The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
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A suburban family becomes stranded in the Nevada desert, only to be targeted by a family of cannibal savages.
The story
The Carter family is traveling on vacation towing a trailer en route to Los Angeles. While driving through the Nevada desert, their dogs become anxious and alert to the surrounding hills. After one dog runs off and is found mutilated, the family becomes increasingly frightened. They soon discover they are being stalked by a depraved family of cannibals who survive by preying on travelers. The family must struggle to survive against these savages as they are hunted in the desolate wilderness.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The Carter family—parents Bob and Ethel, children Bobby, Brenda, Lynne, and Doug, along with Doug's baby daughter Katy—are traveling to Los Angeles when their dogs alert them to danger in the Nevada desert. After Bobby finds their dog Beauty mutilated, the family encounters a man named Fred, who reveals the existence of 'Papa Jupiter,' a cannibalistic man who survived a childhood tragedy and now leads a family of savages including his children Mars, Pluto, and Mercury, and a woman known as Mama. Papa Jupiter kills Fred and takes Bob prisoner. The cannibals then attack the Carter trailer, setting it on fire and killing Bob. During the chaos, Pluto rapes Brenda, and Mars shoots Ethel and Lynne. Pluto abducts the baby, Katy. The remaining family members, Doug and Brenda, attempt to rescue her. In a final confrontation at the cannibals' cave, Brenda and Bobby use booby traps to overpower Papa Jupiter, while Doug manages to save Katy and fatally stabs Mars. An alternative ending shows the survivors reunited with the cannibalistic Ruby.
- First release year
- 1977
- Runtime (minutes)
- 89
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Wes Craven
- Writers
- Wes Craven · writer
- Cast and characters
- Susan Lanier · Brenda Carter; Robert Houston · Bobby Carter; Martin Speer · Doug Wood; Dee Wallace · Lynne Wood; Russ Grieve · Big Bob Carter; John Steadman · Fred; Michael Berryman · Pluto; Virginia Vincent · Ethel Carter
- Genres
- horror; thriller; exploitation; rape and revenge; siege film; Western; Anti-Western
- Themes
- human depravity; morality; American politics; class divide; survival; repudiation of Judeo-Christian ethics
- Tone and mood
- tense; humorous; visceral; scary
- Premise and plot tags
- cannibalism; family; wilderness; survival; road movie
- Source material / true-story basis
- legend of Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean
- Franchise connections
- The Hills Have Eyes
- Content notes
- graphic violence; rape
- Reception
- Mostly positive, with critics praising its tense narrative and humor; it has since become a cult classic.
- Awards and nominations
- Critic's Award · Sitges Film Festival · 1977 · won
- Production trivia
- The film was originally titled Blood Relations: The Sun Wars and set in New Jersey in 1984.; The sequence where Dee Wallace's character confronts a tarantula was added after the filmmakers discovered the spider on a road.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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