The average American family on their way to California, by chance, passes through an area over which new model aircraft are being tested, which is closed to civilians. There they suffer an accident and find themselves prisoners of a desert that stretches for many kilometers in all directions.

If only this were all. But no. Ahead of them awaits a nightmare meeting with a group of fanatics who are completely unfamiliar with modern civilization, and are eager to kill uninvited guests …

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And The Hills Have Eyes is a typical 70s horror movie. Of course, after the advent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), all horror films have changed forever. But to call this film a slasher – my tongue does not turn. The first slasher was and will always be ‘Halloween’ (1978) by John Carpenter. But still there is something in this film and from the atmosphere of slashers: the massacre here is thoughtless, cruel – it is much more interesting to watch than the same ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974). Well, of course: the director of this film is Wes Craven – a man who, 7 years after the release of And The Hills Have Eyes, will give us one of three major league slashers, namely: A Nightmare on Elm Street, and at the end of the 20th century he will direct the Scream trilogy, which will turn the slasher genre that had stagnated by the 90s upside down.

The fact that the film is Crayvon’s is immediately evident: the atmosphere of fear for something incomprehensible and some terrible secret will accompany you during the entire viewing. This is Craven’s style: keeping the audience on their toes until the very end, and then abruptly cutting off the movie at an ambiguous ending. The film looks in one go. It is gratifying that there are many digressions in it and a long prelude to the start of the murders. Again, this is all Craven’s style: first to intrigue the viewer, then to bleed first, then add dynamism to the frame, and then smoothly bring the plot to a sharp ending, after which, as usual, you sit stupidly for a while and think: what could have happened further with the survivors?

Verdict. And The Hills Have Eyes is a solid film from the great horror master Wes Craven. I recommend to all fans of horror films of the 70-90s for viewing, if for some reason you have not watched this film yet. This film will also be enjoyable to watch as a kind of excursion into the history of horror films: know that the legs of the modern slasher film ‘Wrong Turn’ grow from here.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (82.5 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono

Subtitles
English, German SDH.