Surprisingly scary remake of Wes Craven film

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2006)

re-make of Wes Craven's grungy 1977 film of the same name, "The Hills Have Eyes", directed by Alexandre Aja is surprisingly freaky.
It's essentially a re-tread of the original: A family on vacation is trekking through the New Mexico desert on their way to San Diego (although I think in the original they were in Nevada) and break down in what used to be an atomic test site. A family of hill-dwelling mutants, deformed from the fallout caused by the atomic testing, attacks the family, who are forced to fight back and become as "savage" as the "savages".
The original paid more attention to the mutant family. They were more of a primeval clan with a code and a genuine reason for doing what they were doing: taking revenge on the civilized world for making them who they were. Their appearances and actions were more understated and the audience was forced to empathize with them (a little, anyway). The girl Ruby, in the original, was a perfectly normal-looking girl (quite a cute one, too). In the re-make the mutants are flat-out monsters. Everything they do is brutal and putrid and horrifying.
Craven's intention with the original was not just to make a horror film but (as in "Last House on the Left") to make a horror film that acted as social protest. The film is based upon a actual incident in Scotland where a group of cannibals were found living in a cave. They would set upon travellers, rob them, and steal their belongings. What attracted Craven to the story was not just that they were cannibals, but that when they were caught, the cannibals were tried and then tortured (!!) by the "law" for their crimes. He was fascinated by the way civilization becomes savage in the face of savagery, often outdoing it.
Aja's film succeeds as a straight-forward horror film (remarkably so, too) but there is nary a whiff of social protest to be found here. The stock footage of nuclear blasts and fallout victims is necessary for the story but slightly disappointing because, in the end, if the mutant family are such incredible monsters, who cares how they got that way?? It could have been in a train wreck for all we care.
The first forty-five or so minutes are all build-up. The footage of the desert (shot in Morocco, I believe) is absolutely stunning. When the mutants move in for the kill: they move in FAST. It happens fast and is disturbing because of Aja's willingness to go overboard with the mayhem and through some sneaky sound techniques that makes it feel like the viewer is being pummelled by the violence.
It doesn't really let-up, although the last third starts to drag a little. During the last twenty-five minutes I started to feel fairly certain the film had played its best hand. But its all quite good.
Highly recommended if you're in the mood for a good horror film.
Be forewarned: this is GORY, scary stuff. More so than most horror films being released nowadays. I wouldn't let little kids watch it. But if you're a horror buff, go for it.