Better than the original (for once).....

Rating: Null/10 (11 March 2006)

My problem with Alexandre Aja's previous "High Tension" was the failure to acknowledge his source material (Dean Koontz' novel "Intensity") plus he abandoned Koontz' story and tacked on a ludicrous "twist ending." But when I heard he'd be doing the remake of Wes Craven's "Hills Have Eyes" I was happy because Mr. Aja clearly has a gift for ---umm----intensity on screen. My anticipation has been rewarded: Mr. Aja has done with Craven's movie what the Cramps used to do with those goofy old "novelty tunes" like "Rockin' Bones," "Googoo Muck" and "Green Door": stripped it down to it's essentials, amplified those and poured his soul into it as though this were indeed his own original work. He's also made some improvements, chiefly the "backstory" about nuclear testing in the Southwest and a remarkable sequence not in the original (granted, it reminds one of the recent "House of Wax" remake) with a guy wandering through a "ghost town" populated mostly by mannequins. Aja let 'r rip with the make-up effects (clearly this was money Craven lacked at the time; about all he could do was hire the diseased Michael Berryman for effect) to make these people REALLY mutant (granted, it reminds one of the inbred hillbillies in "Wrong Turn"). He also gave them all the same proficiency in English. Unfortunately he lets one of the desert rats make a rambling speech about the ill effects of the nuclear testing; that point was already made during the opening credits.
The plot outline is remarkably faithful to that of the original (a "normal" family on a camping trip to California runs afoul of loonies in the boonies); Aja seems to agree with me that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This means that if one's seen the original, one pretty much knows what's coming throughout, not necessarily a bad thing. Even Aja's minor changes are an improvement, e.g. we don't see Ruby right away at the gas station; the gas station owner is more sinister and absorbing, deliberately sending the family into harm's way to cover up his own involvement with the crazies but then atoning for his sins in a suitably violent manner; when one crazy snacks on a pet bird, instead of stuffing it all into his mouth he bites off the head then drinks the blood. Aja makes the family more likable than did Craven (still not people whose company I'd seek), thus it's easier to give a crap what happens to them, plus he doesn't try to give the crazies "equal time," leaving them their more effective function as the menacing Other(s). And if you came for blood, you won't be disappointed. I read that this version was edited for the R rating, but there's still plenty here in which to wallow. For those worried that Aja would try to "up the ante" by letting the baby die: relax: as I'd expected, he knows what Yanks will and will not accept. Hitchcock killed a kid in a movie in 1936 and got grief about it the rest of his life.
All the actors give Aja what he needs---for those guys buried under the make-up: you're real troopers! Personal favorite Ted Levine made the best impression on me as the retired cop; Aja doesn't let him use the "N-word" but does give him a snide line about Democrats hating guns (yet it's the "peacenik" son-in-law who manages to hit his target). Kathleen Quinlan lends her small role enough subtlety and underlying pathos to warrant an Oscar nomination in a different sort of movie. Emilie de Ravin from TV's "Lost" isn't required to do much more than scream and does that well, plus gets a nice lick in at the end. Kudos to large-eyed Laura Ortiz as Ruby who with barely any dialog conveys the sadness of the only desert rat to want to escape their little hellhole; Aja gives her a final action that comes darn close to elevating this particular gore fest to "tragedy" status.
Have to get this quibble in: is there anybody in the universe unaware that when you've been battling a homicidal maniac and he's finally down, you NEVER EVER just assume he's dead? Even if the character never saw a horror flick in his life, having gone through all that to rescue his baby, he's got a shotgun and he's not going to empty it into the body? In this instance Craven's version was better with the son-in-law repeatedly plunging the knife into the bastard's chest, exactly what I would've done. As Ice-T eloquently put it in "Trespass": "It's about survival.." I didn't mind the closing bit with the binoculars---seemed a final visual jolt as in "High Tension"---just so there's NO SEQUEL---- enough already. ."And the Academy Award for Spookiest Impersonation of an American Desert goes to----MOROCCO, for 'The Hills Have Eyes'! Accepting for Morocco."