I think I literally had my mouth open when about 3/4 of the family got killed...

No surprise there, guys, heh. You just don't like horror movies that are not of psychological nature

That just about sums up my dislike of the movie. I'm all for gore in horror, but why not throw in a little psychological depth a la a movie like Devil's Rejects...

Hmm...

Reading through that thread was pretty interesting. Apparently Devin thinks it's a pro-war on terror film, and I couldn't agree less.

He does make an interesting point here, though: "The film is heavy in political allegory, referencing the modern war on terror without really coming down as being right or left. I think both sides of the aisle can watch this film and identify with the politics..."

I can sort of agree with that, but I feel the film is decidedly left leaning. I really don't think it's trying to say anything on the war on terror. It has it's sights set on gun control and the habit America has of ignoring it's atrocities. And it comes down left on both issues, no question. I just didn't see the war on terror parallels he is trying to draw up.

I did enjoy how he pointed out that the hamfisted nature of the score in the 3rd act was completely thought out and intentional. I thought I was the only one who picked up on that. Aja is clearly trying to draw parallels between Doug's character and the stereotypical tough guy out of American Western films. I'm just not sure Aja is playing nice with the comparison, though. I think the film is overwhelming cynical in it's viewpoint towards American culture.

This post was the one I was referring to:

"The blaring music was obviously part of a larger point that Aja is making. I don't seriously think that he is making the pro-war on terror film I described above, but he IS making statements on American violence and masculinity. The film's score has many nods to Western music - it's completely purposeful.

Whether you liked or appreciated that aside, it isn't like that stuff was done out of cheesiness or incompetence. Both this and HIGH TENSION are genre deconstructions, but rather than deconstruct to ridicule, like SCREAM, Aja is taking the genres apart to look at their most primal, basic aspects, and to try and do something with them.

The backstory of the mutants is interesting when layered with the Western music and hokey triumph because these guys were doing what Western heroes always do - trying to live free or die. The family in the RV represents the weaker breed of Americans, the watering down of the West. "Imagine what the first people to cross this desert thought," Ted Levine says, and we're suppose to realize that they sure didn't do it with a mobile home."

I love the fact that a horror film, a genre that is criticized so often for being intellectually hollow (and unfairly so), is stirring this kind of debate.

I'm really sick and tired of people criticizing horror films for doing exactly what they're meant to do - horrify. Just because people have become brainwashed into believing that watered down crap like When A Stranger Calls is horror doesn't make it so. Horror films have always had this level of violence in them.

This would be like me saying, "You know, I'm tired of comedies being funny."

No surprise there, guys, heh. You just don't like horror movies that are not of psychological nature

I don't?

Hm, please remind me of some recent horror films "of psychological nature" that I have liked!

I don't get it.

This isn't "cool." This isn't "AWESOME, man! GORE!"

This is disgusting.

Erm, yeah. Did you expect a Freddy vs. Jason situation, where there's riotous applause everytime someone is offed gruesomely? It's meant to be shocking, disgusting, and off-putting. That's what cold-blooded murder is.

Who says you're supposed to enjoy every movie you see? Did you walk out of Schindler's List saying, "That was cold and dank, and I didn't enjoy one second of it!" ?

So what was I then supposed to get out of The Hills Have Eyes?

You were supposed to leave feeling disturbed and uncomfortable.

Horror is a very odd situation. Its not that we enjoy what is actually being seen. It has been said that the number one emotions humans like to feel are love and fear, for they are the most powerful. The fear that we feel is simulated, yet people love it because they know its fear they don't actually have to face, which is why they love it so much. Your not suppose to enjoy it, but subliminally, you are very much enjoying what horror movies stimulate in you.

I still don't understand why you seem to think every movie is supposed to be 'fun.'

I don't deny that the director here tries to imbue the film with some political commentary, but to me, the audience for which the film aims with its excess of ridiculous violence is completely adverse to those who would be able to pick up on the commentary in the first place.

Yeah, that's exactly what I said. Thanks.

Here's the thing.

A film's aim can't just be to make one feel disturbed and uncomfortable. When the violence reaches the extremes that it does here, where it's no longer just flippant gore (a la, I don't know... Dawn of the Dead, which I liked a lot), it has to have -- at least for me -- some purpose or underlying theme behind it.

I don't deny that the director here tries to imbue the film with some political commentary, but to me, the audience for which the film aims with its excess of ridiculous violence is completely adverse to those who would be able to pick up on the commentary in the first place.

Or maybe that's just mean of me.

I'm not sure how you can watch this film and just see gore, just see a family get slaughtered. If you include the dogs, more than half of the "good guys" survive. (Or exactly half, can't remember which). And the film isn't about the slaughter, it's about the family. It's about a father coming back from near death to kill everything in the way of rescuing his daughter. It's about a brother and sister coming together through a horrible, horrible experience and not giving up. If it was all slaughter-gore-death, you wouldn't have had as many live as you do. No one is getting excited by a shotgun to the temple, they're suffering through that to see how these people, people they've generally been trained to like in the first 45 minutes, act in the face of these creatures. They don't like the gore, they live with it because they DO like the characters.

Plus, it's so beautiful.

And it's really not THAT gorey. I mean, the shotgun part, yeah, the stuff in the house towards the end, sure, but what else? A burning alive a ripped open dog and a few bullets to the chest. Considering that doesn't even start until 50 mins in and is usually spread out by plenty of "story" and nongore, I think that aint too bad.

Strange you should say that, considering most of the people here giving it high marks discuss the political allegories in their reviews.

I find it funny when people talk down about horror movies fans like they are some sort of secondary human race that grunts when gore and sex is splattered across a screen. It's been my experiences that horror fans are among the brightest and most open minded film goers you're ever likely to meet, and I'm proud to call myself one.