Some nice effective modern horror.

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2008)

I'm not against remakes in general, since sometimes modern movies can give 'older' movies something extra with a makeover with todays technology and standards. Doesn't mean that I just agree with all remakes, since some of them are just plain pointless since the original ones are already brilliant at their own right. However this is just a remake that I don't mind. To be honest I haven't seen the 1977 Wes Craven original but I'll bet that it was quite different from this movie. This movie is a typical modern horror movie, with a modern atmosphere and style written all over it. I wouldn't at all be surprised if this movie actually turned out to be better than its original.
The movie features purely unknown actors, with the exception of Ted Levine perhaps and Kathleen Quinlan also has had her 15 minutes of fame. The fact that this movie purely mostly features unknown actors in it ensures that you just never know in advance who is going to die next. This of course has a successful effect on the tension and therefor the movie overall.
Yes, "The Hills Have Eyes" is mostly a formulaic genre movie and also story-wise this movie really ain't anything special (basicly the movie is about the one killing after the other) but its simply such a fine made one that you tend to sort of forgive the movie for all of its imperfections.
For the genre movie lover this is just one great to watch movie, that features all of the ingredients you would expect from it. Some good scare moments, some fine make-up effects and plenty of good old gore. It's a quality made movie, with a fine crew behind it. Director Alexandre Aja previously had directed the French stylish horror hit "Haute tension" and was probably the reason why he got picked to directed this movie.
There are definitely worse genre movies to watch out there, especially when it comes down to remakes.
7/10
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