Hills Have Eyes and that baby- eatin' Papa Jupe clan

Once upon a time, THE HILLS HAVE EYES was the scariest, most brutal, and wildest mainstream horror film in release. It was a lot better made than Craven's first feature, the much maligned and hated LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. It had a lot more gore, production value and better pacing than THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and there was, quite frankly, nothing like it on screens in America at the time. It was primitive and brutal, had several themes and creative ideas to consider, and it was disturbing enough to get under your skin and stay there.

Once you saw this film, you never forgot it. It was a film that intentionally played with conventions and broke taboos. Sure in retrospect and looking back at the film 26 years later, we can see the mistakes, technical flaws and realize a lot of what was fairly new about the film was quickly copied, over-used and turned into clichés. Yet even though we are much more conscious of the genre clichés and tricks of the trade, and even though the film was shot on a very small budget and it still works. It still remains Wes Craven’s best film.

1977 was a time when JAWS knock-offs (DAY OF THE ANIMALS, ORCA) and Johnny-come-lately ROSEMARY BABY/EXORCIST/OMEN rip-offs were what constituted horror films. It would be another year before either DAWN OF THE DEAD or HALLOWEEN was released. DePalma's CARRIE was the new big thing and an edited version of Argento's SUSPIRIA was moving from city to city to play at a theater near you. Perhaps, if you were lucky, you were near a major city that played the bizarre midnight feature: ERASERHEAD. The big summer film that year was SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. The c.b. craze was at its peak. The worst film was; CRATER LAKE MONSTER, the campiest; EMPIRE OF THE ANTS and the biggest bomb was EXORCIST 2: THE HERETIC.

A few more families were signing up for pay movies channels like ON and Select T.V. (and the Z channel). Cable and HBO were starting to really take off and saturate the nation. Beta video tape decks, were in some stores--- but they were very expensive and most of us didn't know of anyone who actually owned one. The video revolution was still a couple years away from being a reality.

If you saw THE HILLS HAVE EYES in the summer of 1977 it was an experience you didn't forget. Few horror films went as far as this one did. Few films were as intense, disturbing and still had a gruesome streak of dark humor like this one did. JAWS kept you out of the ocean, HILLS kept you away from the desert.

The unrelenting, brutal attack on a fairly typical all American family stranded in the desert by a feral cannibalistic family was a horrific experience. It was primal, it had classical roots, and in fact was even inspired by a true story.

Everyone reading this review knows whom Wes Craven is. He's responsible for two horror film cash machine franchises: NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET & SCREAM. His father died when he was 4 years old and he was raised in a strict, conservative Baptist household. So strict that the few movies he saw were by Disney. He did not realize there was anything different about his upbringing until he was in college. It was not until then that he began to see movies. He was teaching and supposed to be working on his PHD, but the movie bug bit him. He helped some students make a movie and when his advisor told him it was time to stop wasting time and get serious about his studies, he quit teaching, quit pursuing his PHD and moved to New York City. His first jobs were as low paid production assistants. He stumbled his way through making what wound up being one of the most controversial and reviled films ever made: LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (released in 1972). Producer Peter Locke, came to him a couple of years later and said he had a little over $200,000 to do a movie, and he wanted to see his wife who was working in Las Vegas at the time, so if Wes could come up with a horror story that could be shot in the desert, they could make a movie. Craven went to the library and read about the legend of Sawney Bean. In the 15th century a young married couple was traveling from Edinburgh to London. Some cave dwellers in Scotland, who disappeared as the tides changed, kidnapped the wife. The husband escaped and authorities were shocked when they found a family of feral cannibals run by Sawney Bean. The clan was brought back to London where they were mercilessly tortured and horribly killed. Craven was fascinated with the brutality of the punishment supposedly civilized society doled out on the wild Bean clan. He began writing at first a tale that takes place in the future and involves a family trying to get through a check-point to enjoy a vacation in the desert. They would eventually be stranded and attacked by a feral cannibalistic clan, who lived near the place where the first atomic bombs were tested. They were not a mutant family however, just a wild, savage one.

The low budget stripped the screenplay of its unnecessary 1984 science fiction ideas. Part of what Craven wrote was autobiographical. As he imagined the all American family, he based Big Bob and Ethel Carter on a family he knew as a child-- Bob and Ethel Balmer. Bob Balmer was in law enforcement and his hobby was making 8-millimeter films, which is where a young Wes Craven first got his introduction to filmmaking. Some of Bob's dialogue in the film is taken from Craven's memory of conversations he heard at the dinner table. The fairly conservative, religious Ethel Carter in the movie was based very loosely on Craven's mother. The dialogue he wrote for Ethel in one of the movie's biggest dramatic scenes is based on what he remembered his mother saying when she found out her husband (Wes' father) had died.

HILLS was shot on 16 millimeter under some very difficult conditions in the middle of the California desert (in Apple Valley about 15 miles outside of Victorville).
Craven and Locke were city boys from New York and had no experience in the desert whatsoever. Craven was a self-taught filmmaker and knew little about actually making a film. He jokes that he wasn't even sure what a master shot was as he began filming HILLS.

There is some disagreement and confusion by the way of when the film was actually shot. Based on its original May/June 77 release date it would seem logical that the film could have been shot in September/October 1976. However, Craven is sure the film was shot much earlier than that. Bob Burns was the art director and he brought with him a whole bunch of items he used on THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (which was released in 1974), that he used to dress up the feral clan's cave dwelling. It's probable the movie was shot in 1975, since the editing process and the re-cutting of the film to obtain an R rating from the ratings board probably took more than 6 months to complete. As any low-budge film maker will tell you re-cutting a film when you think it is finally done is an extremely difficult and time consuming process because often pieces of music and other elements have been meticulously edited into the film and when cutting it, they have to be re-edited—somehow-- since there is never any extra money available to re-record a film score. Craven incidentally seems to believe the shooting took place in 1974 and maybe he is right. In any event the DVD's booklet written by Chicago's Jon Putnam (DVDmaniacs.net) lists the shooting dates as 1976.

So to review, HILLS HAVE EYES was inspired by an ancient tale and written by a man who had an extremely repressed childhood who had only started seeing movies a few years earlier. Originally it was written to take place in 1984, but budgetary considerations forced the filmmaker to get to the raw basics of his story and tell it in a straightforward basic style. He made it personal and more realistic by including some moments taken directly from his own life. The result was an intense, powerful, disturbing horror film that made people squirm in their seats.

If you want to get downright psychological Craven's first few films were purges against the kind of strict repressed upbringing he had. He was able to add personal elements to the the films that were probably therapeutic. They also established the genre he would forever be identified with.

The most experienced cast members in HILLS were Virginia Vincent who played Ethel Carter and John Steadman, who plays Fred, the gas station owner. Their style of acting is much more intense and theatrical than the rest of the cast. Both had worked extensively in movies and television for years. Vincent had made some classic movies like I WANT TO LIVE; Steadman was a veteran of Westerns.

One of the real casting coups was Michael Berryman, the strange looking man-child Pluto in the film. Berryman had small roles in 1975's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO's NEST and DOC SAVAGE MAN OF BRONZE, but HILLS jumpstarted his career. Berryman was born with at least 26 birth defects, due in part to his medical doctor parents' experimentation with prescription drugs. He went through a number of operations during his life and the result is his unique appearance.

Dee Wallace played Lynne. Wallace had been in a religious film prior to HILLS. Later she would star in E.T. and then marry actor Chris Stone and become Dee Wallace Stone professionally. Robert Houston who plays Bobby had trained as a gymnast, and graduated from Harvard prior to making his film debut in HILLS. Houston recently produce the Oscar nominated documentary MIGHTY TIMES: THE LEGACY OF ROSA PARKS. In 1980 he wrote the English language version of SHOGUN ASSASIN (the Roger Corman produced American edit of two of the Lone Wolf/Baby Cart movies).
Janus Blythe who plays Ruby got the part because she demonstrated she was an extremely fast runner during the auditions. She had been in Tobe Hooper's EATEN ALIVE (with Robert Freddy Englund) and in DePalma's PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. Susan (the screamer) Lanier who plays Brenda Carter had done numerous television appearances but HILLS was her first major film role. Former stunt man Lance Gordon played Mars. Martin Speer made his debut as Doug in the film as well. James Whitworth was a building contractor who impressed Craven enough at his audition to get the part as Papa Jupiter, the sadistic clan leader with the split open nose. He worked in a few films and TV shows after HILLS, but no one seems to know what happened to him in recent years. HILLS proved to be the final screen appearance for Russ Grieve (Big Bob Carter) and Cordy Clark (Mama). And finally the character Mercury was played by a little known actor by the name of Arthur King. Arthur King? It was actually producer Peter Locke playing Mercury crediting himself humorously as Arthur King. Don Peake did the spare tonal synthesizer score and Eric Saarinen fresh from being run ragged by Corman on DEATH RACE 2000 was behind the camera.

As was the style with horror films at the time and particularly TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, the protaganist characters are not likeable heroic types. They have flaws, and they are annoying. It winds up making you not as sympathetic to their plight and to their troubles. We are here after-all to witness mayhem and horror--so bring it on. If we lose some of these annoying characters in the process--then so be it.

HILLS HAVE EYES opens in the dry desert with Fred (John Steadman) packing up to leave his middle of nowhere gas station. A strangely costumed desert rat named Rudy (Janus Blythe) at first wants to trade some goods for food---she is starving. Desperately she tries to get Fred to take her with him when he leaves, but Fred only laughs at her. It turns out she's a wild child that lives with a feral clan somewhere in the desert. They apparently prey on lost tourists and steal what they can from the military base to survive. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted when a station wagon pulling a camper rolls into the station. We are introduced to the extended Carter family. Bob has retired from the police force of a major city. His wife Ethel has been given a silver mine by one or her relatives as a silver anniversary wedding present. Bob and Ethel have made it a family affair by taking their entire family on their vacation/mine finding trip. This includes son Bobby, daughters Brenda and Lynne, son in law Doug and their infant granddaughter Katy. Also along are the two German Shepherds named Beauty and Beast. The family quickly gets on our nerves, but Fred is compelled to warn them to stick to the main road and forget about finding any silver in these parts.
Son-in-law Doug has a funny feeling and thinks he sees someone in the shadows. He doesn't say anything to anyone, however. Naturally the family goes on their merry-way. They are spooked by low flying f-16s doing maneuvers, and when Big Bob swerves the vehicle to avoid a rabbit in the road, the station wag breaks an axle. They are stranded in the deserts, miles from anywhere.

Ah, but they are not alone. The hills have eyes belonging to a very dangerous and savage family clan of cave dwellers. The civilized Carter family will be stripped of everything they find comforting and necessary to exist. A dog will be brutally gutted, a family member will be sadistically murdered and the women and baby will be killed, raped and/or kidnapped. To survive the remaining family members must become as brutal and vicious as the feral clan. It is the only way. But if they survive without their humanity, what then?

One of the interesting concepts explored in the film is the idea of keeping secrets from various family members. Young Bobby doesn't tell anyone that he saw the gutted corpse of the pet dog Beauty for quite some time. He is ashamed of being afraid and upset about the dog and does not want to share his weakness with other family members. Later on we will see members of the feral clan cowering in fear and withholding information from Papa Jupe. In the beginning of the film Ruby's secret is that she wants to leave the clan. This arc of family secrets leading to the disintegration of both family units in the film is fully explored. After all the feral clan itself is the result of a family secret, -- just ask Fred- the gas station owner about that. Craven has certainly mined some very personal things from his upbringing and put them into this film.

The HILLS HAVE EYES broke rules and was an unconventional film in 1977, but it feels at times overly familiar and clichéd when we watch it today. There have been so many movies that have borrowed or re-used elements from the film that we have seen the tricks of the trade many times before. That's not the fault of Craven, but in a way is a tribute to how influential the film has been. In fact some of the very horror clichés satirized in the SCREAM series are played straight in HILLS. Still there are plenty of jolts and scares in the movie that will still get you squirming in your seat. It is primal stuff as blood lust rage boils and explodes from both the supposedly wild savage clan and the civilized Carter family. However the seemingly simplistic family under attack scenario has several layers working just below the surface worth considering. It's another reason this film stuck to so many of us, years after we first saw it.

Yes there is that ending. Look at the alternate ending and understand why it has the better, more effective ending that it has. This was the era when films fought against being conventional and cliche' and in its day, HILLS was not like other movies.

HILLS had to be carefully re-edited a few times after it was completed to avoid an X rating from the ratings board before the film was released to the public. 3 additional minutes was edited from the U.K. version and additional trims have been made to the various video versions of the film that have been released. None of the originally cut and lost material was found or has made it back into the film. There is an extended alternate ending included as an extra, but it features a little less brutality than what was ultimately used. Don't expect this DVD to contain lost footage never seen in theaters when the film was originally released,it does not.

Anchor Bay does present the original R-rated theatrical release, restored, uncut and uncensored. It's brutal stuff especially when you consider when it was made. Also remember this is a film originally budgeted at approximately $200, shot on 16 millimeter and it was brought into theaters with additional post production work and blown up from 16 to 35 millimeter for under $300,000. Most prints I've seen of the film have been far from pristine and prior video versions feature muddy looking sequences, bleached colors and lots of film scratches and other problems.

The restoration of the film is pretty impressive with black levels very strong, colors consistent, and only a few traces of a film scratch here and there. There’s been a lot of sound work done on the disc to create a fully enhanced theater sound experience. It has been pushed a bit too much perhaps for a 1977 film, but over-all I was impressed. It's interesting to note that you can tell when the filmmakers did some sound pick-ups from the tone and ambient noise on the track when the actors speak certain lines of dialogue.

Disc One includes the Widescreen Anamorphic presentation of the film. It also includes the audio commentary by Wes Craven and Producer Peter Locke. It's a good laid-back commentary despite some occasional long pauses and both were obviously in the same room at the same time recording their tracks. A lot of the information delivered during the conversation is exactly the same that you will hear about in the brand new 54-minute documentary LOOK BACK AT HILLS HAVE EYES included on disc 2. The difference is that there are some additional more candid statements made on the commentary track. It is a bit repetitious I suppose, but interesting to here the additional shadings.
Disc 2 is where you will find more than 2 hours worth of extras and several other goodies that took me several hours to go through. The LOOK BACK documentary is well produced and includes comments from nearly all of the surviving cast members of HILLS creating a positive, pretty self-congratulatory affair that details what some of the extreme weather and low budget conditions HILLS was made under. There are only brief mentions and hints at some of the conflicts conflicts that went on behind the scenes. You can learn a few more things by carefully listening to the audio commentary even though it covers a lot of the same material. The other big extra is a 59-minute tribute called THE DIRECTORS: THE FILMS OF WES CRAVEN. It spends several minutes covering most of Craven's theatrical films (but not his TV movies) complete with on-camera principal cast member interviews and generous clips from Craven films like SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, SHOCKER and DEADLY FRIEND (the famous death by basketball scene is shown!) From Neve Campbell to Bill Pullman to Meryl Streep and in between, everyone has nice things to say about Craven. It’s a love-fest but as these kind of puff pieces go, it's a better than average career retrospective. You'll find only a touch of self-criticism in the documentary from Craven himself, who again appears to be a very likeable, very quiet, smart guy.

He doesn't however make many comments about the horrid HILLS HAVE EYES 2 sequel that he made for the money at a difficult time in his life (he had just been through a divorce and his career was in trouble after DEADLY BLESSING and SWAMP THING failed to ignite at the box office). It is interesting that the same clip is used to show both HILLS HAVE EYES and HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2. PART 2 was made several years later and featured some scenes of the original film in flashback (it contains the infamously awful dog flashback sequence as well). Note: If Anchor Bay does indeed release a special edition PART 2 in November, pretend it doesn't exist and was never made.
(There is an Image DVD of Part 2 that has been on the market for a while).

You will also find a 4-minute side-by-side comparison of what the film looked like before restoration and what it looks like now. There's no explanation of what was done or how, just a 4 minute clip that you can compare for yourself.

The 10-minute alternate ending sequence reveals the less brutal and somewhat happier ending they contemplated concluding the movie with. It's a terrible washed out multi generation copy. Thank goodness they decided upon the famous freeze frame ending (similar to how Craven ended LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT).

There is also the U.S. and German theatrical film trailers, and two U.S. and two U.K. T.V. spots to watch. An extensive stills gallery features behind the scenes photos in both black and white and color, several examples of various posters and video boxes from around the world and the original Craven storyboards are also shown. There's also a brief text biography of Wes Craven. The DVD-ROM features include the 90-page screenplay BLOOD RELATIONS- The Sun Wars that was Wes Craven's original title. There are also some screen-savers on the disc. I didn't find any Easter Eggs.

TRIVIA: Its interesting to note the male members of the feral clan all have names of the planets, Jupiter, aka Papa Jupe, Pluto, Mars and Mercury. The Carter's dogs are named Beauty and Beast. Beauty is killed fairly quickly. Barely disguised Roman mythology is also used. Considering Craven's academic past, this is not surprising.

You'll see in one scene of HILLS a ripped poster of JAWS on the wall of the camper. A few years later, director Sam Raimi put a ripped poster of THE HILLS HAVE EYES in EVIL DEAD and Craven shows a ripped poster of THE EVIL DEAD in the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.
The wait for a DVD edition of what many believe is Wes Craven's classic and best film has been a long one. Anchor Bay has put together a very worthwhile package that I strongly recommend you add to your collection as soon as possible. The DVD is available after September 23, 2003.

--Christopher J. Jarmick
Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2003. All rights Reserved