| | | The Version To Die For.
Features: DVD, Unrated, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Surround Sound, Featurettes, Audio Commentary, Music Video, Production Diaries, Trailers, English, French, Spanish Subtitled
Based on the original film by fright master Wes Craven, The Hills Have Eyes is the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone.
"When Aja really starts in on the brutal slayings, he spares no one any comfort at all." Heidi Martinuzzi, Film Threat
"Visually, the movie is wildly alive, full of sure touches." Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
Editor's Note
With his 2006 remake of Wes Craven's 1977 slasher THE HILLS HAVE EYES, French director Alexandre Aja manages to accomplish what many directors fail to do by making his film a definite improvement over the original. With Craven on board as producer, Aja sticks pretty closely to the first film's script and storyline, but with the help of a larger budget, special effects, better actors, and slick cinematography, creates a much scarier story. While the film's setting is contemporary, it maintains a 1970s feel in parts, paying tribute to the decade in which the slasher subgenre was born. With an interesting opening-credit sequence consisting of actual nuclear testing footage, we are told that the film's desert setting was the site of nuclear testing during the 1950s and ?60s. Warned to vacate, the miners that lived there refused to leave, thus subjecting themselves to high levels of toxic radiation, and breeding mutant babies as a result. It is this generation of now-grown mutants that the poor Carter family has the misfortune to encounter while driving through New Mexico on their way to California. When their vehicle breaks down in the desert, the Carters are too busy bickering with one another to realize they have entered enemy territory. But it doesn't take long for the demented creatures living in the hills to make their presence known. The gorefest that follows is packed with terribly frightening scenes of the deformed killers delighting in the torment and intended kill of each family member, young mothers, teen girls, and babies included. Much of the film is set in a government-created test city in which deteriorating mannequins take the place of actual humans. Posing lifelessly alongside their mutant neighbors, these waxy figures provide a chilling backdrop for the graphic war between the mutants and their victims.
| Features | "Surviving The Hills: Making Of The Hills Have Eyes" | | Audio Commentary By Director Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levassuer & Marianne Maddalena | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: Spanish Dolby Surround | | Dubbed: Spanish | | Fox Movie Channel: "Casting Session" | | Interactive Menus | | Music Video | | Production Diaries | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Trailer For "Behind Enemy Lines 2" |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 8/6/2009 |
| Running Time: 101 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2006 | | Catalog ID: 2234747 | | UPC: 00024543247470 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"Directed in tense, concentrated jabs...the remake establishes a jittery family dynamic as well as the original..." 03/10/2006 p.E19Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]mpressively ferocious....[T]he movie matches the relentless high tension of the French filmmaker's breakthrough..." 08/01/2006 p.98 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he violence, when it comes, is stomach-churningly intense." 07/01/2006 p.86 Chicago Sun-Times 5 of 10
It is not faulty logic that derails "The Hills have Eyes," however, but faulty drama. The movie is a one-trick pony. We have the eaters and the eatees, and they will follow their destinies until some kind of desperate denouement, possibly followed by a final shot showing that It's Not Really Over, and there will be a "The Hills Have Eyes II." Of course, there was already "The Hills Have Eyes II" (1985), but then again there was "The Hills Have Eyes" (1977) and that didn't stop them. Maybe this will. Isn't it pretty to think so. - Roger Ebert
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