What makes it different from others?

Don't Believe the Hype

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Blistering performances.

I don't really know what to say about this movie. It is one of those movies that leaves with you that sort of "could've-been-better feeling since there storylines that were a bit of-the-wall to me and which did not make sense at all. On the other hand, something I did not like about is that the characters were only played by white people which, in my opinion, would have been better if at least some of the characters had a different ethinical background.

Note for note remake of the 1977 film, as a family gets lost, stranded in the middle of the desert, preyed upon by mutant killers.Expectedly colour-saturated, high contrast horror film follows the original film so closely, and even uses strikingly similar dialogue, that it becomes entirely predictable, and it reduces the plot merely to gross- out torture-porn. The film unwisely reverses the cautionary gas station attendant and turns him into another generic ambusher, telling this family to take some unmarked dirt path, instead of staying " on the main road ", leading them straight to the killers' traps.The killers from the original film were terrifying, with hardly any make- up effects, and they were actual characters, with personalities, and oddly likable quirks ( as demonstrated by some of their one-liners directed at each other ) , but here, the killers are just gross looking, and they have none of the personality or presence of the original's killers, having been reduced to generic, CGI, cardboard cutout killers.Oddly enough, the Nevada desert locations in the original film were haunting, prehistoric, unearthly looking, but the Ouarzazate desert landscape in this film looks like just that: a desert. Completely lacking the atmosphere in setting.This remake does have its moments, just not enough of them. Best scene: Doug ( whose character endures enough injuries to kill several people ) discovering the nuclear blast crater.

Director Alexandra Aja had a lot riding on his own Hills Have Eyes film and he certainly did not ruin his rep by remaking this film. In the grand scheme of the horror genre, Aja's Hills Have Eyes is one of the best remakes out there. It was true to the original with a very similar plot but it added some different twist and cool scenes along the way. The town scene, which is a unique idea to the nuclear subplot, is very gory and tense. One negative thing compared to the original is how deformed the mutants are. The mutants are too unrealistic looking, with no distinguishable features, the original gave a way better image. Also, the last five seconds is a big let-down, it's low class sometimes how horror movies try to make it interesting and set itself up for a sequel. Still, the 2006 modern version of The Hills Have Eyes is a big hit and one of the better horror films of that decade.

Switchblade romance was already a really stupid film who treat it's audience like idiots and this remake of the Wes Craven classic if less stupid is still quite moronic. Then again it's full of incoherences, it's heavy on symbolism, then again Aja has never been known for subtlety, but if it's the case don't do,symbolism or psychology and just go plain trash! The scene with killings with the American flag doesn't make any sense : the US army is after all responsible for the mutation of the bad guys. In the original the bad guys were characters , here they're just a freak show with no depth at all. The Wes Craven was really inventive in ways of killing people, the dragging of the bad guy with a rope and a car wheel, the python scene. Here it's just violent and pointless. The end is particularly bad, Ruby sacrifices herself, she could have pushed her dad but no she's jumps with him, in the original she saves the young dad using a python, that was bad ass. The bits where the guy is holding his phone to check if there's any network is phony, especially when they do it twice , that actor for that scene only should get an award for worst actor ever . I cannot believe people think that might be a better version than the original , the make up on the villains is so bad you can actually see the plastic, it's plain awful.