The Hills Have Eyes Film Review

Year of Production: 2005   Director: Alexandre Aja  

In this remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 film a family becomes the target for a group of murderous mutants when their car breaks down in the middle of the desert.

One of the scenes I found most impressive was the opening credits in which clips of nuclear bombs being dropped with calm, cheery, contrapuntal music in the background makes it feel very sinister. Around half way through the credits, images of mutants start to flash up accompanied by a sharp mechanical screeching sound as well as the contrapuntal music, which makes it confusing to listen to and makes it creepy. The use of collision cutting and the contrasts of slow and fast editing build tension. The credits also sum up the historical context the film, which sets us up nicely for the rest of it.

The other scene which stood out to me was a few scenes after the credits when a girl says “Thank God there’s nobody watching us”.  The camera then zooms out to show her and her family being watched through binocular lenses. The sense of irony makes it slightly amusing, but it is also extremely unsettling.

Parallel sound is constant throughout the film, with gunshots and heavy breathing. Unusually contrapuntal sound is used throughout too, especially in the first few scenes. There is lively hillbilly music playing on the radio despite the fact that these people are trapped in a creepy desert with no connection to the outside world. Heavy metal music is played as the car and caravan crash and the fast beat and screaming vocals create a sense of panic. There is a redneck who lives on his own in a shack and appears to be talking to, and looking at, something that we can’t see, suggesting that he feels outside the CDI. Rednecks are very much outside the mainstream CDI of America. The themes of death, violence and sex were present throughout the film. The pair of mutants who break in to the trailer shoot the older sister and her mum and set the dad on fire so that the others are distracted while they rape the younger sister. All of these things going on at once play with our emotions and make it almost too much to handle, as they are relatable for real life and to people we know (although mutants are slightly less realistic, but could represent those people in society who are different, unpredictable and feel outside of the CDI and therefore put people on edge). The disconcerting vast setting of the film in the middle of nowhere; it is an enclosed location where there is no escape, which leaves us as an audience feeling trapped.

I would like to include the idea of being isolated where nobody could help you in my trailer, because it takes away the possibly of a happy ending which makes it scarier. The use of heavy breathing builds tension and a sense of panic, as the audience start to mirror the increasing speed. I would also like to think of a similar tagline for my own trailer to “The lucky ones dies first” because it instantly makes us wonder what could be worse than being shot or stabbed; it lets our imaginations run wild.

An aspect of the film, which I will definitely avoid in my own trailer, is the rape scene, because it just seems totally gratuitous and unnecessary. Although the emotions shown by the mutants are disturbing and psychopathic which adds to the ‘horror’ of the film, I think you also alienate the audience with such a nasty scene.

I feel that the best aspect of the film was the suspense created when the family can hear the mutants outside the caravan, and it’s silent when a noise makes them jump, but there’s nothing there. Just when we relax, the mutants jump out. Playing with the audience’s minds like this puts them on edge because they never know what to expect next.