While loyalists of Wes Craven’s cult pic “The Hills Have Eyes” will no doubt disagree about Gallic horror enfant terrible Alexandre Aja’s Craven-produced remake, the rest of the audience will feel bloodied and bruised by the end credits. More brutal and less ingenious than Fox Searchlight’s last horror venture, “28 Days Later,” pic feels more like a Dimension release and, in that sense, will test Fox’s specialized arm’s ability to milk every last dime out of a genre item. Opening frame multiplex mob scenes and ancillary gold seem assured.

Aja’s breakthrough French slasher pic, “High Tension,” has its supporters, but its critics point to a cynical style-for-style’s-sake attitude, merciless and inhuman feelings for the film’s victims and a weakness for extremely manipulative narrative trickery.

Some of Aja and regular co-screenwriter Gregory Levasseur’s worst tendencies, however, are muted by their decision...