The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
UHM is an independently owned site that relies solely on ad revenue, so we ask that if you like this site and what we do to help support by temporarily disabling ad block (if you're using one). If you'd rather help in other ways you can also send a tip by clicking here (or the button below). Any amount helps and will go towards the costs to maintain the site. Anyone who donates will also be listed in our thanks page.
I remember seeing the sequel to this film and thinking it sucked, which made me not want to bother checking the first. That was a mistake, because after a while I started hearing a lot of people say the first was good. After a while I finally got my hands on a copy of this and ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I'm not much of a Wes Craven fan myself, but this has to be one of Wes Craven's better films, aside from A Nightmare on Elm Street and People Under the Stairs.
The story is about a family on a road trip to California, who passes through a desert area and end up in a wreck in an Air Force testing area. A couple of them decide to split up to find help while the others stay behind. As they split a family of cannibals, who live in the desert, decide to pick them off. The plot for this movie isn't too original, but it was still a good movie. The acting was good and it had some unexpected deaths around the middle, which I liked. This was around the time Wes made darker films, like Last House on the Left, which rape scene, was deemed "too realistic".
I thought the deaths weren't too bad and some scenes were suspenseful since a lot was done during the night. I don't know why, but I'm rather fond of movies where a group end up getting mixed up with a family or another group of some sort, which live in the middle of nowhere. I guess that's another reason why I really enjoyed this movie. There's a decent amount of blood and gore in this. I would have given the movie a higher-rating, but I didn't like the ending too much. I felt that it ended too soon; a good movie either way.
One of Wes Craven's better films; predictable, but good story. A good movie, that I felt ended too soon. Rent this if you're a fan of Wes or want to see a good film.