The Hills Have Eyes

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Wes Craven

Starring: Russ Grieve, Virginia Vincent, Robert Houston, James Whitworth, Michael Berryman

From: Blood Relations Co.

Here’s a movie that is probably well-known now amongst the general public for the remake and its sequel that were made back in the ’00, but I haven’t seen those before, nor did I see this movie… until earlier today. I picked it up at the local Blockbuster and finally viewed it. I knew the basic details and saw brief clips of the movie, but that was it.

This is about a family from Ohio who goes on vacation in California but take a detour into the middle of nowhere Nevada; a relative apparently granted a silver mine to them long ago and they want to claim it. It being a Chrysler Station Wagon towing a camper, there’s a mishap in the middle of the desert and they get stranded. From there they meet up with a crazed family of cannibals living in the desert, and mayhem ensues.

Yeah, I realized that the idea of cannibals being able to live out in the middle of nowhere and once in a blue moon catch some humans (or dogs) and otherwise sustaining on… well, something… is not something to spend a lot of time thinking about logically. However, the movie is pretty tense and it works very well. The film print (even in its 2003 DVD release) looks rather poor upconverted on my Blu-Ray player, but that actually helps to add to the 70’s-ness of it. There are some pretty terrifying moments and the villains are memorable, especially the distinctive Pluto (Berryman). Michael Berryman was born with some genetic conditions which result in him looking the way he does and thus makes him perfect for being the scary bad guy or the henchman in this genre.

Anyhow, the movie has raw intensity in spades and you can tell that this family is up s***’s creek and Jesus Christ in a crunch they have to resort to becoming animalistic themselves to try and survive. It’s something I recommend seeing if you haven’t already. Sure, there’s some goofiness but that was mainly its 70’s charm, from the guy who looks like Sonny Bono to the fashion to the phrase “Goddamn” being used often by one character and the phrase “Jesus Christ in a crunch” being uttered.

I have no clue how good the remake and its sequel are; I’ve heard mixed reviews to that. I can tell you that the sequel to THIS movie, though, is by all accounts God-awful and filled with flashbacks to the original to pad time. It was a total cash grab by Craven and that’s unfortunate.

One interesting thing about the movie is that the character of Bobby (Houston) is clearly a homosexual and yet it’s just that and it’s not addressed. Before I looked online I thought it was rather curious. He sounds like he’s gay, wore short yellow shorts in the beginning, and randomly did gymnastics. It turns out that Robert Houston is in real life a homosexual so it’s not like it was unintended homoeroticism or whatever. So you have to assume that the character of Bobby was a homosexual and it was totally random and didn’t mean anything to the movie. At least there was no stereotyping and he had to swish around or whatever. He managed to deliver a fine performance; I was just surprised when I first heard him speak, that’s all…

Plus, he gets cool points in my book for being a big part in putting together the movie Shogun Assassin, which Americanizes and combines the first two movies in the Lone Wolf & Cub series, which is a Japanese magna that was adapted into a set of six movies in the 70’s. I’ve only seen Shogun and the first movie in the Lone Wolf series, but it’s awesome sword-wielding bloody greatness. Plus, the theme to Shogun Assassin is tremendous.

I’ll be back Friday night with a new review.