"The Lucky Ones Died First" Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes

A couple months back I was skimming through horror movie titles on amazon.com when I came upon a curious little movie that I had never heard of before, this movie was called The Hills Have Eyes. Now being the horror junkie that I am, I read up on this movie, and ultimately decided to purchase it. The only problem was that amazon didn't have it in stock, and so after searching on the net for hours I finally found a seller that would give it to me for a reasonable price, I bought it for $13.99. One of my main reasons for purchasing it was the fact that it was created by Wes Craven, and I currently own and love quite a few of his movies. Another reason for purchasing this film was how creepy this movie sounded, even the box was scary. So was I dissappointed? Well... Kinda.

The Hills Have Eyes is about a close knit family on their way through Nevada to get to California. To me the family seems a bit naive, they can't possibly plan to live in their RV Trailer type thing, can they? I highly doubt that all 7 of the family members could live even moderately comfortably in their RV. Another thing that makes me think this family is naive is the fact that one of the girls expects to see "movie stars and fancy cars", and I really hate that kind of stereotype, I've lived in California my whole life and I have never seen a freakin movie star!

Something small that bugs me a little about the film is the dog, it is way to smart to be realistic. I don't know any dog that could push a man off of a cliff, then grab his CB radio and bring it to his owners, and also understand English perfectly. This doesn't actually make the film any worse, but it does make it less believable.

Fashion Police!
Now I understand that this movie was made in the 70s, but there is something seriously wrong with these people's attire, and not only does their clothing suck, but the acting isn't anything special either. I can listen to the screaming in the movie over and over again, but I still won't be convinced that these people are actually scared for their lives. The clothing is worse than the acting though, it should be against the law for males to wear shorts that small. It's so bad that I found myself silently hoping that Bobby would not climb the rocks just because of the shorts he was wearing.

The families clothing is bad, but the cannibal's dress like Indians, which makes it a little unbelievable that they are really cannibals at all. The Cannibals (save one) are named after planets, Mercury, Pluto, Jupiter, Mars, well you get the idea. To me the names were pretty comical, especially whenever one of the cannibals would call their father "Papa Jupe". The most distinguishable of the cannibals is Pluto, his picture is featured on the cover of the box and he is the strangest looking of them all.

The Plot
The movie opens with a pan of a row of hills, but with really creepy music playing in the background. The scene then switches to a small gas station in the middle of nowhere in the Nevada desert, a female dressed in rags is trying to trade goods with the gas station owner, but he refuses. A car pulling a trailer pulls up to the gas station and the old man hides the girl in the backroom. After giving the family in the gas, the old man tells them not to leave the main road. Predictably the family leaves the main road in search of their silver mine, since it is the eve of their 50th anniversary. The man of the household, big Bob, a retired police officer wrecks the car while avoiding a rabbit in the road and the family is forced to camp out where they wrecked, but someone hidden in the hills is watching them, the cannibals see this opportunity and begin making plans.

After a series of events many of the family members are killed, and the baby is stolen. The survivors consist of the two really dopey guys, the screaming sister, and one of their dogs, They know that the cannibals will be back for the rest of them, and they don't intend on becoming their next meal. After more struggling the next day, one of the groups is victorious, but I won't ruin it for you.

The Gore
Despite the fact that this movie is about cannibals there is very little gore: A couple of gunshot wounds, a stab wound, a gutted dog, and a pretty nasty looking ankle wound. It does show the cannibals eating human and even dog flesh, but it isn't graphic at all, it kinda looks like they cooked the meat before eating it. The squeamish can watch this movie without getting sick, the only bad part is the ankle wound.

The Suspense
This movie has a pretty low scare factor, there are only two scenes that are creepy at all. One of these scenes is the opening scene with the hills, this is only creepy because of the music that plays during this scene. The other creepy part is where the mother of the family's dead corpse is sitting in the lawn chair with the creepy music playing again, it almost looks like she is staring at you.

The Quality
It is very noticeable when watching this film that this movie is old, the footage has a slightly yellow tint to it, a sign of the technology of the time, and like I said earlier, the acting is nothing to write home about. Some especially bad actors are the people that played Doug and Bobby, the two really dopey guys in the film. And look out for the clothing too, I wonder if that stuff was considered "cool" back then.

Overall I can't say whether this is a good film or not, some people love it and some hate it. Personally I don't love it, it feels like an average film to me. This is a good addition to a collection though, it's getting more difficult to find this now rare film.