The Hills Have Eyes
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: March 10, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
10
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Film ThreatHeidi Martinuzzi
When Aja really starts in on the brutal slayings, he spares no one any comfort at all. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Even as he reinvents, Aja invents. He's clearly working on a big budget for his first American film and has been told he can do anything he can think of. Visually, the movie is wildly alive, full of sure touches. Read full review
80
The New York TimesNathan Lee
Snobs may balk, purists will be appalled, but this new and exceedingly nasty version of Wes Craven's 1977 cult shocker is awfully good at what it does. And mostly what it does is make you feel awful. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Almost 30 years later, it's just as primal. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
French up-and-comer Alexandre Aja's full-bore do-over is a shockingly successful update of a seminal 1970s shocker. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
If studios insist on remaking classic horror films, this is definitely the way to do it. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeErin Meister
Hills is a far cry from its cheesy and predictable predecessor. "Gruesome" doesn't begin to describe the horrors that are revealed on-screen here. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
This remake of the 1977 Wes Craven cult classic is brutally horrific. And that's a compliment. Read full review
70
VarietyRobert Koehler
Besides proving to be a faithful mimic of Craven's filmmaking, Aja pours on the gore. But where Aja's version really leaps beyond Craven's both atmospherically and on the violence scale is in the second hour. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Aja's version, while a killer ride in its own right, never manages the nagging subtexts Craven so handily injected into the proceedings. It's a topnotch nightmare, but this time you wake up. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Hills Have Eyes gets points for gore and general creepiness, and for occasional periods of tension, but it's not scary enough to linger long in the subconscious. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Though this new Hills is both scarier and smarter than 95 percent of the other horror product out there, it's also indicative of everything that's wrong with horror movies today. Read full review
60
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)
Fans of the original won't be disappointed, but ultimately it's just another decent, arguably unnecessary, '70s horror remake. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Where Craven and his director, Alexandre Aja, may have miscalculated is in making the genetically damaged demons, with their flesh-potato foreheads and minimal verbal skills, into monster action figures who take vengeance on the world that created them. They're not scary because they're victims themselves. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
What good is a wallow in sicko sadism if you take all the fun out of it? Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Alexandre Aja directs in full glop mode and the cast includes a few performers, including Ted Levine (from "Monk"), Robert Joy, and Kathleen Quinlan, who probably wish they were elsewhere. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Some may condemn this gruesome, heartless exercise, but I prefer to savor the irony: three years after the Francophobia that accompanied Operation Iraqi Freedom, every bonehead in America will be lining up to see a Frenchman's movie about subhuman hillbillies. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
As with all ensemble horror movies, your first challenge is to guess which of the Carter kin will survive to destroy the creatures killing them, and in what order the family members (and their pets) will fall. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
There are scenes that may make your stomach feel uncomfortable for a moment but rarely stories that will upset your equilibrium. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
This slick, sick remake of the 1977 Wes Craven cult shocker is more of a glum bummer than a horror show. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Thanks to assured direction and a fine cast, Hills isn't terrible, only terribly unnecessary. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
The net effect would be doze-inducing if in fact the Dolby didn't attempt to wake the dead. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It is not faulty logic that derails The Hills have Eyes, however, but faulty drama. The movie is a one-trick pony. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Nothing is right about this ridiculous horror schlockfest. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The ratings board gets all twisted up about sex and skin, yet it cannot give you or your kids enough ax blades to the cranium. This week's evidence: the remake of the old Wes Craven horror item, The Hills Have Eyes, which should not be rated R. It should be rated NC-17, or ITTS-OW, which stands for Is This Thing Sadistic, Or What? Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
An orgy of bloodletting and dismemberment that's more monotonous than shocking. Aja and Levasseur are to splatter what Liberace was to rhinestones: practitioners of gaud. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
These man-eaters are deadly, mainly in their ability to bore you to death. Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Aja's stomach-churning remake (produced by Craven) follows the original with frightening fidelity, amping up the barbarity from a nine (on the 1-10 scale) to a 12. Read full review
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