Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Hills Have Eyes, The

EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Hills Have Eyes, The reviews
52
5.9 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 96 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Horror  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Alexandre Aja
Grégory Levasseur
Wes Craven (1977 screenplay)

Directed by: Alexandre Aja

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 10, 2006
DVD: June 20, 2006

Running Time: 108 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for strong gruesome violence and terror throughout, and for language

Starring Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Robert Joy, and Ted Levine

A new take on Wes Craven's 1977 film of the same name, The Hills Have Eyes is the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone. Miles from nowhere, the Carters soon realize the seemingly uninhabited wasteland is actually the breeding ground of a blood-thirst mutant family -- and they are the prey. (Fox Searchlight)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Film Threat Heidi Martinuzzi

When Aja really starts in on the brutal slayings, he spares no one any comfort at all.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Even as he reinvents, Aja invents. He's clearly working on a big budget for his first American film and has been told he can do anything he can think of. Visually, the movie is wildly alive, full of sure touches.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Nathan Lee

Snobs may balk, purists will be appalled, but this new and exceedingly nasty version of Wes Craven's 1977 cult shocker is awfully good at what it does. And mostly what it does is make you feel awful.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

If studios insist on remaking classic horror films, this is definitely the way to do it.

Read Full Review >
75

Boston Globe Erin Meister

Hills is a far cry from its cheesy and predictable predecessor. "Gruesome" doesn't begin to describe the horrors that are revealed on-screen here.

Read Full Review >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Almost 30 years later, it's just as primal.

Read Full Review >
75

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

French up-and-comer Alexandre Aja's full-bore do-over is a shockingly successful update of a seminal 1970s shocker.

Read Full Review >
70

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

This remake of the 1977 Wes Craven cult classic is brutally horrific. And that's a compliment.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Robert Koehler

Besides proving to be a faithful mimic of Craven's filmmaking, Aja pours on the gore. But where Aja's version really leaps beyond Craven's both atmospherically and on the violence scale is in the second hour.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Aja's version, while a killer ride in its own right, never manages the nagging subtexts Craven so handily injected into the proceedings. It's a topnotch nightmare, but this time you wake up.

Read Full Review >
63

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Though this new Hills is both scarier and smarter than 95 percent of the other horror product out there, it's also indicative of everything that's wrong with horror movies today.

Read Full Review >
63

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Hills Have Eyes gets points for gore and general creepiness, and for occasional periods of tension, but it's not scary enough to linger long in the subconscious.

Read Full Review >
60

Empire Chris Hewitt

Fans of the original won't be disappointed, but ultimately it's just another decent, arguably unnecessary, '70s horror remake.

Read Full Review >
58

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Where Craven and his director, Alexandre Aja, may have miscalculated is in making the genetically damaged demons, with their flesh-potato foreheads and minimal verbal skills, into monster action figures who take vengeance on the world that created them. They're not scary because they're victims themselves.

Read Full Review >
50

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

What good is a wallow in sicko sadism if you take all the fun out of it?

Read Full Review >
50

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Alexandre Aja directs in full glop mode and the cast includes a few performers, including Ted Levine (from "Monk"), Robert Joy, and Kathleen Quinlan, who probably wish they were elsewhere.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Some may condemn this gruesome, heartless exercise, but I prefer to savor the irony: three years after the Francophobia that accompanied Operation Iraqi Freedom, every bonehead in America will be lining up to see a Frenchman's movie about subhuman hillbillies.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

As with all ensemble horror movies, your first challenge is to guess which of the Carter kin will survive to destroy the creatures killing them, and in what order the family members (and their pets) will fall.

Read Full Review >
50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

There are scenes that may make your stomach feel uncomfortable for a moment but rarely stories that will upset your equilibrium.

Read Full Review >
50

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

This slick, sick remake of the 1977 Wes Craven cult shocker is more of a glum bummer than a horror show.

Read Full Review >
42

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Thanks to assured direction and a fine cast, Hills isn't terrible, only terribly unnecessary.

Read Full Review >
40

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

The net effect would be doze-inducing if in fact the Dolby didn't attempt to wake the dead.

Read Full Review >
38

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is not faulty logic that derails The Hills have Eyes, however, but faulty drama. The movie is a one-trick pony.

Read Full Review >
38

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The ratings board gets all twisted up about sex and skin, yet it cannot give you or your kids enough ax blades to the cranium. This week's evidence: the remake of the old Wes Craven horror item, The Hills Have Eyes, which should not be rated R. It should be rated NC-17, or ITTS-OW, which stands for Is This Thing Sadistic, Or What?

Read Full Review >
38

USA Today Claudia Puig

Nothing is right about this ridiculous horror schlockfest.

Read Full Review >
30

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

An orgy of bloodletting and dismemberment that's more monotonous than shocking. Aja and Levasseur are to splatter what Liberace was to rhinestones: practitioners of gaud.

Read Full Review >
25

New York Post Kyle Smith

These man-eaters are deadly, mainly in their ability to bore you to death.

Read Full Review >
25

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Aja's stomach-churning remake (produced by Craven) follows the original with frightening fidelity, amping up the barbarity from a nine (on the 1-10 scale) to a 12.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 96 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

T F gave it a9:
I dont know wats with all the bull from you ppl it was a good movie and it made we wana see the original there have been worse movies (dawn of the dead remake) so dont rate it as the worse.

Cory C. gave it a10:
I wish I could give this a higher vote than 10. My favorite movie ever. Rape scene not needed? What the hell? The Carter family didn't need to be attacked by the mutants, but they were. That's what Lizard wanted to do, and though emotional, it was awesomely done. You really feel like you know the characters before they kill them. It wasn't TRYING to do anything, I don't think. It wasn't shying away from the horror of what it would really be like to be attacked unawares by such vicious creatures. This was the most intelligently, well done movie I know of, and I loved it with a passion! Aja, I wish you would direct THe Hills Have Eyes 3 and continue the plot with Bobby, Doug, Brenda, Katheryne, and Beast.

Angel Heart gave it a0:
Theres only so much a film lover can take before saying enough is enough! Yet another remake and yet another complete waste of space. No tension, a useless cast of cardboard cut outs, characters that never connect with the viewer, I could go on and on. This film would get vertigo in a sewer! Garbage with a capital G.

Trish S. gave it a1:
This movie was trying to hard to get a reaction out of viewers. I love horror movies, but this was a joke. Rape scene was not necessary and the movie was just boring. Lame, lame, lame!!

Steven R. gave it a9:
This film was really good. The atmosphiere and visual style were effective. The story benefits from its reworking from the original as viewers cannot be certain what to expect.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
I cannot wait for #2. I have seen the original 3 as well as this one and have loved every minute of this top-of-its-class horror. For a horror film, this movie got excellent reviews. I loved it much more than the reviewers did and I recommend it to any horror fan out there. A

Jordan A. gave it a10:
I absolutely loved this movie. Probably one of the best horror movies I have ever seen. Great plot, and the gore and intensity level is just over the top. The ending was kind of confusing, but it was still good, knowing there are more out there. The number 2 doesn't look as good though.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use