THE HILLS HAVE EYES

Bobby Carter and family are on the way to California. Their van breaks down in Nevada, in a military shooting zone. The old man who runs a service station nearby tells Bobby a terrible secret. He claims to have fathered a monster, called Jupiter. Then suddenly the colossal Jupiter appears and kills Bobby’s father.

It’s not about deciding whether the original or the remake is the better film, but instead to keep in mind that to have made a survival movie in 1977, in the middle of nowhere, with hit and miss actors, a shoestring budget, while trying to pass on an anti-nuclear testing message, was quite a feat. The film is not well calibrated and the action doesn’t always follow, and yet, everything is perfectly in place. Since 1977, our viewpoints are different and we’ve seen thousand and one survival movies, yet few of them have left as lasting an impression as The Hills Have Eyes.