Iconic Scenes in Movies:The Hills Have Eyes(1977)

I have been a fan of The Hills Have Eyes for years and every time I watch it, I love it more. It never ages and it is the same age as me! I think that this might be one of Wes Craven's finest horror movies and it is not given the praise that it deserves. This stars Michael Berryman and Dee Wallace. The film is a cult classic now and deservedly so. I love the music, the tone, the story line and the setting in the desert. It is a surprisingly simple plot. A family gets stranded in the desert when they turn off of the highway and they run into a family of inbred cannibals! The movie is a game of cat and mouse between the cannibals and the family and ends in a final battle.



My first iconic scene(video above) is where the father Bob is brought back to the camper van by the baddies who have tied him to a stake and set him alight. This brings all of the family out the van except for the daughter Brenda and the baby. Pluto(Berryman) and Mars enter the van and look around for stuff to take. Mars finds Brenda and rapes her. He then gets disturbed by the mother Ethel and her daughter Lynne(Wallace) and shoots them both. Lynne dies and Ethel is mortally wounded so she hasn't long to go. They take the baby for dinner. This scene is so horrific and there is so much violence in such a short time that it really has an impact. We get to see the inbred cannibals up close and when they take the baby, that is horrible stuff as you can imagine what they will do with her.



The other scene that I like is the end scene(video above). The son Bobby and Brenda are left to outsmart the cannibals. They have to come up with a plan as they know that they will be coming back for them. They use their mother's dead body as a lure and Papa Jupiter falls for it. He gets killed and then Pluto has a fight with the dog, Beast. The dog rips out his throat in revenge for the death of his doggy mate.The fight isn't over yet as Doug, the baby's father goes to rescue his daughter from Ruby who is one of the cannibals, but she is not as nasty as them. Mars pops up and there is a fight between him and Doug. Ruby intervenes and throws a rattlesnake at Mars. He gets bitten and Doug stabs him and stabs him and....stabs him. The movie ends with Doug turning into a savage and Ruby looking on horrified.

This film is a must for any horror fan. It is such a classic in my opinion and those remakes were awful compared to this. This is raw, violent and horrible in parts and that is why I love it. It is very simple, but it works. A true horror classic and one that has many iconic scenes. The two that I have chosen are my favourites. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it now!!!