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Average User Score: 7 (106 sources)

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alyssa01

-1

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I have never seen the 70's original but I really liked this movie. I was trying to find a nice scary horror that had undertones of realism in it and this provided that. In other movies you see all these people faced with horrific circumstances and...
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I have never seen the 70's original but I really liked this movie. I was trying to find a nice scary horror that had undertones of realism in it and this provided that. In other movies you see all these people faced with horrific circumstances and coming out a hero and while that is nice sometimes not everyone would fare that well in real life.

What this movie provided was multiple levels of reaction and emotion in the face of tragedy. Doug driven by a sense of vengance and desperation to get his baby back, Bobby trying to make his (dead) father proud by being the protecter to his sister and Brenda Who is histerical and traumatized by not only her family's death but also at being raped by mutants. The main thing though that I think differs this from other slasher movies is that this isn't some creepy psyco picking them off one by one in a way that leaves you wondering if killers in real life would ever actually be this patient, It is rather a group of desperate, albeit insane, mutants waging a single all out attack and then the rest of the movie is spent dealing with the aftermath.

This makes the movie more real, which in turn makes it much more powerfull and scary and it gets top marks from me.

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Posted oct 29, 2009 5:31 am pt

Warrior427

-1

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good remake much better then the original really bloody and gory and pretty scary to but I dont see it as a movie I would watch it all the time again like in alot of movies the bad guys are like super powered they are just mutants

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Posted oct 19, 2008 12:08 pm pt

Anthropophagus

-1

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"A boring, hopeless and unintelligent remake."

Not having seen the original 'Hills Have Eyes', I really don't have much to work with here, but one thing that I do know is, this was a bad film. The plot and some of the...
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"A boring, hopeless and unintelligent remake."

Not having seen the original 'Hills Have Eyes', I really don't have much to work with here, but one thing that I do know is, this was a bad film. The plot and some of the characters were just unbelievable.

Now I don't love remakes. I'm just not a huge fan. Remaking something should only occur when the original film would be extremely interesting to watch modernized or if it wasn't very good as a film and needed some repairs - the upcoming 'Friday the 13th' remake is a good example of this. I'm not totally against them though - I found the 2003 remake of the 1974 classic, 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre', very interesting and superbly filmed. This film right here is a classic example of a modernized, dumb Hollywood horror remake that fails to really bring anything new to the table. The acting is very bad, and the whole film just drags on and on. I really did not enjoy this film at all, and I certainly do not recommend it.

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Posted sep 14, 2008 1:46 pm pt

mackski

-1

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This movie is a vast improvement on the original. The story line was solid for a horror flick and the gore was plentiful. This movie was very exciting and had some really grotesque mutants. As someone already made mention, the victims fought...
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This movie is a vast improvement on the original. The story line was solid for a horror flick and the gore was plentiful. This movie was very exciting and had some really grotesque mutants. As someone already made mention, the victims fought back and actually defended themselves. If you like horror movies you will like this one.

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Posted jul 14, 2008 9:37 am pt

simpsonsfan11

-1

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This totally deserves a 100 stars, too bad the rating limit is only five. Anyway, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT horror movie. This is way BETTER than the original. It has more character development, more suspense building up, and scarier mutants, looks and...
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This totally deserves a 100 stars, too bad the rating limit is only five. Anyway, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT horror movie. This is way BETTER than the original. It has more character development, more suspense building up, and scarier mutants, looks and all. I mean, in the original, they were human cannibals which wasn't really that scary. Here in this version, we are dealing with real deformed people. Much more terrifying.
There's a lot of emotion in this film, at least that's what I thought. When the mother who was shot in the stomach is talking to Doug while she's slowly dying.....come on, admit that you at least choked up during that scene.
This is by far one of the best horror flicks to come out nowadays. The sequel to this was crap, as well as the original 1985 sequel to the first hills have eyes. I'd say watch those two online, because they are SO not worth a rental.

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Posted may 18, 2008 7:56 am pt

mr-jones

-1

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Thankfully Wes Craven produced this new version of his classic 'H. H. Eyes' and it really shows. Again it obviously falls short but there is enough fresh material for a new generation of horror fans to lap up. Yet another cash-in.

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Posted oct 7, 2007 7:53 pm pt

wawaweewa16

-1

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A terrifying movie with great makeup,gore & truly terrifying moments. Not for people with a weak stomach

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Posted sep 8, 2007 1:18 am pt

faCt24

-1

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I have the Unrated version on DVD and I don't regret buying. If you buy it or see it be prepared for a lot of disturbing scenes. I think it's a great movie and hey if New York Times says its good it's gotta be good!

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Posted jul 31, 2007 1:27 am pt

kylehannah

-1

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This remake is one of the most amazing slasher films on the planet and easily surpasses the original.The most appealing part of the movie is the fact that the victims are intelligent.They plan,they defend themselves,they place traps,they bring...
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This remake is one of the most amazing slasher films on the planet and easily surpasses the original.The most appealing part of the movie is the fact that the victims are intelligent.They plan,they defend themselves,they place traps,they bring weapons every time they go into the hills,it's a rare thing to see in a slasher movie.The film is shot with a look that is in every visual way like the original movie.The only noticeable cliché is the fact that the film begins with the creepy gas station guy giving the family the wrong directions.After that the film becomes a totally intelligent and unique horror movie.The film contains some disturbing content and some imaginative and brutal kills,that give it an edge over every slasher movie out there.Alexandre Aja is a great director when it comes to horror and makes the original version look inferior.The Hills Have Eyes is a smart,edge of your seat thriller,with a tendency to make you cringe.The bottom line is if you enjoyed the original or are a fan of great 70's horror flicks The Hills Have Eyes is a must see.

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Posted jul 25, 2007 9:10 am pt

delta_116326

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quit enjoyable. great story and action.

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Posted jul 21, 2007 10:43 pm pt

• [+] Film Threat
  
  80
  When Aja really starts in on the brutal slayings, he spares no one any comfort at all.

  by Heidi Martinuzzi | Read Full Review »
• [+] Washington Post
  
  80
  Even as he reinvents, Aja invents. He's clearly working on a big budget for his first American film and has been told he can do anything he can think of. Visually, the movie is wildly alive, full of sure touches.

  by Stephen Hunter | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  80
  Snobs may balk, purists will be appalled, but this new and exceedingly nasty version of Wes Craven's 1977 cult shocker is awfully good at what it does. And mostly what it does is make you feel awful.

  by Nathan Lee | Read Full Review »
• [+] San Francisco Chronicle
  
  75
  If studios insist on remaking classic horror films, this is definitely the way to do it.

  by Peter Hartlaub | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  75
  Hills is a far cry from its cheesy and predictable predecessor. "Gruesome" doesn't begin to describe the horrors that are revealed on-screen here.

  by Erin Meister | Read Full Review »
• [+] Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  
  75
  Almost 30 years later, it's just as primal.

  by Sean Axmaker | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  75
  French up-and-comer Alexandre Aja's full-bore do-over is a shockingly successful update of a seminal 1970s shocker.

  by Maitland McDonagh | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Hollywood Reporter
  
  70
  This remake of the 1977 Wes Craven cult classic is brutally horrific. And that's a compliment.

  by Michael Rechtshaffen | Read Full Review »
• [+] Variety
  
  70
  Besides proving to be a faithful mimic of Craven's filmmaking, Aja pours on the gore. But where Aja's version really leaps beyond Craven's both atmospherically and on the violence scale is in the second hour.

  by Robert Koehler | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  67
  Aja's version, while a killer ride in its own right, never manages the nagging subtexts Craven so handily injected into the proceedings. It's a topnotch nightmare, but this time you wake up.

  by Marc Savlov | Read Full Review »
• [+] Premiere
  
  63
  Though this new Hills is both scarier and smarter than 95 percent of the other horror product out there, it's also indicative of everything that's wrong with horror movies today.

  by Glenn Kenny | Read Full Review »
• [+] ReelViews
  
  63
  The Hills Have Eyes gets points for gore and general creepiness, and for occasional periods of tension, but it's not scary enough to linger long in the subconscious.

  by James Berardinelli | Read Full Review »
• [+] Empire
  
  60
  Fans of the original won't be disappointed, but ultimately it's just another decent, arguably unnecessary, '70s horror remake.

  by Chris Hewitt | Read Full Review »
• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  58
  Where Craven and his director, Alexandre Aja, may have miscalculated is in making the genetically damaged demons, with their flesh-potato foreheads and minimal verbal skills, into monster action figures who take vengeance on the world that created them. They're not scary because they're victims themselves.

  by Owen Gleiberman | Read Full Review »
• [+] Rolling Stone
  
  50
  What good is a wallow in sicko sadism if you take all the fun out of it?

  by Peter Travers | Read Full Review »