Gritty, gruesome and graphic - better than the original

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2006)

Unlike the 2003 remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," this update of Wes Craven's cult horror classic "The Hills Have Eyes" is a visceral, stylized, and disturbing tour de force. This effective remake has a lot of soul and bares large fangs that bite the jugular. It's a film made by a grind house horror fan for grind house horror fans - he knows what the audience wants and how to deliver it. Director Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension) is a student of the 70's/80's horror era.
The story is about an all American family who gets lost in the New Mexico desert and is attacked by cannibal freaks, who are the byproduct of nuclear testing. You might laugh at this idea, saying to yourself "freaks attacking a family, that's so lame." To be honest, several people in the theater were chuckling in the beginning, but by the second act, no one was laughing. In fact, by the end of this movie several people fled the theater in terror.
As a horror buff myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece and highly recommend it to those who are fond of other grind house works such as "The Evil Dead" and "Zombie 2." It's a superior work of terror that's a delightful departure from the recent PG-13 horror junk (such as "When A Stranger Calls") that's plagued theaters.
However, a word of warning. "The Hills Have Eyes" is very violent and gory. If you've seen Aja's last film, Haute Tension (which I highly recommend), you know what kind of blood and guts you're in for. Don't be fooled by the rating. Despite the fact that this film was re-edited for an R, there still remains a lot of graphic and gruesome gore and violence, which includes, but is not limited to head explosions, graphic gun shot wounds, stabbings, and a scene of rape.
All this mind, I conclude with a simple, and meaningful statement that I rarely plan to utter again. "The remake was better than the original." 8/10