Double Matinee - Wolf Creek and
The Hills Have Eyes

Liz runs from Mick's compound in Wolf Creek

Kristy trying to escape in Wolf Creek

Brenda kicks butt in The Hills Have Eyes

Mutant Pluto in The Hills Have Eyes
What better time than the Fall to spend a lazy day on the couch
catching up on your movie watching - that is, when you're not out visiting
pumpkin patches or haunted houses. We have two good movie
recommendations for your home double matinee: Wolf Creek and The Hills
Have Eyes. Both involve nice, ordinary people being hunted and
having to fight for their lives.
Wolf Creek (2005) is based on a true story and set in the Australian
Outback. Three 20-somethings, Kristy, Liz, and Ben, meet up on vacation
and decide to drive through the Outback together on their way home.
Along the way they stop at Wolf Creek National Park, a desolate spot if
there ever was one - no other people or phones around for miles. After
they have their fun and return to their car, it doesn't start. They
decide spend the night in their car in the hope that someone will come
along the next day. In the middle of the pitch black night, a local
named Mick comes by. He offers to tow them to his place to fix the car
and they reluctantly agree. Huge mistake. Mick's plan doesn't really
include fixing their car. It includes torturing and killing them.
As the movie unfolds, it is very suspenseful and gory. The desolation
of the Outback adds to the feelings of desperation and terror of the main
characters. You feel the torment and terror of Kristy, Liz, and Ben and
want them to live against the odds they face. Once in the clutches of
Mick the movie is fast-paced. As with a lot of true crime
stories, it does not have a "happy" ending, causing the movie
to stay with you long after it's over.
The Hills Have Eyes (2006), by contrast, is mindless fun. It's a
remake of Wes Craven's 1977 classic of the same name (Craven produced
this new version) in which a family traveling in a trailer to California
through the New Mexico desert is deliberately misled to a
"shortcut". This route takes them down a desolate dirt road to
nowhere where they are menaced and brutally attacked by a group of
cannibals, mutated by atmospheric nuclear tests conducted from 1945 to
1962.
The movie is suspenseful, action-packed, and the mutants are creepy.
I felt really sorry for the family, as their desperation and fright
really come across in the movie.
The cast is first-rate. Aaron Stanford plays Doug, the unlikely hero
and son-in-law to Ted Levine's Big Bob Carter, the patriarch of the
family. Stanford, most recently the title character of television's
underrated "Traveler" (and Pyro from the last two X-Men
movies), starts the film off a bit wimpy, but
really shines when push comes to shove. Levine is wonderful as always.
From his role as the killer in Silence of the Lambs to his role on
television's fun "Monk", he brings a real presence to the big
and small screens.
In March of this year, The Hills Have Eyes 2 was released, written by
Wes Craven and his son Jonathan. It centers on a group of National Guard
trainees who battle the mutants on their last day of training in the
desert.
Do you think we got this totally wrong? Agree with us?
Or just want everyone to know your thoughts? Then start
a discussion of these movies in our forums!
Reviewed by: Hauntmistress, 9/10/2007 |