THE HILLS RUN RED (2009)

indianasmith · October 04, 2009, 12:01:48 AM

OK, I realize I tend to be fairly easy to please. I also realize that it is nearly midnight, and that fatigue clouds judgement. Also, I just finished the film and I am still under its spell. All that being said and taken into account -

THE HILLS RUN RED is the most brilliant horror film I have seen in a long, long time. Lots of plot twists and turns, a villain that is both terrifying and strangely pitiful, a beautiful femme fatale fond of removing her garments, an aspiring young film student who loves the horror genre, a lost film so powerful and disturbing that all copies were destroyed years ago, a mysterious, vanished director . . . this move just keeps on giving classic horror movie themes without making them seem jaded or tarnished.

Here is the setup:
In 1984, director Wilson Wyler Concannon made a horror film, THE HILLS RUN RED, that was so graphic and disturbing that it was pulled from theaters after a very limited run. All copies of the film were destroyed, and the director vanished without a trace shortly thereafter. Fast forward to 2009. Film student Tyler is obsessed with finding a print of this lost classic, and discovers that Concannon's daughter Alexa (Sophie Monk) is working at a strip club not too far away. He finds her and weans her off her heroin addiction so that she can take him to the isolated country house where the film was shot, and where her father died, hoping that perhaps the last remaining copy of the film will be there. But as they hike into the woods towards the isolated house, they discover that this is one horror film that isn't just BASED on a true story!

This movie is one more spooky film. The slasher/killer, Babyface, is genuinely terrifying. Sophie Monk is alternately hot and creepy. Tyler does a good turn as an obsessed fan. And William Sadler, as William Concannon, is brilliant as a directer who became entirely too caught up in his work.

If you love horror, and are bored with the endless train of remakes, this is one movie you really, really need to see.

Neville · October 04, 2009, 06:56:33 PM

I didn't think much of it, honestly. Pretty much the whole thing is Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a few cinephile jokes here and there. It is not entirely without merit, I agree that it is a very entertaining film and that William Sadler makes a decent villain, but little else.

As with other recent Dark Castle movies, it looks like it's been designed with the idea of becoming somebody's future guilty pleasure rather than a good movie. I can't complain if Sophie Monk gets topless everytime she has the opportunity, but the gore level alone is so excessive that it takes the movie to another level. Seriously, I rarely complain of those things, but here it seems completely gratuitous, as though the filmmakers had no idea of what they are doing and mistook the viewers for psychos who will shut up if they show enough blood. I for one felt insulted at some points.

SkullBat308 · October 04, 2009, 10:48:10 PM

I've heard good things about this, definitely gonna check it out.

Psycho Circus · October 05, 2009, 05:35:28 PM

Quote from: SkullBat308 on October 04, 2009, 10:48:10 PM
I've heard good things about this, definitely gonna check it out.

Me too. I actually thought it looks good and fancy giving it a watch. I've read tons of reviews and only two bad ones. It's supposed to be very gory and very "booby".

Plus, the masked killer looks cool (finally a new one!).

indianasmith · October 05, 2009, 07:20:48 PM

That's a great shot of Babyface!!!!

Yes, the movie is heavy on gore and boobs. You will enjoy it, CC!!

zombie no.one · October 05, 2009, 09:28:57 PM

I've seen a lot of very shoddy new horrors lately ('The Children' sticks out), might have to check this one...

Eyesore · October 05, 2009, 09:43:14 PM

Quote from: Circus_Circus on October 05, 2009, 05:35:28 PM
Quote from: SkullBat308 on October 04, 2009, 10:48:10 PM
I've heard good things about this, definitely gonna check it out.

Me too. I actually thought it looks good and fancy giving it a watch. I've read tons of reviews and only two bad ones. It's supposed to be very gory and very "booby".

Plus, the masked killer looks cool (finally a new one!).

Hey Circus, the studio that I buy my masks from put a new one in their line up last year (I think it was last year?), and I seem to remember that it was being made for a movie prop or something like that, could this be the same one? http://www.deathstudios.com/Masks/Index.cfm/go:site.Item/Item:41/ID:1/Group:8/index.html

Psycho Circus · October 06, 2009, 07:12:14 AM

Possibly a prototype...

zombie no.one · November 16, 2009, 08:24:41 AM

I rented his last night and I have to say it was shockingly bad. the acting was terrible

it also seemed to rip off entire elements wholesale from other films. i.e. kids going into the woods to investigate urban myth + interviewing locals on camcorder before they set off (Blair Witch Project), speech about disecting the rules of a 'horror' movie (Scream), plus the first scene we see of the bad guy killing someone was a complete rip off of one of the traps from the Saw movies...

also, something I learned from this movie: it is possible to wean someone off heroin, make them go through cold turkey, and have them totally clean again, in the space of what seems to be one afternoon. (the missing director's daughter before they set off)