The Hills Have Eyes: Wes Craven

Wes Craven is one of the messiahs of the horror genre to multitudes of wannabe film-makers and directors. He got his start making horror films with barely enough money to make a down payment on a house. And, much like John Carpenter, George A. Romero, and Sam Raimi, his persistence and ingenuity led to the creation of some of the most successful horror franchises in history. Before he redefined the slasher genre with A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, he directed a little film entitled The Hills Have Eyes. It follows a family who get stranded during a family vacation in the desert and get assaulted by a "family" of deformed cannibals. It's a grimy, dirty film, much like the masterful The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We watch in horror and disgust as the cannibals attack, rape, and eat the family. Eventually, the family manages to fight back. The film showcases several gross, graphic, and over-the-top moments of carnage and gore, including a particularly nasty scene involving the mutilation of a cannibal's ankle. The film isn't perfect...or deliberately flawed enough to endear itself like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But it definitely marks a noticed increase in quality over Craven's first film, The Last House on the Left.

6/10