Nearly five years after his highly controversial debut, The Last House on the Left, shot him to stardom among horror/cult film fans, Wes Craven went behind the camera again for his second, and equally taboo, picture, The Hills Have Eyes. With a greater budget than the previous film, and some credible actors in the cast, Craven produced what was to be one of the most grotesque, infamous and stylistic cult classics of all time.
The film depicts the Carters, an average all-American family driving through Nevada on their way to California. They encounter Fred (John Steadman), a grizzled old attendant, when they stop for gas off the main highway. Fred warns them of the dangers that lie ahead in the desert mountain terrain but they decide to proceed anyway. After driving for many miles on a dirt road they discover they’ve wandered inside a huge military training site; a fighter jet buzzes low overhead and frightens them, causing an accident. Their camper-towing station wagon has a broken axle and can’t be repaired. Father Bob (Russ Grieve) and his son-in-law, Doug (Martin Speer), decide to go and find help, with the younger man heading towards a military installation and the other following the road back to Fred’s gasso. This leaves Bob’s wife, Ethel (Virginia Vincent), son Bobby (Robert Houston), his daughters Brenda (Susan Lanier) and Lynne (Dee Wallace of The Howling) — along with Doug and Lynne’s infant child — stuck in the middle of nowhere.
We then switch to the point of view of a person, seemingly disturbed, peering down from the surrounding hills as the family is left unattended. The stranded travelers are “easy pickins now.” Back at the trailer, one of the family dogs becomes upset, as she knows someone threatening is watching, and is accidentally released from the trailer. Beauty, the dog, is then chased after by Bobby into the foothills. He calls out for her until he hears her final yelp and then silence. (It’s at this point he realizes that someone else is out there with them.) Bobby stumbles upon the bloody, gutted carcass of the dog. Following this he hears a heavy, unsettling breathing sound and runs back toward the camper.
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The Hills Have Eyes is one of the drive-in era’s last great horror flicks, the kind you’d see on a Friday or Saturday night and leave satisfied. In it Wes Craven revisits one of his favorite themes, that of civilized man forced to lower himself to barbarism in order to fight and survive. Some of the set-pieces remain just as grueling and transgressive today, some three decades later. It’s unfortunate that Craven’s subsequent movies haven’t lived up to this standard, because otherwise I’d have more interest in and respect for the man’s work. In conclusion, the film succeeds for the indie horror fan and as perhaps Craven’s best effort. A horrorphile shouldn’t think twice about picking this up. For under thirty bucks it’s well worth every penny.
