The Hills Have Eyes
A
I love this 1977 film. You know the premise - so I don’t have to tell you that finding yourself stranded in the California desert is your own damn fault. Stupid ass should not have gone where the creepy old gas station attendant told you not to go. Damn fools - all of them. Damn white people.
Wes Craven was the master of the horror genre for my generation. He made movies that paid homage without copying and still brought in enough scary shit to make classics out of what could have easily been trash.
The Hills Have Eyes is scarier than some of Wes Craven’s other work because the setting appears plausible. Like what happens to every stupid white family who won’t take no for an answer when it comes to looking for silver in the desert. I just want it mentioned - that you never see a black family follow the deserted trail until they all get murdered. The black friend might be the first to die in every high school horror movie but these white folks lose entire last names.
The Hills Have Eyes is superbly 70′s. And it’s superb horror - they kill the dog, they burn the old man alive, they rape the girl, they steal the baby, they shoot the mamas. Fuckin’ awesome.
And I believe one of the main characters is running for a senate seat in Alabama.