The Hills Have Eyes

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

Moderator: yoloswegmaster

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

The Hills Have Eyes

#1 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jun 10, 2016 10:12 am

Image

THE LUCKY ONES DIED FIRST...

Horror master Wes Craven achieved critical and commercial success with the likes of Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street but for many genre fans, the director s seminal 1977 effort The Hills Have Eyes remains his masterpiece.

Taking a detour whilst on route to Los Angeles, the Carter family run into trouble when their campervan breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, the family find themselves at the mercy of a group of monstrous cannibals lurking in the surrounding hills. With their lives under threat, the Carters are forced to fight back by any means necessary.

As gruelling a viewing experience today as it was upon initial release, The Hills Have Eyes stands alongside the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead as one of the defining moments in American horror cinema.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

Brand new 4K restoration from original film elements, supervised by producer Peter Locke
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
6 x postcards
Reversible fold-out poster featuring new and original artwork
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Brad Stevens and a consideration of the Hills franchise by Ewan Cant, illustrated with original archive stills
Audio commentary with Wes Craven and Peter Locke
Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes making-of documentary featuring interviews with Craven, Locke, actors Michael Berryman, Dee Wallace, Janus Blythe, Robert Houston, Susan Lanier and director of photography Eric Saarinen
The Desert Sessions brand new interview with composer Don Peake
Alternate ending, in HD for the first time
Trailers and TV Spots
Image Gallery
Original Screenplay (BD/DVD-ROM Content)
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper
+ MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!

User avatar
rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#2 Post by rapta » Fri Jun 10, 2016 10:47 am

A solid Craven title to choose, and perhaps the only one I'd consider buying other than A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Sounds like they're going all-out for this, seeing as it's a 4K restoration. Artcards, poster and probably a slipcase, with the disc packed with extras. A good ol' hearty Arrow Video release!

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#3 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jun 10, 2016 12:36 pm

Its a great film, and probably my favourite of all Wes Craven's films for its long slow build up through to brutally relentless first encounter between the two nuclear families. Plus lots of great pre-Home Alone ideas for booby traps later on in the film! (That's something that nobody seems to have talked about too much, as booby traps as desperate attempts at fighting back against an overwhelming threat are a motif that turn up in most of Craven's other films too)

However nobody mention the notorious sequel that is made up of so much flashback footage to this first film that even the family dog has a PTSD reminiscence scene! (Weirdly the same pattern of surprisingly good/terrible unnecessary, barely related sequel was followed by the remakes in the 2000s!)

User avatar
MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Worthing
Contact:

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#4 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jun 10, 2016 12:53 pm

colinr0380 wrote:However nobody mention the notorious sequel that is made up of so much flashback footage to this first film that even the family dog has a PTSD reminiscence scene! (Weirdly the same pattern of surprisingly good/terrible unnecessary, barely related sequel was followed by the remakes in the 2000s!)
I saw a test screening of the sequel, which must have been one of the only big-screen outings that it got in the UK.

If the questionnaire I filled in was in any way representative (and I suspect it was), that's why it went straight to video!

User avatar
JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#5 Post by JamesF » Mon Jun 13, 2016 7:06 am

The original is certainly my favourite Craven (I'd go so far as to call it his only "great" film), and I'll happily upgrade from my old Anchor Bay UK double-disc DVD for this.

The only major omission extras-wise from that edition is Adam Simon's excellent documentary The American Nightmare, which was an odd inclusion anyway as Hills is one of the few major 70s horrors not featured in it! But it's a terrible shame that no Blu-Ray release of the films highlighted in Simon's film has included it, especially as it had to be cut over here previously due to the Last House On The Left footage (which at that hadn't been passed uncut). Perhaps whenever there's an uncut UK Blu-Ray release of Last House, we'll see it included.

User avatar
Thornycroft
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 11:23 pm

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#6 Post by Thornycroft » Fri Aug 05, 2016 10:12 pm

Final specs with new extras in bold:
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
•Brand new 4K restoration of the film, supervised by producer Peter Locke and viewable with both original and alternate endings
•High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
•Original Uncompressed PCM Mono Audio
•Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
•6 Postcards
•Reversible Fold-out Poster
•Limited Edition 40-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Brad Stevens and a consideration of the Hills franchise by disc producer Ewan Cant, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
Brand new audio commentary with actors Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Susan Lanier and Martin Speer
Brand new audio commentary by academic Mikel J. Koven
•Audio commentary with Wes Craven and Peter Locke
•Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes – making-of documentary featuring interviews with Wes Craven, Peter Locke, actors Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Robert Houston, Susan Lanier, Dee Wallace and director of photography Eric Saarinen
Brand new interview with actor Martin Speer
•The Desert Sessions – brand new interview with composer Don Peake
Never-before-seen Outtakes
•Alternate Ending, in HD for the first time
•Trailers and TV Spots
•Image Gallery
•Original Screenplay (BD-ROM Content)
•Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#7 Post by manicsounds » Thu Sep 22, 2016 3:15 am


User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#8 Post by domino harvey » Sun Oct 30, 2016 4:44 am

Having never seen any of the films in the Hills Have Eyes franchise, I’ve now seen all of the films in the Hills Have Eyes franchise.

I found the original rather mediocre, so it wasn't an auspicious start. I don't begrudge the film its continued cultural relevancy, but I didn't see anything here that earned it. Like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the film seems insistent on making all of the characters annoying beyond caring about any of them. The original and sequel certainly bear plenty of Craven hallmarks, like his obsession with unlikely booby traps, and both films feature the RL Stine-ish bon mot “human french fries.” Speaking of, the sequel, the Hills Have Eyes Part 2, has a reputation for being so stuffed with flashbacks that even the dog gets one, but while the latter part is accurate, the flashbacks barely constitute four minutes total (if that), so their (over)use has been grossly inflated. The story here is even dumber than before, and the film is more of a slasher cash-in (with a bit of Mad Max) than continuance of the tone of the first. But the goofier characters here made it far more palatable, especially the (blind!) Final Girl who wears a sweater adorned with the letter B even though her name is Cass. I wish I lived in a world where this actually was Wes Craven’s worst movie like its detractors claim, but I found it better than at least half of the films I’ve seen by Craven, and it’s only just barely a lesser film than the first.

Alexandre Aja’s 2006 remake carries over most of the plot of the original, but it is a nasty film, reframing many of the key character actions as antagonistic, and what it brings new to the table is despicable. All of the action sequences are filmed in the same unwatchable high speed framerate and are needlessly mean-spirited in their execution. Even worse, Aja’s film has an incredibly low opinion of its female characters: when things start going south, all are either worthless or rape and slaughter objects. The younger sister in the first film at least had the gumption to jump right into the booby trap plan. Here her equivalent character is sobbing uncontrollably ’til the MAN does what needs to be done. In the single most vile scene in any horror film I watched this entire month, one of the attacking mutants pauses in his rape and slaughter fest to feed from the breast of the nursing Vinessa Shaw. While this no doubt resembles Jeffrey Wells’ darkest Litrotica output, it is a grotesque objectification and needless provocation in the midst of plenty of relevant reasons to seek revenge, &c
SpoilerShow
—and it is of course made even more repulsive given that Shaw is then shot point-blank in the head about thirty seconds later. That this and all of the other poor screenwriting excuses for motivation are baldly tapping into the worst potential prurient natures of audiences is only too apparent.
It is wholly characteristic of the film though. We don’t need to just see someone get burned alive, we have to see the flesh literally melt off the bones and the eyes turn white thanks to computer graphics (pun intended). When the totally pussified anti-violence Dumbocrat finally sees the light and becomes a totally awesome killing machine, he cements his change to the proper perspective by offing one of the assorted mutants with an American flag through the throat. I’m not kidding.

Things don’t initially look up in 2007’s the Hills Have Eyes II (which is not a remake of the Hills Have Eyes Part II, though unlike the 2006 film it is co-written by Craven), as the film opens with a pregnant mutant giving birth and then being punched in the face while someone yells “Shut up, bitch!” Unbelievably, the film recovers from this. Of the four films, this is the only one that presents an intriguing premise not initially built on idiocy: a group of green National Guard trainees stumble into the mutant situation and have to band together with their meager combat skills as they navigate through the mines and cliffs &c. It’s standard issue action thriller stuff, but it has a proper sense of urgency, and the characters, while archetypal, are the most engaging of the series. I also liked little touches like how the Hot Girl who looks like Amber Heard is fortuitously nicknamed “Amber.” I didn’t like the unnecessary, though mercifully brief, rape scene. What is the continued appeal here of needing to see a mutant sexually ravage a wailing innocent? That said, this is by far the only one of these films I ended up enjoying on the whole, though mostly in a 90s straight-to-HBO kinda way. It did not surprise me to learn that most fans of the series don't like this entry, as I don't like their series!

User avatar
DarkImbecile
Ask me about my visible cat breasts
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: The Hills Have Eyes

#9 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Aug 27, 2021 11:09 am


Post Reply