Rating: 
Summary: AWESOME FLICK
Review: "The Hills Have Eyes" is Wes Craven's long awaited follow up to his first film, the grindhouse epic "The Last House on the Left." In the latter film, the creator of such horror staples as "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream" delved deep into the recesses of human cruelty to tell the tale of two young women abducted, tortured, and killed by a small gang of escaped convicts. Through a twist of fate, the parents of one of these girls meet up with her killers and exact their own brand of terrible revenge. "The Last House on the Left," although not incredibly gory in its theatrical cut, is a nauseating, seedy little nightmare that received an incredible amount of bad press even as it raked in money at the few places willing to show the movie. Craven's subsequent career virtually assured that his early work would receive the DVD treatment. What's surprising is how comprehensive a treatment "Last House" and "Hills" received. "The Hills Have Eyes" offers up a plethora of entertaining and informative extras on two discs. There is so much material of interest on these DVDs that it's easy to lose sight of the film itself.
There is nothing more innocent and heartwarming than a family taking a trip across the country. In the case of retired cop Big Bob Carter (Russ Grieve), he's taking his extended family out into the desert in search of a silver mine. His wife Ethel (Virginia Vincent) is along for the ride, as are daughter Brenda (Susan Lanier) and son Bobby (Robert Houston). Also tagging along in a mobile home is Carter's married daughter Lynne (Dee Wallace-Stone), her husband Doug (Martin Speer), and their infant child. Rounding out the list are the two family dogs, one of whom will play an important role in the nightmare to come. Carter and his clan stop off at a decrepit gas station run by Fred (John Steadman) in order to ask for directions. Fred issues dire warnings to Carter about heading out into the desert. The cop, undeterred by such nonsense, proceeds to drive his entire family into the middle of an Air Force bombing range. When a couple of jet fighters buzz the Carter station wagon, Big Bob panics and veers off the road. Now stranded miles from the highway, the family takes stock of the situation. The automobile is seriously damaged, so Big Bob walks back to civilization while the family sets up camp. Listen to that terror music rise with a swell!
The Carter clan should have listened to crotchety old Fred. It turns out that a family of cannibals lives out in the mountains near where the car crashed, a family headed by Fred's only son Jupiter (James Whitworth). The gas station owner tells Bob Carter a weird story about the birth of his son, describing the youth as a cruel, misshapen child cursed with a violent temperament. Fred eventually threw the kid out into the desert after a particularly heinous crime convinced the father that the son was a real danger. Now Jupiter has a family of his own, including Pluto (Michael Berryman) and Mars (Lance Gordon), with which to terrorize anyone unlucky enough to wander into their lair. As Big Bob races back to his loved ones, the film shifts focus to the family left back on the bombing range. Sure enough, Jupiter and his abhorrent offspring swoop down on the unfortunate outsiders, killing two of the family members and stealing Lynne's baby. The rest of the film deals with the survivors' attempts to retrieve the infant and kill Jupiter and his pack of cannibals. It's a battle to the finish as Doug, Brenda, and Bobby rely on their wits to defeat stronger, better armed foes.
"The Hills Have Eyes" is really a film about civilization versus barbarism. It's also a film based loosely on the Sawney Bean family, a real life pack of inbred cannibals who preyed on travelers over in the English isles three centuries ago. The film relies heavily on shock value rather than over the top gore, an approach that generally works even if it is a bit disappointing (I'd like to see more cannibal action, personally). And there is nothing more shocking than the frightening visage of Michael Berryman to send an audience over the edge. If I had to draw a picture of what I thought an inbred cannibal killer looked like, it would probably resemble Berryman. His misshapen bald head, buggy eyes, and malformed mouth add much to the impact of the movie. He is, in fact, almost as frightening as some of the performances in the film. Most of the actors do a good job with their roles, but Virginia Vincent goes needlessly over the top as matriarch Ethel. Talk about laying the ham on thick! Shelley Winters has nothing on this lady! I'm surprised Ethel and her relatives had to put up with cannibals at all, frankly. You would think the planes saw Big Bob go off the road and would notify the proper authorities. You would also think that a pack of cannibals couldn't survive for long on a military bombing range. Oh well, best not to ask too many questions.
The supplements on the DVD are quite good. The best feature is the commentary track with Wes Craven and producer Peter Locke. They entertain themselves endlessly by poking fun at the unfolding hijinks. After listening to their comments, check out the interviews with cast and crew, the Craven career retrospective, and the alternate ending. Every horror film fan will want to check this DVD out. Even if you've seen the movie before, the extras are good enough to merit another look.
Rating:
Summary: 70s HORROR
Review: 70s HORROR THE WAY IT WAS MENT TO BE DONE NOT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT YOU FILMED NOT LIKE TODAY
Rating: 
Summary: The Hills Have Eyes
Review: A vacationing family is in an area where a relative left them some land,that they used to mine for silver.A local man trys to persuade them to stick to the main road,and forget about the land.Of course the family doesn't listen,and they have a wreck.Soon the guys of the family walk the land to look for help,they'll find someone,but when they do they will wish that they hadn't.A family of freaks,Jupitor,and Pluto and a couple more kill whoever happens to go onto their territory.The family is pitted up against the freaks,to try to survive.Not overly great entertainment,but not as bad as it could be.The movie was cheaply made,and the blood looks extremely fake.If you want something different this it.The movie is probable most notable for being directed by Wes Craven,and future star Dee Wallace Stone(E.T.,Critters,The Howling).
Rating:
Summary: One of the most underrated and frightening films ever
Review: After scoring a surprise hit with his shocking debut Last House on the Left, Wes Craven wrote and directed this primitive little shocker that just like Last House on the Left managed to be shocking and truly scary. When a suburban family becomes stranded in the desert, they fall prey to a family of cannibals, and as they're numbers quickly dwindle, fight back with equally savage means. The Hills Have Eyes was also another social commentary by Craven as we see the typical human family revert to they're feral instincts in doing anything to survive. A lesser known sequel would be released a few years later which Craven directed, but that film isn't worth tracking down one bit. Anchor Bay has yet again done another fine job on restoring a horror classic to DVD; just like they did with Near Dark and Day of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes DVD is handsomely packaged and includes two discs worth of features including a commentary by Craven and producer Peter Locke, two hour long featurettes, and a plethora of trailers and TV spots. Highly recommended for horror buffs.
Rating:
Summary: It Gave Me Nightmares
Review: But I don't live on Elm Street so I'm okay. Still, I didn't find this to be particularly scary or anything. I haven't seen Wes Craven's Last House On The Left but it seems to be in the same sort of documentary/amateur horror genre. It does look very novice and it's far from Craven's best work but it is slightly interesting.Plus, I have no clue what all the fuss is about regarding the shock and gore. There is hardly one spot of blood in this movie and I just finished watching the uncut version. Horror and gore is implied but never really shown or excessively displayed. I kind of felt that the character of Pluto was quite sympathetic even tho he was one of the bad guys. I felt sorry for him when the dog bit him. But none of the other characters provoked anything out of me. They were just either dull or stupid and not even in a typical horror movie way. Wes Craven kind of shoots himself in the foot by limited the possibilities early on, resulting in a movie with an annoyingly abrupt ending and no subtext or subliminal quality whatsoever. It works perfectly as a Drive-In movie but as a horror it's weaker than a twentieth-time-around tea-bag. The DVD sports a truly dodgy looking 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1 that fails to impress at all and a bunch of features, including Audio commentary from director Wes Craven and producer Peter Locke, An all-new featurette featuring Wes Craven, Peter Locke, Janus Blythe, Susan Lanier, Dee Wallace, Michael Berryman and cinematographer Eric Saarinen, 'The American Nightmare' documentary (directed by Adam Simon), Stills gallery, TV spots, Trailers. I guess if you're a fan then it is a must buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Anchor Bay delivers a great print of a classic film.
Review: Firstly, I will begin by admitting that prior to owning this two disc set, I had watched THE HILLS HAVE EYES a multitude of times and just never appreciated it. The old VHS prints were just too darn dark at times making the action on screen very difficult to decipher. This DVD rectifies this problem with a near flawless print and I can finally see what all the fuss is about. Undeniably this is a great seventies horror film and a close relative to Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre in style and content.
The story is quite simple: some city folk on their way to California detour through the desert, crash their vehicle and are set upon by a murderous clan of cannibals. The result is truly Darwinian survival of the fittest as the civilized family must resort to murder and babarism to survive. This theme being a recurrent one in Wes Craven's films that the potential for violence lurks within all of us. The acting is quite good especially Michael Berryman as the bald headed cannibal Pluto and Janus Blythe as the reluctant cannibal protagonist Ruby.
This film is much more watchable than Craven's previous film, the horrific and sadistic Last House On The Left whose over the top cruelty made it an uncomfortable viewing experience. This film is very enjoyable and gets better with repeated viewings.
The extras shine also, especially the fascinating sixty minute documentary Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes, full of anecdotes and reminiscing by the cast and director, this is a fabulous supplement.
Anchor Bay should be commended for this awesome DVD, now if only they would release Craven's follow up: the early Sharon Stone film, Deadly Blessing(1981).
Rating: 
Summary: dumb,can't even compare with the texas chainsaw massacre
Review: For people who havn't seen this movie and are thinking of renting or buying this movie,DON'T!!!!!It is not scary or macrbe or anything.People who say this movie is better than the texas chainsaw massacre are dumb!!!!!This is only one of the low works by Wes craven.His other low works are "they" which is positivly,absolutly,horribly,stupid!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Excellent Excellent!
Review: Great cast with decent script has Ohio family in RV breaking down in hostile desert terrain. The Hills Have Eyes and viewers are teased by not seeing the antagonists right away, and when we do finally meet them, watch out. Michael Berryman is superb and not just for his unorthodox appearance. Forget "Scream" and the vastly overrated "Last House on the Left", Wes Craven grand slams with this low-budget high-return tingler..
Rating:
Summary: Wes Craven tackles Hillbilly Cannibalism
Review: Have you ever heard of this film before? ... The basic plot, such as it is, appears something like this: A civilized family is traveling to California when their station wagon suddenly breaks down. Being city folk, the group soon realizes that they are unprepared for survival in the desert. The group contends with the heat, the dust, and the barren appearance of the god forsaken environment. They soon realize that these are small matters when compared to the group of inbred hillbilly cannibals watching them from the cliffs, waiting for a ripe moment to rape, pillage, and eventually consume the city slickers. Now the driving question: what is the point of this motion picture? Are you looking for philosophy? Director and Screenwriter Wes Craven certainly devotes ample time to the dissection of what it means to be civilized, and why this can be both a curse and a blessing for mankind. The curse lies within the idea that a group of people can become so attached to modern society that they lose all form of communication with the natural world. This character flaw almost costs the life of each family member. Civilized existence can also be a blessing. After all, the group uses technology like automobiles and handguns to defeat the malicious cannibals and, upon consideration of these hill people, one is thankful that their way of life does not persist. As mankind evolves, our tolerance for the giving and taking of pain and suffering weakens, and along with this goes our belief in the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest. It may be a chaotic universe and nothing may really matter in the end, but I think most of mankind would agree that the infliction of pain on another for no practical reason is not only senseless, but disgusting. Though actual philisophical dialogue is nonexistent, the feeling and emotion of this philosophy is imbued within the entire structure of the film. What about the rest of it? Does the film have any other redeemable qualities? Like the philisophical approach, it all depends on what sort of viewer one chooses to be. The film itself is highly original, unbelievably frightening, and very disturbing, which explains why it has become a cult hit amongst the horror movie crowd. If one were writing a college thesis on cannibalism, this film might serve as a welcome companion to, say, the 1999 film "Ravenous". Actor Michael Berryman makes an appearance as the cannibal named Pluto, along with his trademark bug eyes and bald head. Berryman also returns as the main villain in the film's sequel, "The Hills Have Eyes II". Michael Berryman has literally made an entire career out of playing eccentric characters in small bit roles, always utilizing but not wholly depending on his very unusual physical appearance. Combine this with the fact that Berryman really is a talented actor and this has all the making of a memorable screen appearance. The bottom line is that Horror fans and cannibal scholars will probably love the film, philosophers may enjoy the existential mood and feel of it, and people simply looking for a scare may discover more than they are willing to bargain for. From a personal standpoint, I am generally not a horror movie buff and do not plan on writing a thesis on cannibalism in the near future. I can get philosophy anywhere and, other than Michael Berryman, the film held little for me to jump and cheer about. Objectively, "The Hills Have Eyes" is a small but solid motion picture and will definitely appeal to its proper audience. So watch what you eat! One may never know who lurks in the outskirts of civilization, or how hungry they may become! You have been warned. FINAL RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars
FINAL GRADE: C+
*Notable Appearance: Michael Berryman*
Rating:
Summary: Hills is a 70's Horror Classic!!!
Review: Hills Have Eyes is famed Horror film maker Wes Craven's second film. He really attepted to make a film more shocking than his film debut Last House on the Left (if that is at all possible). The film is low-budget and crude in its quality, but it is quite a thrill ride. The film has a great cast (some of which became big stars like Dee Wallace) and the characters are developed nicely. Michael Berryman is creepy as hell and as is the case with most 70's Horror classics, the film has an undying ability to shock with scenes of canibalism, rape, murder, mayhem, and even drinking bird's blood. This is not the best independent horror film of it's era, but if you have an open mind and strong stomach, you'll have fun with this flick! The Anchor Bay DVD set is a MUST for any fan of the genre.
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