The Hills Have Eyes – 1977 (Arrow Video): Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Taking a detour whilst on route to Los Angeles, the Carter family run into trouble when their campervan breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, the family find themselves at the mercy of a group of monstrous cannibals lurking in the surrounding hills. With their lives under threat, the Carters are forced to fight back by any means necessary.
It’s been a REALLY long time since I’ve seen this movie so it kind of felt like watching it for the first time again. It was really surprising to see this and compare it to the 2006 remake. It was pretty much the same film almost beat for beat for the most part BUT where the original excels is in its raw and realistic nature. Much like the original The Last House On The Left made people feel uncomfortable this film has that same vibe to it but on a different level. With The Last House On The Left we got something that felt real and in this case they took that same realistic approach and applied it to an extreme horror situation. As cheesy as some of the acting was in the film it honestly didn’t matter. The creep factor was more than enough to overtake any sort of lack of acting ability in my opinion. Given the fact that this was filmed in 1977 I thought that there some really impressive shots that were filmed. A lot of them probably not relying too much on safety but they did look amazing. I always appreciate effects and landscapes that were done practically instead of CG and since this was filmed so long ago I loved to see that the areas that were used during the film were actually real locations. If you have yet to see this film then you really are missing out on piece of cinematic history and I suggest picking this up as soon as you can. 8/10
Special Features:
Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes – A fantastic hour long retrospective on the film and memories from making it.
Family Business – A nice interview with actor Martin Speer.
The Desert Sessions – An interesting interview with composer Don Peake.
Alternate Ending – I actually prefer this ending as opposed to the original where it just ends so abruptly.
Outtakes – Normally these are my favorite features but this one was just kind of OK.
Audio Commentary With Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Susan Lanier and Martin Speer
Audio Commentary With Academic Mikel J. Koven
Audio Commentary With Wes Craven And Peter Locke
Side Note: This release does come with an awesome poster and an extremely cool production booklet that is definitely worth the purchase!
