The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film)
| The Hills Have Eyes | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Wes Craven |
| Produced by | Pete Locke |
| Written by | Wes Craven |
| Starring | Susan Lanier Robert Houston Martin Speer Dee Wallace Russ Grieve |
| Music by | Don Peake |
| Cinematography | Eric Saarinen |
| Editing by | Wes Craven |
| Distributed by | Vanguard |
| Release date(s) | July 22, 1977 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $230,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $25,000,000 |
The Hills Have Eyes is a 1977 American horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Susan Lanier, Michael Berryman, and Dee Wallace. It is about a family on a road trip who become stranded in the Nevada desert, and are hunted by a clan of deformed cannibals in the surrounding hills. The film was released in cinemas on July 22, 1977, and has since become a cult classic.
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[edit] Plot
An old man named Fred is packing his truck. A ragged and somewhat feral teenage girl approaches. Annoyed, Fred addresses her as Ruby. She offers to trade what she has in her bag for food, but the old man refuses. They walk into a small cabin and Fred scolds her for what she and "they" have done. Ruby says that her family ambushed a nearby airfield because they were hungry and no one passes by their home anymore. She pleads with Fred to take her with him. He tells Ruby that if "the pack", in particular someone named Jupiter, learns what she is doing, she could be in danger. A noise distracts them and Ruby hides.
The Carter family is traveling on vacation. Parents Bob and Ethel are driving, accompanied by their teenage children Bobby and Brenda, eldest daughter Lynne, along with Lynne's husband Doug, baby daughter Katy, and their dogs, Beauty and Beast. They stop at Fred's Oasis for fuel. Fred tells them to stay on the main road. Later, they skid off a desert road and crash, owing to what is later revealed to be a booby-trap. Bob walks back to Fred's Oasis to get help. Fred's son and his son's family of deranged cannibals dwell in the wilderness through which the Carters are traveling. They are commanded by Papa Jupiter, patriarch of the clan. He killed his mother, Fred's wife, during childbirth. As a child, he killed the livestock on his father's farm and later murdered his sister. Fred attacked his son with a tire iron and left him in the wilderness to die. Jupiter survived, and mated with a depraved, alcoholic prostitute known as Mama. Together, they had three sons, Mars, Pluto and Mercury, and their abused daughter Ruby. They survive by stealing from and cannibalizing travelers.
As night falls, Bob reaches the gas station, where Fred tells him the origin of the hill people. Papa Jupiter arrives, kills Fred with a crowbar, and takes Bob prisoner. Doug and Lynne are sleeping in the car while everyone else stays in the trailer. Bobby gets locked out of the trailer and asks Doug for his keys. Bobby does not know the trailer is locked because Pluto is looking through their valuables, while Ethel and Brenda sleep in the next room. As Bobby enters the trailer, Papa Jupiter sets Bob ablaze on a stake in the distance. Ethel, Lynne, Doug and Bobby rush to Bob, while Brenda stays in the trailer with the baby. Everyone tries extinguishing the fire, while Pluto and Mars rape Brenda. The Carters extinguish the fire, but Bob dies shortly after. When Ethel and Lynne return to the trailer, Pluto runs away. Lynne finds Mars taking her baby. She attacks Mars as Ethel hits him with a broom. Mars shoots Ethel and Lynne. Pluto abducts the baby and flees with Mars. Doug rushes in to find Lynne dead; Ethel dies shortly after.
Doug sets out to find his baby while Bobby and Brenda remain behind. Beauty has been savaged by the clan and Ruby is forced to eat it as punishment. She is chained outside the cave where the clan live, with Mama tormenting her. The men of the clan return to the cave, and Mercury is pushed to his death off a hilltop by Beast. Papa Jupiter and Pluto return to the trailer to kill the survivors. Doug sees Ruby knock out Mama and escape with Katy into the hills, followed by Mars. Doug catches up with Ruby and the baby. Pluto is incapacitated by Beast and Papa Jupiter is killed by a trap set by Brenda and Bobby.
Mars follows Doug and Ruby into the hills and is stabbed to death by Doug, saving the baby. The film ends with a closeup of Doug, who is stabbing and kicking the dead body of Mars, as Ruby weeps over her brother's body.
[edit] Cast
- Susan Lanier as Brenda Carter
- Robert Houston as Bobby Carter
- Martin Speer as Doug Wood
- Dee Wallace as Lynne Wood
- Russ Grieve as Big Bob Carter
- Virginia Vincent as Ethel Carter
- John Steadman as Fred
- James Whitworth as Papa Jupiter
- Lance Gordon as Mars
- Michael Berryman as Pluto
- Arthur King as Mercury
- Janus Blythe as Ruby
- Cordy Clark as Mama
- Brenda Marinoff as Katy
[edit] Reception
The film did reasonably well in its initial release and today enjoys a large cult following.[1] Craven made a sequel in 1985, which he later disowned.[2] His son, Jonathan Craven made a sequel in 1995. Alexandre Aja made a remake in 2006.
The film was ranked #41 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.
The film was given an X rating by the MPAA and several of the most graphic moments were edited for an "R" rating. The deleted footage is believed to be lost, though the alternate ending turned up on the 2003 Anchor Bay .
The film received positive reviews from critics, and currently attains a 64% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.[3]
[edit] Writing
The film was conceived as a modern retelling of the Sawney Bean story. In the script, titled Blood Relations: The Sun War, the clan consisted of dozens of incestuous family members, similar to the Sawney Bean family that inspired the story. In addition, the film was set in 1994, took place in a forest, rather than a desert, and most of the major cannibals (such as Mars, Pluto, and Mercury) were adolescents. The baby was stolen not for food, but for a perverted religious ritual.
[edit] Remake
The film was remade in 2006. The new film was also entitled The Hills Have Eyes and was directed by French horror filmmaker Alexandre Aja.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Hills Have Eyes at the Internet Movie Database
- The Hills Have Eyes at AllRovi
- 2,000 people singing Happy Birthday to, and then a brief interview with, Michael Berryman on the podcast The Future and You (beginning at 1:07:44)
- Wes Craven interview for The Hills Have Eyes
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