Movie Review 2 (Hills Have Eyes) 2004

Film Title : The Hills Have Eyes

Year of production : 2006                                     Director : Alexandre Aja

Genre/Genres: Action Horror

 

Brief plot outline:

An American family are on vacation and are heading though the desert when they are attacked by mutant humans from a nuclear testing area in the desert. Now the mutants want revenge for the atrocities they’ve suffered due to “normal” people.

Which two scenes impressed you the most and why?

The gas station attendant blowing his head off: this was impressive because the body horror]]] was well done and looked realistic. It was also unexpected for he seems to be helping the mutants.

Doug putting the spear though the zombies head : not only this was an impressive scene but also the hint of patriotism hidden in plain sight with the spear having a American flag upon it showing Alexandre Aja ideas and a pro-American feel. The film was only released five years after the 2004 terrorist attacks and now America is still at war with the middle east and so the flag would have a patriotic feel to movie in that scene.

How has watching this film helped you understand this genre of film making? Which features on the genre checklist did you spot in the film? When? How?

In The Hills Have Eyes there were many generic features.

There was many cases of body horror in The Hills Have Eyes although the impact is perhaps greatest in the scenes including one of the dog’s deaths and the blood effects in the first scene when the scientists are attacked.

Restricted narration was also used in the scene with the mutant in the wheelchair is attacked by the dog. This is also used to good effect and works as well as gore if not better for we only hear the ripping and a scream. It puts us in an uncomfortable position as we’re forced to imagine how Big Brain is being killed.

A good use of male hero with Doug being weak at the beginning to a strong survivor at the end. However the female victim is the not the blonde woman going against generic expectations of a horror movie which is makes this film is more interesting.

It also has an open ending for all the mutants are all supposed to be dead and a majority of the survivors are still alive and the ending almost geared toward a ‘happy’ ending until the final shot, which shows they are being watched. It is never revealed if it is a mutant or not although it seems to be a mutant due to use of dramatic parallel music.

The film links to the historical context too, like many horror films. This fits into the apocalypse that may have been coming in 2006 due to the conflict with the Middle East and Iraq maybe having weapons of mass destruction. It shows fears of the nuclear fallout and the end of the world and it could also fit into the super disease that could cause a deadly pandemic. This relates into our common fears of the decade and the truth of the fact is that this could happen in modern time and is not far off what would happen.

What Aspects would you like to include in your trailer?

The body horror being infrequent to have a greater impact and maybe using restricted narration instead of gore to shock the audience even further.

The pacing is good for it gets straight to the point of the narrative from the beginning, helping by the on-screen text which explain the area has had nuclear test upon the area although it is denied by the American government this too fits into the historical context of the debate of nuclear weapons and should they be used

The characterisation of having a slightly picked on main lead and would turn him into a good strong character and their development of the character would make the audience warm to the character.

What aspects do you want to avoid in your trailer?

Maybe the film is too fast paced for its own good (it was over before it really begun and there was no character development time for many characters that died in the middle of the film). Having too many main characters for character development time is limited and may not even know the character name or how they fit in the story.