Still Weighing It

Rating: 7/10 (9 October 2006)

I've never seen the original Wes Craven version of The Hills Have Eyes, so I will not be comparing this one to that one. However, as its own beast, it's good, but it's frustrating in some ways. It's apart of this new batch of slasher and horror movies, where the cinematography is boisterously gritty and choppy, the script and the acting are more contrived in the melodrama department than horror films before the 21st century, etc. It seems to have boomed since High Tension came to America and though its plot disappointed it carried itself in a manner and style much above average, keeping us riveted with its brutalizing tension and suspense. Its director, Alexander Aja, spends his sophomore effort here with this film.
His suspense remains very fulfilling and very nervous, his cinematography is stale and overused by now but it does work well, his attention-grabbing stylistic details are kind of fun, and Ted Levine and Kathleen Quinlan are good, even if their roles are almost painfully cliché. That is this film's biggest drawback. It not only completes a competent checklist of all horror/slasher/survival film/thriller/sci-fi clichés, but accents a few of the more frustrating ones. Among these particularly frustrating clichés are the use of animal death as a precursor to the terror upon the humans. Yes, I'm very biased because I am an incredible animal lover and I hate it when animal cruelty is seen as "Hm. Strange," and when humans are terrorized, not only are they surprised at their dangerous situation after they've practically ignored their pet(s) being mauled, but they treat human casualties as something so incomparable to the death of an innocent animal. But aside from this bias, aren't you tired of knowing as soon as you see an animal in a horror film that that animal is going to die? Another painfully hackneyed inanity here is its entire exposition. The film almost confuses itself, for instance by making Quinlan's character a strict, structural mother and still making her the cool mom that can talk about pot with her kids. The dialogue is so loaded with routine that it defeats itself when trying to develop its characters.
The horror franchise is almost founded upon giving the audience what they expect, which is entirely the WRONG WAY TO DO IT. Horror films need shocks and surprises, yet nearly every one, even these new high-production-value slashers, can't help but succumb to them. However, Aja has somehow kept The Hills Have Eyes suspenseful enough to entertain, even if he let it be too much of a stereotype to be memorable.