THE
HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)Director: Wes Craven
Anchor Bay
THE
HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)Following the controversial success
of 1972's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, Wes Craven couldn't get arrested in Hollywood
or anywhere else, for that matter. He found himself pigeon-holed into a genre,
for better or worse, and the one project that came his way was the script BLOOD
RELATIONS, which was eventually produced and released in 1977 as THE HILLS HAVE
EYES. It remained one of Craven's most obscure films, appearing on Magnum Home
Video, but has been out of print for years. When all of Craven's other horror
classics were being released in definitive DVD editions, fans were left perplexed
as to who owned the film and which studio would release it, if ever? The saints
be praised, as Anchor Bay stepped up to the plate and has released the must-own
edition of THE HILLS HAVE EYES, with an incredible buffet of supplements and
presenting the film in the best presentation it has ever received.
The Carters, the All-American family from Cleveland with a retired cop patriarch and an eager to please matriarch, wander off the highway into the desert in search of a silver mine the parents were left in honor of their silver anniversary. Despite warnings to turn back from a grizzled gas station owner (John Steadman), they continue through the treacherous terrain until they are driven off the road and stranded. But they are not alone...they have been eagerly stalked by a family of degenerate inbred cannibals, led by the brutally scarred Jupiter (James Whitworth), who wait until darkness falls to invade the family's trailer and have a little fun...
Almost
30 years after it was made, THE HILLS HAVE EYES still remains positively horrifying
viewing. The concept of being isolated, away from civilization and any kind
of help when your life is at stake, is a fear felt by many viewers of all walks
of life, so even before the family begins dying, the suspense is well-established
from the get-go. Sheer terror is very well-conveyed by an able cast, with Dee
Wallace, Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, and Virginia Vincent really sticking
out as actors who should have (and sometimes did) go on to bigger and better
things. Wallace, of course, became Dee Wallace Stone, wowing audiences with
her performances in THE HOWLING, CUJO, and E.T., among other projects. Lanier
was originally slated to be 'Chrissy' in "Three's Company" before
Suzanne Somers took her place, but I find her more appealing than Somers here.
Houston became a director, but his emotional scenes are top-notch as a character
torn between being a man and a boy in such a tense situation. Vincent was actually
a much younger actress than she appears here, and does a fantastic job as the
upbeat matriarch who loses it when the going gets tough. The visually interesting
Michael Berryman, who had a he
althy
career of bit parts and cameos, was given a big boost by being the poster boy
for HILLS HAVE EYES and still regularly makes appearances at fan conventions,
charming fans with his warm friendly demeanor. Quite a change from the monstrous
Pluto! Janus Blythe received good notices as Ruby, the good girl of the mountain
family, and for good reason: she displays animal traits and inner humanity incredibly
well. She later reunited with HILLS co-star Robert Houston in the 1979 Kristine
DeBell vehicle CHEERLEADERS' WILD WEEKEND (under the name Janet Blythe)! The
claustrophobic hand-held camerawork by Eric Saarinen is very effective, and
the primitive sounds of Don Peake's musical score will raise goosebumps during
all the pivotal moments. The one caveat: Wes Craven may be the most successful
horror filmmaker darling (in terms of success to failure ratio, compared to
Tobe Hooper and George Romero), but he has yet to deliver a satisfying ending.
THE HILLS HAVE EYES ends on a very disturbing and dark moment, but still feels
like an anti-climax, much like Craven's finale in LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. But
the climax aside, everything leading up to it results in a horror classic that
has remained unseen for far too long. This ranks as one of Craven's best films,
if not his most rugged and chilling.
One
of the extra features on Disc 2 of this double-disc set is a Restoration demo,
playing the first 4 minutes of the film in split-screen, the left side post-restoration,
the right side pre-restoration. For the most part, they look pretty much the
same. There are more scratches, speckles, and dirt in the original master, and
colors have been cleaned up nicely and grain minimized. It isn't a perfect transfer,
given the elements to work with, but THE HILLS HAVE EYES hasn't looked better
during its home video history, so this remains the definitive video version
of Craven's classic, letterboxed at 1.85:1 with anamoprhic enhancement. There
are 4 separate audio options: 5.1 Digital Surround, 6.1 DTS, 2.0 Dolby Surround,
and the original mono mix. None of them sound perfect, with dialogue, music,
and effects balanced perfectly, but of them all, the DTS seems to be the best.
Susan Lanier's hysterical screaming during the trailer invasion is a good test
for the audio mixes and their effectiveness: loud and bold during the DTS, but
a tad subd
ued
during all the others.
Disc 1 kicks off the extra features
with a feature-length audio commentary by Wes Craven and producer Peter Locke.
From the get-go, it is obvious both men are excited to speak about this film
and are thrilled it is finally being released on DVD for the masses. Enthusiastically
sharing stories of the difficult outdoors shoot, the poor overworked crew who
had run themselves ragged prior to shooting on Roger Corman's EAT MY DUST, the
cast giving their all, and a 
number
of special effects mishaps, Craven and Locke share a lot of laughs and are very
jovial and listenable throughout. Craven has always done a great job on audio
commentaries, and this is no exception. Required listening! Disc 2 holds the
rest of the hefty extras platter. The 55-minute "Looking Back at the Hills
Have Eyes" was produced exclusively for this DVD, and features interviews
with Craven, Locke, director of photography Eric Saarinen, and actors Dee Wallace,
Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Robert Houston, and Susan Lanier. All of them
have intensely interesting factoids and memories of shooting the film; Craven
is articulate and intelligent as ever, discussing the origins of his interest
in horror films and how this particular project came his way. He reveals the
true story HILLS was based on, the Sawney Bean family who preyed on travelers
on the road from London to Edinburgh. Locke gives a producer's perspective,
such as tracking down the isolated shooting locations. Also included is modern-day
footage of the desert where HILLS was shot, and it's just as isolated and full
of doom as it was in 1977. Houston tells how he got the job by crying the best,
while Blythe beat the other girls in her casting call at a foot race! There
are hilarious stories of Berryman scaring a woman in the audience during a showing
of the film, Lanier and Berryman setting the crew at ease during the rape scene,
Wallace getting used to a tarantula, and absolutely incredible tales about the
rattlesnake, the dog attacking Berryman, and the possibility of the baby being
killed off...until the cast and crew threaten to walk off the film!! This was
one TOUGH shoot, and everything you ever wanted to know about the making of
the film (and that isn't in the commentary) is discussed in-depthly here, with
all the participants proud of their involvement.
"The
Directors: The Films of Wes Craven" is essentially a puff piece created
for cable TV, covering Craven's films from LAST HOUSE through MUSIC OF THE HEART,
with interviews with "stars" like Meryl Streep, Neve Campbell, Coutrney
Cox-Arquette, Kristy Swanson (much too briefly), and Adrienne Barbeau. Enticing
clips from DEADLY BLESSING and DEADLY FRIEND are included (the infamous basketball
to the head scene from FRIEND makes me want this on DVD pronto!), and for those
who are pissed that Universal once again didn't bother with extras for their
upcoming SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW disc, both Bill Pullman and Craven give anecdotes
about that film (PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS, also coming to DVD, is touched upon
for a brief second). It's interesting to see him talk about other films that
he wasn't tapped for when they came to DVD (SWAMP THING, for example), but for
the most part this isn't anything worth revisiting. Nice to have, though. The
infamous "alternate ending" is included in all its jaw-dropping "I'd
Like to Buy the World a Coke" niceness. Let's just say the original ending,
which I felt was weak, is brilliance compared to this force-fed TV ending. Also,
because this was for TV, AB has included an example of the strange network editing.
Mars is killed before Jupiter, and the multiple stabbing is sliced down to a
simple jab. A U.S. trailer and a German trailer, which are identical save the
narration, sell the film very well. Two U.S. TV spots and two UK T.V. spots
are also almost identical, but for completist's sake their inclusion is great.
Three separate galleries provide even MORE historical looks into the making
of a film: 
one is made up of color and black-and-white behind-the-scenes photos, with actors
and crew trudging through the desert between takes and clowning for the camera,
the second features an astounding array of international posters, video covers,
and pressbooks (almost all of them star Michael Berryman). Did you know HILLS
HAVE EYES played as a double feature with Paul Morrissey's ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN
and John Waters' DESPERATE LIVING?! You even get to see a letter discussing
audience reaction to the film! The third gallery consists of storyboards outlining
such diverse sequences as the discovery of Beauty's corpse, Lynne walking in
on the trailer invasion, Beast attacking Pluto's heel, Ruby delivering the baby
to Doug, and a number of the more risky stunts, like the knife fight, tackles,
and lots of animal stunts. One storyboard, where Doug pulls out and snaps Mars'
artery, makes one wonder how far the film could have gone in terms of bloodshed?
Compared to Hollywood storyboards, these look amateurish but are still a lot
of fun to look at. Amusingly, it opens with the title BLOOD RELATIONS and has
a disclaimer stating "The incidents you are about to witness are true.
Nothing has been changed. It's all true. Swear to God!" in an assumed homage
to Craven's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. A Wes Craven bio appears for those unfamiliar
with his work.
DVD-ROM
extras have been pretty much ignored on most cult film DVD's, save some Blue
Underground discs, but Anchor Bay has included some nice goodies on the ROM
front. First up is the original first draft for THE HILLS HAVE EYES, under the
original title BLOOD RELATIONS. There is a tongue-in-cheek crawl claiming Craven
was locked away in a mental institution after the release of LAST HOUSE and
wrote this screenplay after returning from an intergalactic spaceship ride (?!).
The mountain family is introduced up front, instead of the suspenseful build-up
to their first appearance(s), the gas station sequence isn't included, and surprisingly
the cheesy TV alternate ending was in the works from the get-go! It's an interesting
90-page read, and fans of the film will eat it up. The second DVD-ROM extra
is a pair of HILLS HAVE EYES screensavers, for either PC or Mac computers. One
is the animated background present on the DVD menus, complete with the exceptional
Don Peake score, and the other is a similar background with a spotlight hovering
over a HILLS HAVE EYES title. Both are pretty nifty programs you can install
on your computer directly from the disc. On a side note, with this disc Anchor
Bay has introduced a new DVD introduction logo, which is kinda nifty compared
to the mute ripple effect logo we're so used to. A color booklet insert contains
informative liner notes by Jon Putnam, who interviewes some of the cast members
who were not involved with the DVD.
Every horror fan should have this
disc sitting on their shelf. THE HILLS HAVE EYES is a sterling example of 70s
no-holds-barred horror that would never get made today, presented here in an
edition that won't be topped. Now...who'll step up to the plate to release 1981's
DEADLY BLESSING, Craven's most underrated effort? Judging from this set, Anchor
Bay would be the ideal company to tackle it. One of the best discs of 2003.
(Casey
Scott)