The hills have balls, the dolls do not

Post #5

Last night the wife and I went to the local theater to check out The Hills have Eyes 2. Last week we saw 300 and Dead Silence. Of the three 300 would probably be the favourite, then again that is to be expected as most people seem to enjoy that movie. Even my buddy's wife who is an uber-Christian wasn't put-off by the gore and boobies. The cinematography was amazing and the movie didn't lull at any point, pulse pounding to the end.

300 Aside the wife and I usually hit the theaters for one reason, Horror Flicks. We went to see Dead Silence hoping for something like the movie The Dolls from the 80s (one of my personal favourites) and unfortunately ended up with something a little more like a neutered Chucky movie. The first time a shadow passes over a ventriloquist's dummy and the eyes change position, that's creepy. The 17th time it's more like, "Ya we know his fucking eyes are going to move!" The overuse of suspense has a counter-productive effect of making you complete numb to the suspense itself. Something happens and you're like, "Oh shit I was supposed to be on the edge of my seat. Oh well." The plot dragged and had holes you could drive a military convoy through. If it's dark a working lantern would appear, if there was a river there was a boat, if the boat was gone... guess what. There was another boat. I think 4 people died in the course of the movie which to me is about on par with an episode of CSI, not a freakin' horror movie. Definitely a snooze and a half.

The Hills Have Eyes 2 on the other hand I found enjoyable. With all the setup done in the original THHE2 doesn't waste your time building up mood. Someone dies brutally in the first 45 seconds of the movie and really the pace doesn't drop much from there. In traditional Wes Craven fashion the deaths are novel. A little humor mixed in with the carnage like waving to someone who's falling off of a cliff with their own disembodied hand. Clever. I thought THHE2 conveyed the "Oh fuck we're dead" motif pretty well. As I find is becoming more popular with modern horror movies, the strongest and most competent members of the group die first, leaving you with a bunch of scared wusses and women. All in all the movie just works. A little The Descent, A Little Aliens and a little Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A good old fashioned bloody-as-hell horror romp.

No snoozes required for that one