creepy remake

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2007)

The horror genre has a tendency toward recycling ideas over and over, whether it be for the purposes of sequels, remakes, or franchise mergers. "The Hills Have Eyes" was a chiller written and directed by Wes Craven in 1977, and has now reappeared in the hands of "High Tension" director Alexandre Aja with the horror master's presumed approval, since he is credited here as producer. The basic premise remains intact from the original with a family's road trip hitting a dead end in the middle of a former nuclear test site. Much of the first half of the film unfolds with squirm inspiring tension, but once the pay-off arrives the quality of the film-making simply goes down. The unevenness this causes loses the film any possibility of being more than just a lazy, creepy, nonsensical shocker, which is a shame since the first hour suggests something more.