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"The Hills Have Eyes" is personally one of my favorite horror films of the '70s era, I'd say this one is just below Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". I love the whole atmosphere the film gives off, and how brutal the film is. "The Hills Have Eyes" follows a normal American family on a camping trip who accidentally crash their station wagon and trailer in the middle of the California desert. The gang consists of Bob and Ethel, and their teenage children Bobby and Brenda, and their adult daughter Lynne and her husband and infant. Their father goes out for help, while the rest of them wait at the trailer, but they are unknowingly being watched by a family of cannibalistic mountain people that are hungry for flesh. As night falls, the clan of mountain-dwelling cannibals close in on the family, attacking their little safe-haven Airstream trailer, and begin to brutally slaughter each of them as they fight to save their lives.

One of the more memorable exploitation films from the 1970s, this gruesome little chiller is a nice addition to the list. Wes Craven, writer and director of this movie, does a great job at setting a mood, atmosphere, and having plenty of scary moments throughout. The desert in the film is eerie itself, it's such an empty and genuinely creepy landscape for a horror film to be set in. Along with this is the brutality factor - this is a harrowing little movie. The violence is shocking and strangely realistic, and it makes it more unsettling than it could have been. I can see why Mr. Craven has gone on to direct so many other successful horror films, such as "Scream" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street", because he's good at what he does.

The acting here isn't bad, we have Dee Wallace Stone ("E.T.", "Cujo"), but most of the other actors are unknowns, who give decent performances. Some of the acting was admittedly over the top and a little laughable at times, but what could you expect from a low-budget '70s horror flick? This film comes to a close in a rather odd way, fading out into a red screen. The ending was surely abrupt and I'm sure there were other, better ways to conclude the story. But, again, the rough abruptness is another addition to the movie's raw atmosphere and visceral quality. This isn't a pleasant movie, and I think anyone who has seen it can agree on that.

Bottom line - "The Hills Have Eyes" is one of the best horror/exploitation films to come from the '70s era. Not the best, but it is definitely close to it. It's brutal, raw, unsettling, and it made me uncomfortable. Any movie that has the power to do that must really have something going for it. Definitely worth a watch, it's a classic midnight-movie. One of my many personal favorites. If you like this, I'd also recommend Craven's debut picture, "Last House On The Left", which is also a visceral exploitation B-movie classic. 9/10.

Wes Craven is a director who did a lot to revive interest in the horror genre, but he also did a lot to ensure that we were unlikely to get our horror the way we used to. While I personally have nothing against his mega-successful "Scream" franchise and have enjoyed both films immensely, I feel sad knowing that Craven will never be able to recapture the awesome low-budget effectiveness of his earlier works. He has developed his directorial skills a LOT since then, but any horror fan will tell you that slicker does not necessarily mean scarier. Now that Craven has successfully broken free from the genre that has provided him with a living for over a quarter century (and has moved on to directing inspirational films with Meryl Steep!), we will never see another film like his "The Hills Have Eyes", which is raw, intense horror at its best. The film doesn't quite have the same impact as Craven's earlier "Last House on the Left", but it is a more skilful piece of work, and is still one of the most frightening genre flicks ever made.

Like all great horror films, the plot requires very little description. The upper-class, white-bread Carter family are on a road trip to California and decide to take a detour through the desert to check out a silver mine that the parents received as a silver wedding anniversary gift. They ignore the warnings of a crazy old man they encounter at a gas station who warns them to stay on the main road, and end up wishing they'd listened to him after their trailer becomes trapped in the middle of nowhere with a broken axle on the car. It soon becomes apparent that they've stumbled into an area that is populated by a family whom the Carters would never have to worry about encountering back home in Cleveland. The members of this family are named after planets in the solar system (Jupiter, Mars, Pluto etc.) and are able to survive life in the desert by praying on unsuspecting travellers like the Carters. After a night of unbearable hell, the Carter family has lost some of their members and most of their supplies and decide to take revenge once daylight hits. They end up acting more violent and psychotic than the villains.

Not even David Lean has used the desert to better effect. Craven's direction here is top-notch, and does a terrific job at conveying the isolation of his location and the helplessness of the whole situation. He takes his sweet time building up the mutant family's attack on the Carters, so that the tension almost becomes unbearable. By the last act, the film is less concerned about the heroes finding their way out of the desert, but about whether or not they are going to end up stooping to the level of their enemies. Of course, these themes of vengeance and family were covered by Craven before in "Last House on the Left", but this time around, he ensures that they will reach a wider audience by presenting them within the confines of a more straightforward genre film. The main factor that prevents this film from being superior to "Last House" are the villains, who are somewhat cartoonish and not quite as memorable as Krug & Company. However, they still do provide plenty of menace, and like the "Last House" gang, exude a certain likability when they're not acting vicious, especially Michael Berryman, who steals every scene he's in as the dim-witted Pluto. All in all, "The Hills Have Eyes" is an unforgettable experience and one of the best films of its kind. Even though videotape copies of "Hills" have been in the darkest depths of moratorium hell for years, every horror fan should go out of their way to check it out. Especially since we just don't get them like this any more...

Unusually, this is one film that I ended up watching long after I've already seen the remake; I always try to see the original films first but this Wes Craven chiller slipped me by. Sadly, I was left feeling disappointed and let down once it was over, mainly because the remake is, surprisingly, superior in every way: the actors are better, the gore better, the direction better, and the music better. The remake also sticks VERY closely to the plot of this film, so all of the surprises and twists were well choreographed in advance and there was little to intrigue me here.

For a '70s horror film, it's not a bad effort: there are some good chills and the film makes a horror star out of Michael Berryman, the bald bad guy who traded on his appearance here for the rest of his career. The problem is that the low budget hurts the proceedings somewhat, with the rest of the cannibal family resembling hippies rather than mutants. Despite the savagery of their actions, they end up laughable instead of frightening. Another problem is Craven's direction – it feels insipid rather than inspired and in light of Alexandre Aja's excellent job on the remake, I can't help but feel it's lacking. Some of the cast don't help, with Susan Lanier standing out as one of the most irritating screamers in horror history (the dog's great, though). Back in the day, THE HILLS HAVE EYES was a shocking and depraved horror flick; today it's a dated intrigue that doesn't stand up alongside fellow '70s movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It's okay but I'd recommend the remake over this any day.

The Carter family are travelling through the desert on their way to California. Head of the family Bob (Russ Grieve), a retired police officer, decides to visit an inherited silver-mine on the way, and ignoring the advice of Fred (John Steadman), a local filling station owner, drives off the main road towards the hills. An accident leaves the family stranded and easy pickings for a family of cannibals lead by Jupiter (James Whitworth). Following a savage attack by this family, which leaves a number of the Carter's dead, the survivors realise that to continue surviving they too will have to become savages.

Wes Craven followed his controversial debut ‘The Last House on the Left' (1972) with this far greater arranged and compelling tale of family warfare. ‘The Hills Have Eyes' is a movie with a raw brutality that has been unsurpassed in any of Craven's films to date, and is possibly the finest horror movie to be directed by Wes Craven. Despite not being as graphic as one would expect the movie never ceases to unnerve or alarm. The atmosphere, which bears a slight resemblance to ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (1974), maintains an unsettling air from beginning to end as the viewer is sucked into the nightmare that the Carter family is forced to endure. The desolation and hopelessness is portrayed beautifully by Craven, who utilises intelligent camerawork and a haunting soundtrack to fully create the feelings of terror. For everything that the screenplay lacks, Craven's direction more than makes up for and one wonders why Craven is no longer able to make such raw, gripping and emotional movies such as this. During the movie it becomes easy to identify with some of the characters and then feel fulfilled when they exact their retribution.

The acting, while not up to the standard of Craven's more recent offerings such as ‘Scream' (1996), is of a fairly high standard for a low budget 70's horror flick and certainly helps in aiding ‘The Hills Have Eyes' to accomplish a brutal, psychological edge. James Whitworth offers a fantastic performance as the despicable Jupiter and should probably be thought of higher as a horror film villain. His performance demands respect for its power and authority and is accompanied well by Michael Berryman and Lance Gordon. Producer Peter Locke even had a small role as Mercury, the watchdog for this contemptible family of savages. Interestingly the cannibal family come across as deranged hippies, which explains their planetary names. Virginia Vincent was the only performer that I really could not tolerate, but that could be because of the poor scripting for her religious-nut character Ethel. A very special mention has to go to Stryker the Alsatian, who `played' the part of Beast.

I highly recommend this for horror fans. Those people who think that the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street' series is the be all and end all of horror should certainly check this out. ‘The Hills Have Eyes' is, in my opinon, Wes Craven's most thought out and gripping horror film to date which features some good performances, excellent camerawork, enthralling sequences and some first-rate special effects. ‘The Hills Have Eyes' is an excellent example of classic Wes Craven and is one of his most creative movies. My rating for ‘The Hills Have Eyes' – 8/10.

Despite being close to thirty years old, Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" maintains a distinct raw intensity - far surpassing the level of terror seen in horror films today. The plot in a nutshell; a family on vacation ventures from the main road, ends up stranded in the desert, and falls prey to a malevolent clan of inbred cannibals. Though the story idea may be far from original - it is the atmosphere, directorial style, and acting that raise the overall credibility of the film. The low budget and claustrophobic desert setting creates a sense of dread permeating throughout the entire film; while the grainy look of the print adds a sense of realism to the unfolding events. With a brisk running time of only 89 minutes the film doesn't waste a moment in setting the mood - then when all hell breaks loose it is unrelenting until the final scene. The actors portraying the Carter family bring sufficient emotional range to their characterizations, making it clearly evident that this a normal family being tested beyond the boundaries of civilized nature. It is also worth noting the performances by the actors who play Pluto and Mars (two of the baddies) - these characters are portrayed as both sadistic and devoid of any sympathy. Although the DVD print is grainy (as mentioned above), it is THE definitive version of the film and is thousands of times an improvement over the quality of the video release; quite amazing for a low budget film of this nature. Grim, violent, and symbolic; it is an amazing piece of 70's exploitation horror. "The Hills Have Eyes" is a classic in every sense of the word, and receives an 8/10.