"Devil Child Becomes Devil Man..." THE HILLS HAVE EYES

Before he hit the big time with movies like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and later SCREAM, director Wes Craven had a string of violent horror efforts that seemed to feature ideas of normal people enacting bloody revenge on degenerates who had wronged them. This was immediately evident in Craven’s debut horror film, 1972’s LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and was elaborated on again in his 1977 film THE HILLS HAVE EYES. Both films have become minor cult classics, with LAST HOUSE becoming infamous for its graphic and unsettling violence. THE HILLS HAVE EYES has faded into horror obscurity over the years, but it still remains a pretty solid piece of horror film making.

The story for HILLS is pretty simple. A family from Cleveland, on their way to California, makes a detour into the middle of the desert to look for an abandoned silver mine. Miles away from any town, the family’s car breaks down, leaving them stranded and desperate to find a way to repair their car and get on their way. What they don’t know is that a group of primitives lives in the mountains nearby, and likes to prey on passerby's and anyone else who is around.

The cast in the film is pretty well versed, and makes us able to relate to their pain and suffering. Russ Grieve plays Big Bob Carter,the father of the family, with Virginia Vincent as his wife. Joining them on the trip are daughter Brenda (Susan Lanier) and son Bobby (Robert Huston) as well as the other daughter Lynne (Dee Wallace) and her husband Doug (Martin Speer). Lynne and Doug have a newborn daughter, who eventually becomes the main dramatic element used in the film after she is kidnapped by the primitives. The film’s message about normal people resorting to violence really works because of the believability of the cast, even if some of the ideas in the script get a bit ridiculous after awhile.

One interesting facet of THE HILLS HAVE EYES is the depiction of the cannibalistic primitive tribe that terrorizes the family. According to the story, they were the result of a “devil child” who was left to die in the desert, but eventually started his own family of wild men. These characters live almost as cavemen would, but communicate with each other through the use of walkie talkies, enabling the family to eavesdrop on some of their plans. Each member of the tribe is named after a planet of the solar system for some reason; we have James Whitworth as “Jupiter,” the patriarch of the family, cult movie legend Michael Berryman as “Pluto,” and Lance Gordon as “Mars.” The group kidnaps the baby with the intentions of eventually cooking and eating it; apparently these guys are modern cannibals, but this aspect is never really elaborated on. I think the film would have been a little better had we had a little more information about the tribe. There are some interesting facets to the cannibals, but we never get a whole lot more than basic information about them.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES is somewhat reminiscent to me of George Miller’s MAD MAX in that it takes place in a weird and disorienting setting and features a group of primitive people who are very compelling in their unusual traits and appearances. The film is similar in many ways to Craven’s previous film LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, but also is different. The main idea of both films is that when normal people resort to violence, they are often as brutal as their enemies, illustrated by the graphic manner in which the family in HILLS takes revenge on the primitives. The main difference in the films is that HILLS is probably less violent and fundamentally disturbing than LAST HOUSE, but it is still by no means a walk in the park.

Craven’s 1977 film features a wide variety of violent scenes ranging in intensity from pretty standard shootings to violent torture. The family trapped in the desert has a couple of dogs, one of which is disemboweled by the primitives, making the other one, called “The Beast” a little mad. “Beast” is probably the most vicious character in the film, at one point at rips open Pluto’s foot and throat. Other scenes include a crowbar to the skull, a knife stabbed into a stomach, a man tied to a cactus and burned alive, and more. All in all, even though in terms of disturbing images, HILLS doesn’t really compare with LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, it still has plenty of content that will appeal to genre fans.

Though it is a solid horror effort, THE HILLS HAVE EYES does have a few problems. Quite a bit of the dialog (the script was also written by Craven) is almost hilariously bad at times, and some lines are just too funny to be taken seriously. Also, the script begins to get a little ridiculous down the line, especially when a trap is set up so that the broken car can be used to drag Jupiter after snaring his leg. The fact that the dog Beast becomes almost the biggest hero in the film is also kind of stupid; the dog does more damage to the tribe than the people do. The film also ends abrubtly (another similarity to MAD MAX), but I think this was primarily done to strengthen Craven's arguement about normal people being as violent as their nemeses. I think the ending succeeded in this way.

In the end, THE HILLS HAVE EYES is a satisfying horror film with high levels of action and violence to keep your attention. The primitive cannibal tribe is probably the best thing the movie has working for it, and even though they don’t really get the attention that I think they warranted, this idea is enough to keep the film intriguing. Although it's definitely not the best of the genre, I’d still recommend it to fans of the horror genre. I don’t think it really is in the league of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT in terms of cult appeal and graphic violence, and I wouldn’t rate HILLS among Craven’s best work, but it still should provide the horror fan with some entertainment.