Overview and brief synopsis
Before I knew it was a remake, I saw The Hills Have Eyes in 2006, and it immediately burned into my memory. This is one of the most relentless and horrifying films I have ever seen. At its core is a family who finds themselves stranded in the middle of the New Mexico desert, completely unaware that their survival will be put to the test. Both the original 1977 version, directed by Wes Craven, and the remake share the same major plot points, so for me, there were no surprises in terms of “scares” as I was watching. However, although the overarching story and elements are the same, it was interesting to compare what the remake brought to the table. In general, remakes can be very unsatisfying, destroying an already good story with poor creative choices or tasteless nonsense.
In both versions, the movie wastes no time establishing the main characters. These include an ordinary family, consisting of an older couple, their two teenage children, and an adult daughter traveling with her husband and child, as well as the antagonists, to whom the lowly gas station owner has mysterious ties. This normal family trip quickly turns into the vacation from hell after a wrong turn.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
This film’s unrelenting and brutal nature keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s a far cry from the slow burns that drag on to create suspense. Because the story constructs a clear picture of who this family is, we do care about them and hope that they will survive. One of the best aspects of the film is that it ignores our hopes, diving straight into the deep end of insanity and creating a nightmare that we can only witness. Thankfully, this is true for both versions of the movie. I remember seeing the remake and being completely shocked by the depravity that the family was subjected to and in such rapid succession, leaving no room to process anything besides how completely horrified I was (but in the best way possible). For me, there’s nothing predictable about this movie, which is a relief from all the horror movies where we can see the ending coming from a mile away. The impending dread in this movie is so palpable that I felt as hopeless as the characters, although much less traumatized from the safety of my own home.
Even though both versions of the film are largely mirror images, there are, of course, some glaring differences. Watching the original, I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the costume decisions, which makes sense that it’s a 1970s production. I’m undeniably influenced by the great SFX effects of the remake. However, the cannibals were reminiscent of the Flintstones, who never wanted to socialize with the outside world, instead of victims of nuclear experiments. In fact, this plot point was more emphasized in the remake, whereas the original only briefly alluded to the nuclear aspect. That said, this group of caveman cannibals still represents a menacing force: these hills are their territory, and they prove themselves to be calculating, organized, and ruthless.
Spoilers ahead
In the remake, the backstory of the cannibals was slightly more fleshed out than in the original. In general, we don’t know much about them on an individual level, besides the fact that the son of the old gas station owner is the leader of the pack. In the 2006 version, after half the family had been slaughtered through immolation and gunfire, the son-in-law goes on a mission to save his infant daughter from the cannibals. He adventures through the hills and finds the old staging houses filled with dummies, giving us a glimpse of how the cannibals live. This is where we get a better understanding of what happened to create the mutants. In both scenarios, the baby was saved by Ruby, who helped kill the members of her family threatening the father and daughter.
The original ending felt a little more hopeful as it ended with [what’s left of] the family and Ruby as they embark on a new beginning. Strangely enough, that ending feels more hopeful for Ruby since she can now live her life away from the hills, fulfilling her heart’s desire, compared to the family whose lives were destroyed in one single night. On the other hand, following Ruby’s death while saving the baby, the remake ends with a slight cliffhanger as someone stalks the family through binoculars. The open ending gives the impression that their nightmare might just be beginning.
Final thoughts
Honestly, I love this film. Being trapped and surrounded by bloodthirsty murderers will always be a horrifying nightmare scenario. I find that the remake adds an extra level of horror through its SFX effects, making the antagonists physically unbearable to look at, adding to their brutality and grotesqueness by taking away any semblance of humanity. All in all, I see myself rewatching these films because they still hold up the test of time in terms of the theme and the impact that it has on the audience.
