Outstanding makeup, but the film just does not have the same edge as it did in 1977

Rating: 5/10 (11 September 2006)

In an act that only continues to prove Hollywood's infinite wisdom, the film studios continue to greenlight remakes of older films. But the modern filmgoing audience keeps eating them up, so is there any wonder why they continue rolling them out, subpar or not? While there have been many examples of such thinking, the remake of The Hills Have Eyes is somewhat split down the middle. On one hand, it does better for itself than Wes Craven's original film could have ever hoped for itself. But on the other, it just lacks any of the spirit or the intensity of one of Craven's master films.
The basic way to explain the film is just to simply state that the films revolves around two families. One is the good, wholesome Carter family lead by Big Bob (Ted Levine), on their way to California with their truck and camper in tow. The other is a family who has been mutated by radiation from American nuclear test weapons, and now live in the deserted hills in the middle of nowhere. After the Carters get some really terrible directions, they hit a snag and end up mangling their truck. As Bob and his son-in-law Doug (Aaron Stanford) set out to get help, the rest of the family stays back and sit idly waiting while the mutant family begins to devise their own plans.
In comparing the original and remake side-by-side, the thing that works the best in favour of the remake is the backstory for the mutant family living in the hills. In the original, they just seemed to be a small group of deranged hillbillies who happened to live out in the hills. Here, it is a rather large group of people, who just never left their home town when they were asked to by American nuke testers. As a result, the testers dropped their bombs and thus the people began to mutate.
Unfortunately, as a result of making this contribution to the sequel, Writer/Director Alexandre Aja and his partner Grégory Levasseur have sacrificed any sort of development they could do with these characters. Instead of having some form of conscious and thinking like Craven's hillbillies, Aja and Levasseur's mutants are just monsters. They are evil and sadistic on purpose, not just by chance. They lose any of the terror or intensity they built in the original film right after we find out that they are the reason for the Carters crashing.
But then, purpose is also a problem for the Carter family too. They have no humanistic traits, they are just the bait to the monsters. Yes, we understand that they are like sheep being led to slaughter, but they just do not seem to feel real enough for us to care. No one stands out as a likable character, and no one is developed enough for us to dislike them either. When members of either family start to die, the audience just cannot fathom the proper way to react. Aja and Levasseur just keep feeding the story along, and just do not seem to have any idea what kind of reactions they want to get from what is happening. In Craven's film, he managed to ensure that the audience had no idea which group to sympathize with. Here, no one seems to care what anyone does.
And of course, the characters are not helped by any of the performances. Levine's Big Bob, the mother Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan) and their eldest daughter Lynn (Vinessa Shaw) are completely downplayed throughout their limited screen time, as is Papa Jupiter (the always excellent Billy Drago), who Aja and Levasseur do not even bother explaining to the audience to be the leader of the mutants. While they were not exactly big characters in the original (except for Jupiter, who was actually a key part of that film but is basically worthless here), they still had the audience caring for them. Not here. Putting every single ounce of focus on Bobby (Dan Byrd), Brenda (Emilie de Ravin) and Stanford's Doug just does not cut it. This movie was longer than the original, but lacks any of the dialogue or story for the actors to use for their characters. How does that work?
I must concede however that the gruesome makeup and gore shots are fabulous. The continued excellence from the wizards Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger is absolutely astounding. From simple blood shots, to the brutal wounds and bruises inflicted upon our cast of characters, all of it is just as bloody and horrific as it should be. They do not skim on any brutality like a PG-13 rated horror film does. They revel in their R-rating, and they totally deliver on that rating's promise. As a result, the much hyped sequence inside of the trailer half way through the film is for the most part, very well executed and squirm-inducing. The makeup that brings the mutants to life is award worthy on its own. The look and feel of these monsters is absolutely terrifying, and should send shivers down people's spines as they look at these grotesque creations. It's just too bad they border on parody when they are actually doing something on screen.
And while you would not exactly think it from the type of film it is, the cinematography and set direction is very well done.
Yet again, Aja has fumbled. While the mutants make look nightmarish, and the look of the film is fairly terrifying, the script just does not make anything good come out of it. The acting is nothing special, and the story just does not have the same edge as it did in 1977. But hey, what do I know? They are already in production of the sequel as I write this. I guess it really is just a matter of taste.
5/10.
(An edited version of this review also appeared on http://www.geekspeakmagazine.com).