THE HILLS HAVE EYES Craven lunatics
released OUT NOW! 1977 | 18 | blu-ray/dvd Director Wes Craven Cast susan lanier, robert Houston, Martin speer, John steadman
blu-ray debut Wes Craven’s brutal shocker has lost little of its impact four decades on. The story of a middle-class family who are set upon by a gang of deranged mutants after their car breaks down in the middle of the desert, it utilises its barren, eerie location to the full and has a second half of relentless screaming terror.
It thankfully avoids the pitfalls many slasher films of the ’80s would fall into: these attackers are a memorable, quirky bunch, and it’s good to see a family, rather than kids, as protagonists, whose behaviour is mostly logical. Plus there’s a heroic dog to cheer.
Extras This new 4k restoration comes with three commentaries, by Craven and producer Peter Locke, the cast (new), and academic Mikel J Koven (new). You also get the 2003 Making Of (60 minutes); new interviews with actor Martin Speer (17 minutes) and composer Don Peake (11 minutes); a (less effective) alternate ending; freshly unearthed and mildly interesting outtakes (19 minutes); trailers; TV spots; a gallery; a PDF of the screenplay. The Blu-ray comes with six postcards, a poster and a booklet. Russell Lewin
One of the reasons Janus Blythe got the part of Ruby was that she ran faster than the other auditionees!