The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Marianne Maddalena

Robert Joy

Emilie De Ravin

Dan Byrd

Vinessa Shaw

Kathleen Quinlan

Ted Levine

Billy Drago

***The Hills Have Eyes*** is a 2006 American horror film and remake of Wes Craven's 1977 film of the same name.

## Plot

A group of scientists, who are searching the New Mexico desert, are killed by a mutant named Pluto.

Bob Carter and his wife Ethel are traveling from Cleveland, Ohio to San Diego, California for their silver wedding anniversary. With them are their children Bobby, Brenda and Lynn, Lynn's husband Doug, Lynn and Doug's baby daughter Catherine, and their two German Shepherds, Beauty and Beast. At a gas station in the desert, they meet an attendant named Jeb, who tells them of a short-cut through the hills.

Not long after taking the supposed short-cut, their tires are punctured by a hidden spike strip. Doug and Bob go look for help, while the rest of the family stays behind. Beauty escapes from the trailer and, when Bobby chases her into the hills, he finds her mutilated corpse. Frightened, he runs and falls, knocking himself unconscious. A young woman named Ruby finds him and protects him from her brother Goggle.

Bob arrives back at the gas station, which appears abandoned. Inside, he finds news clippings detailing various disappearances in the area and realizes the attendant purposefully led them to danger by suggesting the short-cut. Finding a severed ear, he flees from the station. Outside, he finds a hysterical Jeb, who commits suicide. Bob attempts to flee in an abandoned car, but is subdued by the leader, Papa Jupiter. Jupiter and his sons Lizard and Pluto drag Bob into the mining caves.

Meanwhile, Doug heads towards the interstate and finds a huge crater filled with numerous abandoned cars and other items. Having no luck finding help, he turns back.

Bobby returns to the trailer but does not mention Beauty's death, not wanting to frighten the rest of the family. Later that night, the family is awakened by Bob's screams, and they all rush from the trailer, except for Brenda who stays with the baby. Outside, they find Bob crucified to a burning tree. They frantically try to save him, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Pluto and Lizard use the distraction to ransack the trailer. Lizard beats and attempts to rape Brenda.

When Lynn returns to the trailer, Lizard and Pluto confront her. While baby Catherine is held at gunpoint, Lizard sucks on Lynn's breasts and forces her to let him. When Ethel returns, Lizard shoots her. Lynn stabs him in the leg, prompting him to shoot her in the head. Lizard and Pluto flee with the baby. Returning to the trailer, Doug and Bobby discover Lynn and Ethel, who dies shortly afterward. Goggle, who is watching the family from afar with a pair of binoculars, is killed by Beast.

The next morning, Doug, along with Beast, sets out to rescue Catherine. He comes across an abandoned nuclear testing village and is knocked unconscious by Big Momma. Awakening in an ice box filled with human body parts, he escapes and encounters Big Brain. After Big Brain tells him the mutants' origins, Pluto attacks him and severs two of his fingers with an axe. Pluto almost kills Doug, but Doug manages to gain the upper hand and kills him with his own axe.

Heading outside, Doug kills the mutant Cyst and continues searching for Catherine. After ordering Lizard to kill Catherine, Big Brain is mauled to death by Beast. Lizard takes a cleaver and prepares to kill Catherine, but finds that Ruby has taken her and replaced her with a piglet. Doug sees Ruby running through the hills with Catherine, and pursues her. Meanwhile, back at the trailer, Brenda and Bobby discover their mother's body missing and track it to find Papa Jupiter eating her. They lure him towards the trailer and prepare an explosive trap, which destroys the trailer, apparently killing Papa Jupiter.

Doug catches up with Ruby but Lizard attacks him. Lizard and Doug fight and Lizard is shot several times. Ruby then gives Doug his daughter back, but Lizard, still alive, aims a shotgun at Doug. Ruby tackles Lizard off a cliff, sending them both falling to their deaths.

Bobby and Brenda find that Papa Jupiter managed to survive their trap, and Brenda finishes him off with a pickaxe. They are then reunited with Doug, Catherine and Beast. As the survivors of the Carter family embrace, an unknown mutant watches them through binoculars from the hills.

## Cast

* Aaron Stanford as Doug Bukowski
* Michael Bailey Smith as Pluto
* Robert Joy as Lizard
* Emilie De Ravin as Brenda Carter
* Dan Byrd as Bobby Carter
* Vinessa Shaw as Lynn Carter
* Laura Ortiz as Ruby
* Billy Drago as Papa Jupiter
* Kathleen Quinlan as Ethel Carter
* Ted Levine as Bob Carter
* Ezra Buzzington as Goggle
* Greg Nicotero as Cyst
* Desmond Askew as Big Brain
* Tom Bower as Jeb
* Ivana Turchetto as Big Momma

## Reception

Reviews were mixed, with an average critic "Rotten" rating of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 141 reviews. The critical consensus stated "Faster paced for today's audiences, this 'Hills' remake ratchets up the gore for the hardcore horror fans, but will turn away casual audiences." *The Washington Post* said: "this remake of the alleged 1977 Wes Craven classic has one very disturbing quality: It's too damned good." Some have gone on to refer to the film as torture porn. Bloody Disgusting, however, was scathing of those who referred to the movie's genre as such, saying "some may call it 'Torture porn'—these people are idiots". Roger Ebert also gave a negative review, mentioning that the characters in the film are not familiar with horror movies, and went on to cite that the film should have focused more on the characters rather than the violence, saying "*The Hills Have Eyes* finds an intriguing setting in 'typical' fake towns built by the government [...] But its mutants are simply engines of destruction. There is a misshapen creature who coordinates attacks with a walkie-talkie; I would have liked to know more about him, but no luck."