PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Suspense. Scare factor. Squirm factor. Originality. Creep me the FUCK out!
The aforementioned are the main things I look for when I’m watching a horror movie, when my brain and body are trying to decide if it’s a candidate for my ‘Favorites’ list. I want a movie that will have me looking over my shoulder when I’m leaving the theater. Hell, even have me paranoid while I’m still IN the theater! I want a movie that has me switching places with the characters in my head, prompting me to question what I would do in their positions. I want characters I can get attached to and actually care whether they live or die. Add in a plot twist and some blood and guts spilled, and I’m hooked.
The Hills Have Eyes reached above and beyond my expectations. Directed by Alexandre Aja, the movie follows a family of seven as they travel through the Nevada desert in their trailer. The antagonists were a gang of disfigured mutants who were affected by a nuclear explosion depicted in the film’s opening credits. They torture and kill anyone unlucky enough to be traveling through their territory.
I first saw The Hills Have Eyes when I was a senior in high school at a friend’s house. He had gotten the movie on DVD, and he told me that it was scary as hell and it had given him nightmares. I laughed at him because he was easily frightened, and in turn, I rarely took his word for it when it came to his selection of horror movies. Halfway through the movie, however, I was the one curled up on the couch, screaming at the screen, and praying for a happy ending.
This movie didn’t have a lot of jump scares, but that was also the beauty of it. For me, the horror came from my attachment to the family, and imagining myself and my own family in their place, fighting for our lives in the middle of fucking nowhere.
The pivotal scene in the movie (also the most memorable and unsettling scene for me) is the rape, torture and murder scene with the mutants Lizard (Robert Joy: Land of The Dead 2005) and Pluto (Michael Bailey Smith: A Nightmare on Elm Street 1989). I went through a major mix of emotions when I first saw this scene in particular. I was horrified, then sad, angry, back to horrified, back to angry, and ended up downright speechless. Prior to this film, no other movie had shaken me to my core the way this one did. The scene was shot amazingly well, with each protagonist character very accurately reflecting the level of chaos and trauma they were experiencing. I legitimately hated the mutants for what they did, but I also respected the way they were presented to us as the audience so that we could hate them. Because they were so murderous and sadistic, we felt for and rooted for the family they were terrorizing. And in turn, I think that’s the mark of a really good horror movie
The Hills Have Eyes left such a lasting impression on me. It is the sole reason why I never wanted or want to go on any road trips. If I’m ever traveling anywhere that requires more than a 2-hour drive from my city of residence, and I don’t have the option to fly there, no thanks!
