if you like gory slasher...

Rating: 4/10 (25 October 2012)

Ethel Carter (Kathleen Quinlan) and her husband, Bob Carter (Ted Levine) are traveling from Cleveland, Ohio to San Diego, California. Along with them is their daughter Brenda (Emilie de Ravin), son Bobby (Dan Byrd), eldest daughter Lynn (Vinessa Shaw), her husband Doug Bukowski (Aaron Stanford), their baby Catherine (Maisie Camilleri Preziosi), and the German Shepherds, Beauty and Beast. After there tire goes flat they go back to the last gas station. Beauty runs into the hills and Bobby chases after her, eventually finding her dead body. He runs, slips and falls, knocking himself out. When Bobby awakes, he returns and does not tell his family of Beauty. As the family tries to sleep, mutants sneak in and disrupt the family. Lizard points the gun at Lynn's head, shooting her and killing her. The gun is out of bullets before Lizard can shoot Brenda, and he and Pluto flee with Catherine. Doug goes off in pursuit of their attackers. He finds an abandoned nuclear testing village and enters the house where Catherine is kept. He is knocked unconscious. At the trailer, Ethel's body is dragged into the hills. Jupiter pursues Bobby to the trailer, where Brenda releases gas from the propane tanks. Bobby binds Papa Jupiter's hand to the window and he and Brenda escape.
The blood flows freely as a woman's organs are consumed in front of her son, a man is burned alive, fingers are chopped off and pickaxes plunge into skulls. This use of excessive gore adds nothing to the films, in fact it distracts from it. By having so much violence, so much ridiculously elaborate gore, the film creates a bloody other world for the film to exist in. The viewers are not part of this world, so they cannot be frightened by it. A lot of the angles created suspense and a little mystery. The scenery was a desert nothing special. The timing of traveling on foot didn't match right.
I give applause to the makeup artist they looked great.
Every single one of the characters was completely ignorant to everything going on around them, and made just plain stupid decisions. If you are stranded in the middle of the desert, and your dog runs off, do you chase after it for more than a mile off of the main road, when you know there are dangerous animals around? the Brother in law who has no peripheral vision and runs past his sister in law being raped right across the room from him, and can't tell when a burning man is crispy enough that it doesn't matter anymore and he needs to give up and help the family.
If you like horror films, you are going to like this one, because it was made for the horror fan. Be prepared to see a lot of blood, gore, and guts. This is a remake that is actually better than the 1977 original. You will applaud for the actions of a German shepherd named Beast, and even the tech geek Doug (Aaron Stanford) when he takes on the mutants. There are several scenes that will make you jump out of your seat.