Film

The Hills Have Eyes

Name: The Hills Have Eyes
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Released: 2006
Cast: Aaron Stanford, Dan Byrd, Emilie de Ravin, Vinessa Shaw, Ted Levine

Other titles called The Hills Have Eyes: the 1977 film.

Wes Craven's 2006 remake drops a suburban family into a radioactive desert where inbred cannibals hunt them. It's brutally efficient horror—grimy, visceral, and genuinely unsettling rather than fun. For people who want their scares to hurt and don't need their protagonists to outsmart the danger.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a lean, mean survival siege where the dread comes from a hostile landscape and cramped, escalating panic rather than gore for its own sake, and you enjoy remakes that sharpen their source's nastiness.

Skip it if you need characters to feel fully rounded before anything bad happens, or you find extreme violence and grim cruelty hard to sit through even when the film is clearly working toward tension.

What it asks of you: It runs about an hour and forty-seven minutes and spends most of it in a brutal, unforgiving stretch of desert, so expect little breathing room and a steady, punishing escalation.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Descent2005

A caving expedition becomes a fight for survival against creatures in absolute darkness. Like Hills, it's relentless, claustrophobic, and trades jump-scares for dread. The women are competent without becoming invincible.

But Darkness and cave geography make it visually confusing at times. If you hate gore-heavy climaxes, this will test you.

Hostel2006

Tourists trapped in a sophisticated torture scenario. Shares Hills' theme of ordinary people realizing the world is far more dangerous than they believed. Eli Roth commits to the dread.

But The second half abandons survival tension for revenge power-fantasy. If you want stakes to stay real, it derails.

A Perfect Getaway2009

Honeymooners hunted by killers on a remote Hawaiian trail. It's tighter and more playful than Hills, with a solid mystery engine underneath the slashing. Fun without being flippant.

But The twist ending requires you to buy a lot of contrivance. Some viewers resent being asked to reconsider what they've seen.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Hills Have Eyes

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Annihilation2018

Both explore how isolation and radiation birth new horrors that shouldn't exist. Humans are prey in unfamiliar land.

Scientists enter a radioactive zone where physics breaks down and creatures become something else. Shares Hills' dread of contamination and zones humans shouldn't enter, but trades cannibals for cosmic wrongness. Gorgeous and deeply unsettling.

But Abstract sci-fi horror; the threat isn't intelligible. If you need to understand what's hunting you, the ambiguity will frustrate.

Eden Lake2008

A couple's beach vacation is destroyed by aggressive locals. Brutal and uncompromising about class rage and how civility evaporates. The escalation feels genuinely inevitable.

But Relentlessly grim with no catharsis. If you need the good people to win, this offers no comfort.

The Strangers2008

A couple terrorized in their home by masked intruders for no reason. Minimalist and suffocating, built entirely on the randomness of violence. Craven-influenced in its paranoia.

But The attackers are blank slates with no motivation. If mystery compels you more than threat, this frustrates.

You're Next2013

Masked killers invade a family gathering. Twists the home-invasion formula by making one protagonist genuinely resourceful. Smart, angry, and fun in a way Hills isn't.

But The tonal shift toward dark comedy alienates viewers who want pure dread. The craft on display might feel clever rather than scary.

Let Me Out2024

A couple's weekend unravels when they realize their new home harbors secrets. Contemporary and psychologically intricate, less interested in gore than in the erosion of trust and safety.

But Slower-burn approach means less immediate threat. The horror is ambient rather than muscular.

Straw Dogs1971

An intellectual and his wife besieged by locals in their English home. Peckinpah's original asks hard questions about violence and masculinity. Unbearably tense in ways that have aged perfectly.

But The gender dynamics are deeply uncomfortable by modern standards. The morality is not your friend's reassurance.

Raw2017

Both ask what separates civilization from monstrosity. Both use body horror to explore that collapse.

A veterinary student discovers she craves human flesh after a hazing accident. French-language body horror that's sensual and deeply wrong. It's about becoming monstrous from within, not without—philosophically opposite Hills but equally unsettling.

But Graphic cannibalism and sexual violence depicted unflinchingly. The arthouse pacing will feel indulgent if you want plot momentum.

The Wailing2016

Both pit ordinary people against inexplicable forces in remote places. Both suggest the real danger might be invisible or internal.

A Korean village is plagued by unexplained illness and a stranger arrives. Slow-burn mystery that becomes increasingly nightmarish. The scope expands from personal terror to spiritual dread in ways Hills never reaches.

But Nearly three hours, deliberately ambiguous, and subtitled. The ending offers no answers, only deeper uncertainty.