Predictably Gory

Rating: Null/10 (22 March 2006)

I have never seen the original version of 'The Hills Have Eyes', so I'm in no position to comment on the loyalty, or otherwise, of the script and characterisation of the current screen incarnation, directed by Alexandre Aja.
As part of the larger family-in-distress-from-bloodthirsty-hicks sub-genre, though, it's traditional fare. The cock-sure and homely are quickly offed, the spoilt blonde quickly becomes the lust-object of the aggressors, and the downtrodden liberal hero embraces brutality in order to protect what he loves. The mutant miners, too, as the slavering, gibbering, malformed gimps we have come to expect. That said, these are all tried and tested elements of the genre, so perhaps it would be redundant to complain that they are clichés.
To it's credit, despite the occasional lapses into astonishing improbability  the seemingly indestructible family pet who repeatedly arrives to save the day just in the nick of time, and the feckless teens who develop MacGuyver-type tricks and traps to counter attacks of their foes  it does have a certain unpredictability. There are violent set-pieces, of course, but most of these seem to emerge out of what passes for a plot  rather than from a need to see someone eviscerated according to a set cinematic schedule. How much this structure is borrowed from the original, or is a refinement of the same, I cannot say.
What really lets the film down is a lack of decent characterisation. We are not invited to sympathise with them  other than, in the most general terms, the unfortunate circumstance of being butchered by mutants  so, ultimately, we have no emotional investment in caring who lives or dies.
In the final frames we see the same electrical binocular view of our heroes as in earlier scenes, indicating, of course, that the defeated mutants are not their only threatand that a franchise is on the way.
Mildly diverting, if predictable, gore-filled twaddle.