Alexandre Aja, A Director To Keep An Eye On..

"The Hills Have Eyes (2006)"

Before I say anything..I just want to say that I think that poster is fucking awesome. It just gives you a hint at the sick shit you're going to see in this movie. You know it's gonna be something terrible..but you don't know just how bad it's going to be. Great stuff. Now, onto the movie...

This movie..is brutal in every way possible. It just has a RAW feeling to it..Alexandrea Aja is going to be a fucking LEGEND when it comes to the Direction and so forth of horror movies. I'm telling you. If you don't believe me go and watch "High Tension." I don't think I've ever been on the edge of my seat like I was watching it. Fucking AMAZING. It only has one flaw, but that's a story for a different time.

This movie..is a bit different. This is a remake of the Wes Craven film before it, only this remake doesn't suck like 90% of them do. This thing fucking scares the SHIT out of you and is fucking INTENSE (nowhere near as intense as "High Tension," but still..what do you expect, the fucking movie is called "High Tension.")The basic plot is: Test nuclear bomb radiation has disfigured a group of people. They are moved to a secluded area. A family is driving to California, they stop to get gas. The owner of the station helps these mutants kill people..only he doesn't do it anymore. The mutants give him a bag of suspicious items. Unfortunately for the family one of them walks into the room (doesn't see what's in it,) and he suspects she does, so he sends them the mutants way. What ensues is pure torture and fucking intense cinema.

First off, the acting is damn good. Everyone is good, especially Dan Byrd who plays Bobby. When he is pissed off, YOU BELIEVE HE IS PISSED OFF. Not once does he come across as he's overacting which can be hard to do when you play angry. I am quite interested in seeing what he does next after watching this. Emilie de Ravin (CLAIRE FROM LOST!) is good as Brenda and Aaron Stanford is really good as Doug. Those are the MAIN characters. Everyone cast in this film acts VERY GOOD. The only person who sometimes wasn't great was the gas station owner played by Tom Bower.

Anyways, the first 20 minutes they flesh out the characters, then the story picks up and then comes one of the most intense things to ever come out of American Cinema (I say American because half of our horror movies fucking blow, there are some awesome foreign ones.) I'm not going to say who dies and so forth because I've never seen the original and I don't know if the victims are EXACTLY the same but the family is attacked in the trailer (this includes..a rape, and pointing a gun at a baby. Intense shit,) and the story picks up full circle. They compose a plan and Doug attempts to rescue his baby meanwhile the remaining family attempts to stay alive.

The Mutant guys are fucking DISGUSTING. I won't give you too many details because if you're going to watch the movie I suggest you go in cold. I didn't know much about the movie going in and I was kinda' waiting to see what they looked like. Suprise reaction, much better. Just know..they are ugly motherfuckers.

Some of the gore in the movie is just for shock value but some of it is just brutally raw and real. Robyn was saying she felt sick watching it, that's how raw and fucking real/intense it is. It's rare that you watch a movie that does that and I agree with her, it was a bit sickening, but it didn't bother me. This actually help you get INTO the movie and root for the good guys..and I never do that. By the climax of the movie me and Robyn were totally rooting for the good guys.

The way this movie is shot feels RAW. Part of that is because of it being located in the desert (which by the way, the landscape is beautiful.) But, just the look of everything feels real. Not like some horror movies where you notice stuff that pulls you out of the film, for me I didn't notice one thing that did that for me.

I don't understand how people can get away with making such shitty fucking movies when you have someone like Alexandre Aja writing and directing such bad-ass films (although this was a remake..he still wrote and directed "High Tension.") For example? "House of the Dead," "An American Haunting," and "The Ring/The Ring 2." I've never seen the Japanese "Ringu," films but the American ones SUCKED, but I know tons of people disagree with me on this one..so whatever.

The only problem with this movie? The ending, I won't ruin it for you but once the last shot starts up, you can tell the end. Really lame and it's a total shame because it's probably the ONLY bad thing about this film..

The real point? If you're going to watch one horror movie this year, I say watch this. Fuck all the other movies, this is the one to check out. Alexandre Aja KNOWS horror movies and I am telling you has EXTREME potential to become a horror icon. He's fucking awesome and blows ALL the other horror movie directors straight the fuck out of the water. If you haven't seen "High Tension," go out and see it. I actually JUST bought it today because it was on sale at work for $10. It went down in price. Not many people know about it because it's foreign (it's in French,) but trust me..it's fucking AWESOME. Keep an eye on Aja, if he hasn't proved himself already with "High Tension," as having potential then this film should.

IMDB link for "The Hills Have Eyes."

Coming soon: So yeah, I'm pretty sure the next review up will be "Chicken Little." There may be some fun stuff up in between..depends on what I see/read.