Fox Searchlight
Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a Craven/Maddalena Films and Peter Locke production
A film by Alexandre Aja
Credits:
Director: Alexandre Aja
Screenwriters: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur
Based on: "Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes"
Producers: Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena, Peter Locke
Executive producer: Frank Hildebrand
Director of photography: Maxime Alexandre
Production designer: Joseph Nemec III
Editor: Baxter
Costume designer: Danny Glicker
Visual effects supervisor: Jamison Goei
Music: Tomandandy
Cast:
Doug Bukowski: Aaron Stanford
Ethel Carter: Kathleen Quinlan
Lynn Carter Bukowski: Vinessa Shaw
Brenda Carter: Emilie de Ravin
Bobby Carter: Dan Byrd
Gas station attendant: Tom Bower
Papa Jupiter: Billy Drago
Lizard: Robert Joy
"Big Bob" Carter: Ted Levine
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 107 minutes...
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