Above average remake, half better than the original, yet half worse.

Rating: Null/10 (16 October 2006)

The Hills Have Eyes, 1977 version, is one of the films that always requires inclusion in the seminal horror film period starting with Night of the Living Dead, and continuing up through the 1970s. These were films that were Drive-In flicks that constantly pushed the boundaries, and were the precursors to today's modern gore-filled horror films. The remake attempts to take the basic premise, updated and technically superior, and make a B-movie into an A film. This is what most of the remakes of these great 70s horror films try to do. This new version of Hills Have Eyes does an excellent job and still maintains its own individuality.
In these ways it is better than the original: Much more interesting detail and story about the desert mutants, and more of them as well. Technically superior, which is what we all like to see. Better direction of characters, sorry to Wes Craven but it's true. Good use of Pluto, the most interesting mutant character, but who was used in an inferior manner in the first, a waste of the great Michael Berryman.
However, in these ways it is the lesser of the two: Bad use of Papa Jupiter (who looks like John Carradine in his later horror films), basically relegated to second class mutant status here and not really that scary (James Whitworth was SCARY!). A lousy job of redoing the final scene where Papa Jupiter meets his finish, the original is 1,000% better. Dwells too long on the burning scene, which is not necessary. A little too much anticlimax in the fight between Pluto and the Democrat turned NRA member.
Both are great at the development of tension and suspense, and both have very eerie atmosphere. Fortunately watching one will not ruin the other at all. Then also include in your viewing, The Hills Have Eyes Part 2, 1985, if only to see John Bloom as the Reaper!