The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
I know I've mentioned before my personal affinity for Big Fucked Up Family Movies, but I hate how often they neglect the exploration of the actual family dynamics and instead try to pile shock on shock. It's very much Alexandre Aja's modus operandi - he directed this remake along with 2003's High Tension - as he seems to thrive on creating movies that push the limits of "too far", but does so with choices that are often hard to track.
As a big horror fan, I like to see people in movies get confronted with impossible situations. I want characters' limits tested. Aja's take on Wes Craven's 1977 movie follows the same story, where a family traveling through the desert find themselves stranded and under attack from a family of (sigh) mutant cannibals. I haven't seen Craven's movie, though it is generally agreed that the remake is superior; my issues with this movie come more from the carnival of horrors way the antagonists are deployed, not to mention the problems with pacing.
I'll admit that I am extremely sensitive to the use of disabled characters as "monsters" or jokes, and this definitely registered as the former, in spite of the bare bones narrative surrounding nuclear testing. I think that their story would have needed at least a little more fleshing out to justify their diminishment to basically shock value villains. That didn't work for me. I know it's nitpicky, and it might not have rubbed me the wrong way if the rest of the movie had perhaps been a smoother ride, but as it stood that was something I had trouble letting go of.
Something Aja did well was raising the stakes. There was a palatable sense that anything could happen and that anyone could be a victim. There's a baby and two dogs and honestly, it was a little harrowing. Family bonds feel realistic and the the spiral of events is intense. It's a ride, even when it misses the marks it's going for. I didn't enjoy the first act, but after that I was able to put aside my hang ups and allow myself to get into it.
Rating: 5.5/10 - Good performances and good tension, but it just didn't do enough with the material it had and there was stuff I just couldn't set aside.
As a big horror fan, I like to see people in movies get confronted with impossible situations. I want characters' limits tested. Aja's take on Wes Craven's 1977 movie follows the same story, where a family traveling through the desert find themselves stranded and under attack from a family of (sigh) mutant cannibals. I haven't seen Craven's movie, though it is generally agreed that the remake is superior; my issues with this movie come more from the carnival of horrors way the antagonists are deployed, not to mention the problems with pacing.
I'll admit that I am extremely sensitive to the use of disabled characters as "monsters" or jokes, and this definitely registered as the former, in spite of the bare bones narrative surrounding nuclear testing. I think that their story would have needed at least a little more fleshing out to justify their diminishment to basically shock value villains. That didn't work for me. I know it's nitpicky, and it might not have rubbed me the wrong way if the rest of the movie had perhaps been a smoother ride, but as it stood that was something I had trouble letting go of.
Something Aja did well was raising the stakes. There was a palatable sense that anything could happen and that anyone could be a victim. There's a baby and two dogs and honestly, it was a little harrowing. Family bonds feel realistic and the the spiral of events is intense. It's a ride, even when it misses the marks it's going for. I didn't enjoy the first act, but after that I was able to put aside my hang ups and allow myself to get into it.
Rating: 5.5/10 - Good performances and good tension, but it just didn't do enough with the material it had and there was stuff I just couldn't set aside.
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