Speaking of gore, I watched The Hills Have Eyes remake last night. I’m not much of a horror fan but this creepy, fucked up, gruesome and grisly shocker is quite good. It’s all in the writing, I think. The main characters are unusually believable, honestly drawn, sympathetic even (you actually feel a bit sad when certain characters die). I guess that shouldn’t surprise me but it does. The violence, of course, is ugly and graphic but the film is well shot and edited and rarely overplays its hand. While not everyone’s cup of tea, this is worth the rental. The first act is probably as good as any horror film I’ve ever seen. It starts to go a bit downhill from there but don’t they all. Oh, and as a nod to big Al, the film has its own tidy little eco-political subtext that the former next President of the United States would probably appreciate.
Hmm. Ebert is my usual horror barometer, and I don’t think he liked this. But I might check this out based on your review. I don’t recall seeing the original, though I may have once upon a high school drunkening.
I’m interested. I saw the original, which I liked better in clips and commentary in a doc on ’70s horror, but the original *did* have that exopthalmic bald guy who rode a motorcycle into the party on Weird Science. (I find that I like almost all of Wes Craven’s films better in retrospect, barely-remembered and discussed for their impact and import. Actually seeing them almost always lets me down.)
Worth noting that Michael Barryman of the original, the bald guy on the poster, was in both of Rob Zombie’s films as well. Though he didn’t have a very big part in either.
And his disease is Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia, which means he can’t grow fingernails, hair or teeth. He also has no sweat glands, which must have made filming the original a real treat.