What, no review ceebs?

Nice to see something good for October and one of the better offerings of the recent wave throwback horror films we saw earlier this decade. I really like this one and would actually say it's a rare case of me preferring the remake to the original. Aja didn't pull many punches with this one in terms of the story or the gore. If you've never seen it before my advice is to watch it loud. In the theater it got a few jumps out of people who I thought would never let that happen to them.

review is coming. i wanted to get up the thread first

this movie is overly brutal and awesome. i'll wait till ceebs puts his review before going into it more.

i'll try to get it up tonight. it's going to be kinda long, i think.

Bart D loves exploitation films, yeah? What's yer take on this one?

Yeah I probably should have done that too.

Really good horror flick. Love that repetitive, scary tone that is 90% of the soundtrack.

SPOILERS ENSUE:

i'm doing this from memory. it's been awhile, and i suck at reviewing movies, so bear with me.

workers in radiation suits, measuring just that in some barren desert landscape, are attacked, killed, and dragged off on the back of a truck. wait -- what the fuck just happened? you have no clue. but it can't be good.

but, then, director alexandre aja takes a step back, and weaves in meaningfully slow storytelling. a family, traveling through the new mexico desert on their way to california for the parents' wedding anniversary, ends up stuck in the middle of nowhere after their tires blow out on ... rocks -- or something. they're all frustrated, of course, and you can easily see the tension building. in this first 45 minute or so span, aja's building his characters, and he's doing it well: the sunbathing youngest daughter, about college-aged, is too hot to really dislike, even though she's a bitch. the son is a a normal teenage boy, and the mom an everyday mother, so you can identify. the eldest daughter is a nice, midwestern looking piece of meat trying to keep it cool between her hubbie, doug, a clean cut city boy pacifist, and her hardass, ex-cop dad, the trio's relationship adding to the tension of being in nowhereville, usa. there are two dogs, beauty and beast. you feel like this family is completely real.

being the ex-cop he is, the father decides to walk to the gas station they passed awhile back for help. in response, i suppose feeling the need to not be a priss, doug offers to go the other way looking for the same. while away, tension is slowly building as night sets in. then, beauty runs off toward something seemingly watching what is left of the family. the son runs after the dog, only to make a gruesome discovery: the dog's been disemboweled.

soon after, doug comes back empty handed. dad hasn't returned yet. the son, back from his ordeal and acting mum, and doug, decide they'll go looking for the father if he doesn't return soon. then, as they try sleeping in the trailer, all hell breaks loose: an explosion rips open the screen in the distance. what the hell is that? it's the father, who was abducted during his try for help, tied to a tree and set alight. doug runs into the trailer for a fire extinguisher and begins trying to put the father out to no avail. as he handles the situation, we realize that the hills have eyes, indeed, but those eyes belond to killer mutants. the attackers sneak into the trailer, raping the youngest daughter and taking a liking to the baby. the mother returns from the fire scene to find one of the mutants holding the baby and a gun, the other raping her daughter. fast forward: doug returns from the fire to find the mutants had shot his mother-in-law to death in the chest, and blown off half his wife's head off. moreover, the baby is missing. the youngest daughter is raped. bobby is frantic. their father, burned to a crisp, is nearby, dead. doug is the only adult left. and his baby is gone. well, what shall a city boy pacifist do?

i won't go into details any further here. there's no need to. the photos i've posted can show you the change that takes place within doug. the music goes along perfectly, too: throughout it's entirety it does nothing but ADD to the movie, and when doug is morphing into the man we're wanting him to be, it's a 10/10 to our ears -- to our emotions.

there's a heap of symbolism here, too: first, beast survives while beauty dies. is this some sort of social commentary? maybe. second, there are american flags neatly placed in some shots, alluding to the whole basis of the plot: the mutants are the way they are because of american nuclear testing. is it our fault we let this happen to them? keep in mind the more conservative father was killed, while doug changed from a pacifist to a warrior.



but, then, perhaps this is all just a basic story of a pacifist realizing his moral views on violence cannot hold in the world we live in.

oh yea...good flick. never saw the sequel. worth a watch?

never caught the original either.

The sequel is pretty awful, at least I think so.

nice write up.... i like to think there's a lot more substance going on beneath the surface of this one. ceebs alludes to it with flag placement and the question of how or why the mutants came to be, or are they really just a reflection of our darker impulses?

Fuck the sequel, no one should waste their time with that garbage.

I'll definitely agree with their being a bit more going on beneath the surface of this one too.

i really need to see it again, it's been awhile. perhaps this weekend i will, and write something up more about what else is going on.

the oldest daughter is so hot, btw

yea, and they really mindfuck us in that scene.

the first time i saw it i was pretty affected, which NEVER happens, as i'm already dead inside

two great scenes:

Brutal movie. It's not a bad watch. That rape scene is incredibly disturbing though.

i was pleasantly surprised when i saw this one. didn't expect it to be anything special (as i always tend to do when they make remakes)...



kp