Tired, formulaic horror

Rating: 5/10 (21 August 2006)

I have watched and enjoyed a lot of horror movies over the years and was looking forward to this remake after the excellent way the new "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was handled. Sadly, I found this movie to be over long and formulaic by comparison.
The characters in the new "Hills Have Eyes" were almost all completely unsympathetic, with the possible exception of the mother and older sister. To sit through and enjoy a survival horror movie it is important to care about (at least) some of the characters and hope they survive, but I found myself caring more about the dogs than anyone else. At times, I even found my mind wandering off to other movies as I watched this.
Sadly, with a new generation of less-demanding movie-goers we can probably look forward to several more inferior remakes of old horror movies, and this may even end up being one of the Aces in the pack.