A Good Remake

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2006)

Lately in cinema, I have felt somewhat 'numb' to horror films. Lately there have been a slew of 'Saw' situation horrors, 'Wolf Creek' torture porn and the same old Japanese-remake bullshit.
Now, I thought Saw was pretty good - a tad schlocky and easy to predict, but entertaining nonetheless. Wolf Creek at the cinema was great, yet it loses its power the second time through. The middle section is still intense, but it all seemed too slight in comparison to horror of the 70's. Hostel was a surprise, because no matter how much porno/gore it had, it still actually had a heart, and played out as more of a thriller than anything.
The Hills Have Eyes is a tough one to call. As a remake it is really similar to the 77 original; whereas the original stopped, the remake carries on for a typically open ended finale.
In terms of pacing, I love films like this. It's as if Aja went to the John Carpenter school of Atmosphere. The director slowly cranks up the tension - a little too slowly perhaps? But never mind, it is enjoyable, and we soon set out the stock characters and boundaries between the family.
The pay off for all that waiting is suitably violent - maybe excessively so (not a bad thing). For 15 minutes, the family are assaulted, the daughter violated by a 'mutant' and a baby is kidnapped. When I saw this in the cinema, it totally grabbed me by the neck - it's a shame it let go soon after.
Aja had a brilliant set up, followed by a very intense 15 minutes of old school violence. The mistake with both this and the original is that the film runs out of steam. Aja had the opportunity to crank up the tension to 11, to utterly thrill us right to the end of the picture. Yes, the audience should be allowed a breather, but there was too much flab between the violent set pieces.
Still, this is a minor problem in an otherwise good film. The remake is better than original, but so it should be after 30-odd years. The build up is great, the acting is solid, the violence is intense and disturbing and the climax is typically cynical.
If I had to choose a horror film of 2005/2006 to watch again...it would probably be Hostel or this. Although Hostel is not half as violent as it would like to be, it still hits all the right spots. The film isn't bogged down by homage; it efficiently works up a solid thriller. The Hills Have Eyes is not as darkly comic as Roth's effort, but I love the atmosphere that is built up here.
So I would give the film 7 out of 10. Perfectly acceptable horror film, but something tells me that it could have been a lot more. Let's hope the horror genre gets out of this Myer of remakes and excessive gorenography and carves a niché of its own, not someone else's.