The Hills Have Eyes

What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Well not quite, more like a gang of humans exposed to radiation and starved of good local restaurants. It amounts to much the same thing though.

The DVD release of The Hills have Eyes boasts all the regular extras that you have come to expect these days. Audio commentary tracks from the director (Alexandre Aja) and producers (Wes Craven and Peter Locke) plus a making of featurette called Surviving the Hills where the cast and crew get together to relive their experiences.

While a lot of effort has undoubtedly gone into this package I couldn't help thinking that it suffered from vested interest and the impartiality that comes with it. There isn't anyone, in either the commentary tracks or the documentary, who wasn't involved in the film in some capacity. The Hills have Eyes is a good enough film that it should have sought independent contributions from film critics/horror fans instead. I, for one, would much rather listen to people who experienced the film as a viewer rather than the "artists" who created it.

The making of documentary is particularly flawed as it only serves to demystify the film that you just watched by allowing us into the secrets of the "art". This is particularly acute in the horror genre where so much is based on our ability to suspend disbelief and cynicism. Look, I know that the "zombies" are not real, I know that Christopher Reeve couldn't really fly but I don't need someone to prove it to me in a "making of" featurette.

I've also heard, and this may or may not be true, that King Kong isn't a real ape either.