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Man traveling alone through the country stops at a gas station/rest stop, has an almost encounter with young lady before heading off again. Not long after that he finds he's the target of a sniper who seems intent on hunting him and anyone he comes in contact with. (There's more but its best you find out yourself)

Good, but not great thriller that has a great look, some nice twists, especially in the later part of the film. This is a film I admire more than "love". It's well made, it's well acted, it keeps you attention but it ever completely creates enough tension to truly engage you. The problem is rooted in the premise of the film, namely there is no way that the sniper could move around as fast or be able to engage our hero as quickly as he does. Our hero is in a motor vehicle (or vehicles) and the sniper isn't. Its not a glaring flaw, and it wasn't instantly apparent what it was that was bothering me. Only when events shifted in the second half did I have an "ah ha" moment. Once I realized what was bothering me I settled down and enjoyed the film more. Its still not a great film but it is a good one, and as I said I like the twists towards the end. Worth a look (and in my case second viewing since I think I may have missed a couple of things).

And his day got off to such a promising start. After stopping at a petrol station, a man finds himself propositioned to have a quick bit of nookie in the ladies toilet by a sexy young brunette. RESULT!! Unfortunately, he later discovers she's nicked his wallet and lighter. Oops. Still, on the road again, he sees her turn off and decides to pursue her vehicle... and before long, in circumstances too convoluted to explain, both are forced to team up as they find themselves stranded in the wilderness, being shot at by unseen snipers. Quite a turn-up for the books, eh?

Known as 'King Of The Hill' here in the UK (But with no connection to the TV show of the same name) this is a nail biting thriller with a very small cast, but an abundance of tension and realism. The aspect I most enjoyed was the way the participants were fleshed out, as despite being on the run for the most of length we discover a lot about them through their words and actions alone. Even the main 'villains', who we don't meet until late on, and their own unique perspectives. This is crucial to the movie's success as if it was a simple chase between two sets of caricatures with no discernible personalities, it wouldn't be half as absorbing as it clearly is.

People get hurt, tired and frustrated. Their very lives are on the line. They never know where the gunmen will crop up next. The terrain they have to trek through is inhospitable too, to say the least. It's all done with miraculous skill by the director, as the stakes are raised with every scene. Make sure you go to the bathroom beforehand... you're not gonna want to tear yourself away for a minute. A great thrill ride, and a smart one as well. 7/10

And I'm not talking about the movie, but about the main character. I'm not sure if that was the intention. Of course he is portrayed as a coward. But all his actions and of course his back story lead to the fact that you most likely will hate his guts. Or at least I did, I heard from others that they didn't mind that much or didn't really bother to think about it.

The theme (and a bit of a surprise if you will), is the big selling point of the movie. But it only works the first time you watch it. I "had" to watch it a second time, when they showed it at the Fright Fest in London (I had watched it earlier on DVD). I have to admit, that I only realized how much I hated the main guy, when I watched the movie the second time. So maybe you should only watch this movie once and be done with it. It's more than good enough for one watch :o)

Made in 2007 this Spanish film is one that went under the radar which was a shame. It is all about a man imaginatively called 'Quim' - pronounced 'Keem' but still a cracking name. He is off to meet his ex girlfriend and try to put back his failed relationship back together, when he stops to fill up his car with petrol. There he has an encounter with a young and very light fingered young lady. He then heads off up this lonely mountain road.

Then out of the blue he gets shot at - despite owning a Volvo (with an NCAP rating of 4 I believe) he still gets hit. Only after he tries to leave does he realise what real trouble he is in.

Now there are a few plot holes here or rather some loose ends that I have only really realised on reflection. The plot is basic but the reveal or should I say reveals are good enough to prompt more than at least a couple of raised eyebrows. Good performances all round too; please note this is not a horror in the sense of blood and gore but more of a psychological thriller type. In Spanish with good sub titles - a film for those who really do like their films to be off the beaten track.

The "hunting humans" formula is one of the oldest (ever since the magnificent "The Most Dangerous Game" in 1933) but still most effective formulas in horror/suspense cinema. The creators of "El Rey de la Montaña" clearly were very much aware of that and, additionally, this instant sleeper cult-hit from Spain even feature the atmosphere of a genuine early 70's backwoods survival shocker. This is one of the greatest and most intensely disturbing chillers to have come out in Europe in last ten years or so, and that is saying a lot because Europe is the most flourishing continent for the horror genre at the moment. Although working from a very basic and rudimentary script director Gonzalo López-Gallego keeps his film surprising and totally unpredictable, mainly thanks to some shocking story revelations, very atypical character drawings and a sublime use of the desolate filming locations. On his way to his ex-girlfriend, Quim meets an attractive young girl named Bea and has sex with her in the gas station's toilet. Her love, however, isn't very sincere as she steals Quim's wallet and goes away. He searches for her in the mountainous countryside, but his chase comes to an abrupt end when an invisible shooter (or shooters) fires at his car. Now he and Bea will have to work together in order to stay alive and, on top of everything, deal with distrustful policemen and survive the robust landscape. "King of the Hill" is a uniquely versatile film. The camera alternately follows the preys as well as the hunters, the latter from first-person-shooter perspective like often used in video games, and I don't think you are supposed to feel connected with any of them. There simply aren't any heroes in this story. Quim is a stalker and a coward, Bea is a thief and a tramp, and just wait until you see who the marksmen are and what their motivations to hunt people down are exactly. The film contains relatively few graphic violence or raw images. The shock-impact merely relies on the unexpected plot twists and the truly astounding locations. Not since "Deliverance" has there been another movie that managed to make nature look so menacing! I'm not entirely sure if the movie was intended as criticism towards the increasing amount of violence featuring in video games and how far this negatively influences our children, but it's first and foremost a nail-biting thriller that also messes with you head. At the end of the film, you don't know who to root for anymore and so many questions remain unanswered, but presumably that's part of the power of this perplexing tense thriller. Watch this guaranteed future cult classic as soon as you can, but – please – be careful not to read too many reviews, news articles or interviews with cast and crew before you do, as a lot of these reveal essential plot twists.

It's always fun to watch unsuspecting travellers encounter the horrors of the back-roads, so I was rather looking forward to King of The Hill. We follow Quim, on a mission to get back together with his girlfriend but put a little off track when an impromptu gas station tryst with a mysterious lady ends in her stealing his wallet. They meet again, but not before both have come under fire from a sniper, and the movie proceeds with the two of them trying to evade their unseen antagonists. Director Gonzalo Lopez Galego keeps things tight and mysterious for much of the time, concentrating on pace over character and attractive visuals and periodically jolting the viewers with short sharp bursts of action, skilfully turning the heat up moment by moment. The mountainous setting, trees, slopes and blue sky are well captured by the gorgeous cinematography of Jose David Montero, a picturesque setting at interesting odds with the impersonal menace that lurks within. Happily, the setting isn't just used for prettiness but excitement too, with rivers, trees, pitfalls and bushes all obstacles to navigate, there's an adventurous spirit to goings on that takes the film closer to classics like Deliverance than the more clichéd back-woods nastiness that tend to dominate films of this type. Stars Leonardo Sbaraglia and Maria Valverde make for a sympathetic pairing, wisely the film doesn't stop to long to give them a relationship but they have a certain mild chemistry that makes their bond under adversity a compelling one. For around two thirds or so of its length King of The Hill is rather great, hardly earth shattering in its events or approach but sufficiently well handled that it really stands out, unfortunately it doesn't end the same way. Like most films of its mysterious ilk, there's a "big reveal" here, and it's deeply ill-advised, an attempt at sombre significance that flops hard. A turn in events that would be unlikely and fairly tricky to pull off even if it were a significant part of the film from the start, here the film expects us to just buy the plot turn and then continues in the same uncompromising vein as before. To say much about why it doesn't work would be going into spoiler territory and since other have enjoyed this much more than I and not been troubled by the finale I won't divulge events, but for me it was daft verging on laughable, it not only took all the wind out of the film's sails but also rather tainted what had gone before. A saddening turn of events, as I wanted to dig this one and it came close to being a winner, but I can only go by my final impression, which was one of disappointment. A 5/10 then, even though for a fair amount of the runtime this is more like a high 7.

Typical of those so called "genre movies": a (very) thin concept and a lot of confidence from the director in his ability to pull up a good suspense/horror/whatever experience.

Actually the locations are great in The King of the Hill, and the camera seems to do whatever it takes to create some tension. So for the first 30 minutes there's a kind of provisional suspense developing. Then, once the story has run out of fuel, it gets boring, and even more boring as it switches to the hunter's point of view (a very dumb attempt at stretching the flimsy storyline even further).

Why they ever bothered to make a movie out of this scribbled one-line screenplay would be a mystery if gruesomeness alone was not a marketable value for some apparently dumb and bored teen audience.

It doesn't take a huge amount of money to make a really great film. We've seen great low-budget movies develop out of a few simple ideas, a twist or two, and a little bit of solid acting. I'm thinking of movies like "Duel" - or the latter half of "Apocalypto". These suspenseful chase pieces featuring a good guy we can all relate to, caught in a very bad situation, can be thrilling. At first, El Rey de la Montana (english title: King of the Hill) suggests we are in for such a treat. Unfortunately the storyline never really develops to the point where we feel a connection to either the hero(es) or villain(s). There seemed to be some undue secrecy surrounding every character in the movie, preventing the viewer from fully understanding or appreciating the gravity of the situations that they found themselves in. Perhaps this was the point. When we don't know enough to trust others, we can't fully care about others. If this was the point, it was also the movie's biggest flaw.

Until I saw this film I read good comments, but was pretty much disappointed thereafter. What I expected is to see a decent movie of the genre underlined. What I saw is something similar to cinema-verite feature film. Camera tries to follow the action as it is for real while director is pretty much ignoring everything else. The plot, character development and even action itself. Feature film should bring you the recreation of the fiction or event, not the event itself as unlike watching documentary we don't know previously mentioned things: the participants, the action and what is going on between (them). Film looks like amateurish director debut to me and what is nice to be mentioned about this film are some really nice shots, and only that. 3 out of 10, if you ask me.

Brilliant. Gripping, and not at all predictable. Not simply a violence-in-the-wilderness thriller, characters are developed and both sides of the story examined. The hero is flawed, and the whole movie feels "real", like you're right there with the protagonists.

The use of first-person-shooter angles was a stroke of genius, and showed the shooters' mindsets.

Cinematography was great, editing perfect, acting very good. Very engaging, solid script.

A young attractive pair of angsty travellers meet exceedingly cutely in a service station toilet, and mishaps, cruelty, duplicity, and violent bloody slaughter ensue, as our querulously conjoined protagonists are sinisterly stalked by maddeningly elusive, increasingly psychopathic gunmen! The nerve fraying, ruthlessly pared to the bone King of The Hill remains a bullet-paced, diabolically effective viewing experience. Lean, and scalpel-edged, Gonzalo Lopez-Gellego's exhilaratingly mean-spirited Spanish shocker is a brutally direct, grimly effective, wildly compelling thriller. Once the beleaguered couple Quim (Leonardo Sbaraglia) and Bea (Maria Valverde) run pell-mell for their very lives, massively hindered by an unforgivingly raw, yet ruggedly beautiful mountainous landscape, the already stark film takes an enjoyably grisly turn into warped 70s video nasty territory! Electric performances, an atmospheric score, Lopez-Gellego's muscular filmmaking, and a twisted climax make this nigh on essential viewing.