Manhunt and mayhem

Film: The Hills Have Eyes
Directed by: Alexandre Aja
Starring: Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd

It’s raining blood in Hollywood these days. First, it was ancient violence in Apocalypto and then in 300. Now, comes the horror flick The Hills Have Eyes, bringing you the violence of the future, with mutants and all (Okay, we’ve graduated from zombies to mutants, and no, they’re not x-men, but bloodthirsty cannibals.).
Here’s what happening. A family is travelling to California through the New Mexico deserts (the Hoover family of Little Miss Sunshine?). On the way, while finding a shortcut, they’re lost, their trailer conks, and they are forced to spend the nigh in the desert. Here comes the predators, a group of deformed cannibals, result of the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by USA from 1945 to 1962 in that spot. Till now, you expect the film to be a science fiction horror fantasy. But it ends up being a battle for survival between the family member and their predators. Violence and gore fills the screen as you wait for the film to be over. Even the detailed captions about the nuclear tests fail to give you a rationale as to why all these murders are happening.
The film is a remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 classic of the same name, if it will help any.
The biggest question, however, is: Are horror and violence synonymous? Certainly not. But when you mix them together, the result is what do you see in THHE. There are movements of horror. It’s likely, when there’s a family at the centre of the story. And the makeup artists have done a wonderful job in creating the mutants. But the director Alexandre Aja, while working on the remake, seems to have gone overboard in depicting violence.
This may be a plus, or a minus depending on how do you see it. The choice is yours.
It’s a high-voltage horror violence that may make you ‘sick,’ so take caution.

Rating **