Episode 16 of Season 2! Host, Gratton Conwill and special guest, Matt Fields discuss The Hills Have Eyes (1977).
Day 16
The Hills Have Eyes 1h 90m
On July 22 of 1977, The Hills Have Eyes was released in the United States. Written and directed by Horror icon Wes Craven, The Hills Have Eyes is a horror thriller and the second feature directed by the influential director.
After his first feature, Craven had a desire to escape the constraints of the horror genre. However, financiers had other plans, and producer Peter Locke, a friend of Wes Craven, decided to produce his next horror film. Wes Craven agreed and set out to make a more sophisticated horror movie that explored human depravity. He found inspiration in the story of Sawney Bean. The leader of a Scottish clan of cannibals in the 1600s. Other sources of inspirations included The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath.
The film was shot in the Mojave desert on a 16mm camera borrowed from a director of pornographic films. With a budget of roughly half a million dollars, the cast was only paid minimum wage, and Producer Peter Locke was on set every day to ensure time was spent wisely. Some days of shooting reached temperatures of 120 degrees fahrenheit, and the cast had to do their own makeup. Understandably unenthusiastic, the cast and crew dreaded each day of filming. But further into the production, Craven’s spirit and enthusiasm rubbed off on the crew, and the shoot went smoothly. The film was given an X rating initially, this resulted in significant amounts of footage getting cut for the final product. The title: The Hills Have Eyes was chosen against Craven’s wishes, after the film was finished.
Upon release, reviews were mixed, with many viewers comparing the gruesome content to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Regardless of critical response, The Hills Have Eyes made over $25 million and spawned a series of sequels. It should come as no surprise to listeners that The Hills Have Eyes is now praised as a horror classic, thanks in no small part to the popularity of Wes Craven, director of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.
Today The Hills Have Eyes has:
3.1/5 on Letterboxd
6.3/10 on IMDb
65% on rotten tomatoes
64% on metacritic
85% on google
6.8 average CTS score
From the creators of Giant Monster BS: Gratton Conwill and Matt Fields bring you Only In Amityville season 2: Escape from Amityville!
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