Reminded me of what a horror is supposed to be like

Rating: 9/10 (5 March 2011)

I didn't go into watching this film with high hopes. Hearing that it was a remake of an old Wes Craven slasher furthered my skepticism. The only real reason I bothered was because a) my girlfriend had broken up with me and I needed something to distract me and b) its got Emilie De Ravin in it who in my opinion is extremely cute.
The last movie that truly scared me was Aliens which I saw when I was twelve, since then all horrors I've seen have been little more than gore feasted stalker movies. The Hills Have Eyes changed all that. It opens with a nice gory scene of scientists getting impaled with pitch forks, the brutality caught my attention. Things slow right down as the film introduces the Carter family taking the scenic route through the desert to San Diego. "Yay there's Emilie!" says the slightly interested me.
Then things get a bit worse, their truck and caravan gets sabotaged by road spikes. Okay, now I'm watching. Whilst the 1st 30mins is a bit slow, it did something that other horrors don't do: character development. When the s#!* hit the fan (and it does horribly), I wasn't laughing like I generally do. I was genuinely shocked and felt sorry for the characters.
The violence is extremely explicit in this movie, no holds barred and it was for once genuinely disturbing. This movie has restored my nervous approach to horrors and also on a side note confirmed that Emilie only does good movies ^_^