Remake something that wasn't good to begin with.

Rating: 4/10 (12 March 2006)

Alexandre Aja was hot coming off of the love or hate film High Tension that has a cult following (mainly in France), but with "The Hills Have Eyes" he sinks to a very low level.
Undoubtedly you've heard of the amount of violence and gore in this movie, and maybe you've heard that it was originally rated NC-17. I don't know what the filmmakers did to lower the rating but I'm surprised they got it lowered at all. "The Hills Have Eyes" is easily the goriest movie I have ever seen, and second in violence only to the newer version of "Assault on Precinct 13". The violence is unnecessary and off-putting and is not implemented well at all.
The movie starts out well enough. A family is traveling to San Diego and takes advice from a stranger and turns down the wrong road. Soon enough their car has broken down and their stranded in the desert. Only this is a desert full of mutants. The scares and tension are very real for the first 25 minutes or so before they start to disintegrate. After the first death scene tension goes out the window and gore comes in.
The first third of the movie is easily it's strongest point. The mutants rarely show themselves and the characters don't make stupid mistakes. But the second third drops the ball and the third third sinks the film for good. I don't want to give any spoilers so I won't go into any specific details but if you've ever seen a horror movie before the end will be nothing new to you.
Overall the film does have it's moments when its genuinely scary but gratuitous gore and a disappointing finale bring down the movie to a very low level.