The Hills Have Eyes (2006) or, My Big Fat Mutant Cannibal Family Trip

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A blond woman caught in a vice of bloody terror in a grimy design on this effective poster for Alexandre Aja's The Hills Have Eyes

An American family drive through the New Mexican desert in their RV, where they break down in an area that unfortunately has atomic test mutant cannibals roaming in the hills.

 

The Hills Have Eyes is written by Grégory Levasseur (Maniac (2012)) and co-writer/director Alexandre Aja (Furia (1999)), remaking the same-titled 1977 mega-hit horror by Wes Craven (Scream (1996)).

It's another action-packed post-millennial horror remake. The crazed mutants are hard to identify with (to put it mildly), and the charm of the story is limited. The sound work and countless scenes of characters looking-out-into-the-dark-only-for-a-menacing-shadow-to-pass-by also detract.

But the special effects, especially the mutants, are inventive, and there are some good horror ideas in The Hills Have Eyes, which positions it over other recent horror remakes such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and The Amityville Horror (2005).

 

Related post:

 

Alexandre Aja: Piranha 3D (2010) - Aja's gory sexploitation remake is a hoot

Watch a short clip from the film here

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 70 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.66 times its cost)

[The Hills Have Eyes was released 10 March (North America, UK and Ireland) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place from June 2005 - ? in Morocco. The film opened #3, behind fellow new releases Failure to Launch and The Shaggy Dog, to a 15.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 41.7 mil. $ (59.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.2 mil. $ (8.9 %) and Germany with 3.6 mil. $ (5.1 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star rating, translating to 2 notches under this one. The film's success, though much less pregnant than the original film's, prompted less successful sequel The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) by a new director. Aja returned with Mirrors (2008). The Hills Have Eyes is rotten at 52 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Hills Have Eyes?

X-Men: First Class (2011) - Vaughn's handsome if cluttered reboot

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A new band of actors stand ready to carry on the X-Men franchise on this poster for Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class

QUICK REVIEW:

In the 1960s, the existence of mutants becomes known by the US government, and the mutants get involved in the nuclear race.

Stars James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland (2006)), Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games (2012)), Michael Ironside (Total Recall (1990)) and January Jones (Mad Men (2007-15)) are, like many of the film's fine special effects, pleasures to behold. Unfortunately, the story handling here in First Class, either a reboot of the X-Men franchise and/or simply the beginning of a second feature trilogy, depending on who you ask, leaves much to be wished for, and, clocking in at 132 minutes, it doesn't go easy on its audience lengthwise.
It is written by Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz (Thor (2011), both), Jane Goldman (Stardust (2007)) and its English director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass (2010)), with Bryan Singer (X-Men 2 (2003)) and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air (2009)) contributing story. - No wonder the story's a little jumbled with all those chefs around the pots!

Related review:

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - A BAM in every direction for the tired franchise 

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 140-160 mil. $
Box office: 353.6 mil. $
= Minor flop
[First Class opened #1 to a 55.1 mil. $ domestic opening weekend, on par with the first X-men (2000), (before accounting for inflation), and abroad, the film peaked at #2, seen collectively. It grossed 146.4 mil. $ (41 % of the total gross) in North America. The film's costs of 160 mil. $ were reportedly lowered to around 140 mil. $ after tax rebates from its production countries.]

What do you think of X-Men: First Class?

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) - More than decent follow-up to the SF milestone

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The plentiful text promises lots of excitement on this poster for Ted Post's Beneath the Planet of the Apes

A rescue mission carrying astronaut Brent crash-lands on the planet of the apes and discovers a harrowing truth in tunnels beneath their civilization!

 

Beneath the Planet of the Apes is written by Paul Dehn (Orders to Kill (1958)), with Mort Abrahams (Route 66 (1962-63, producer)) contributing story elements, and directed by Ted Post (The Peacemaker (1956)). It is the first sequel to Franklin J. Schaffner's science fiction masterpiece Planet of the Apes (1968).

The film, in short, is not as successful or innovative as its predecessor but still solid entertainment.
Both effects and the action elements have been upped, and yet the debate-sparking elements in the original's storyline are also intact, this time in the forms of war-loving, brutal gorillas, protesting chimpanzees, against the simians' special culture surrounding violence against women. - And then there's the extremist, bomb-worshipping mutants! All in all Beneath has a lot of 'stuff' in it, for lack of a better word, to spur thoughts and parallels to the real world, making it highly successful SF, - if not, however, as revolutionizing as the groundbreaking original.
SPOILER The story about Charlton Heston's (Ben Hur (1959)) character Taylor from the first movie, who now has to be saved 2000 years into the future is a little thin, and the mutants are a bit far-fetched. If one wants to be critical about Beneath the Planet of the Apes. - But their pastel-colored costumes are prime kitsch, and I bought into the story irregardless.
James Franciscus (The Cat o'Nine Tails (1971)) is the new hero, - cast because of his resemblance to Heston, - and he is a woolly, poor hero. But then Heston reappears! SPOILER The ending, (in which Taylor blows up planet Earth), is quite something, and it is also in great alignment with the dystopic end of the original.

 

Related posts:

The Apes franchise: War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) - Reeves and Co. astonish with truly spectacular film that finishes the Ape circle 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) or, Ape 3.1: Mad Apes!
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape!  
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising   
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) - The enjoyable if farfetched second Apes sequel 

Kim Hunter and James Franciscus are photogenic and sexy as human prisoners in Ted Post's Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Watch an original TV promo for the film here

 
Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: 18.9 mil. $ (North America only)
= Huge hit (returned 7.56 times its cost domestically alone)

[Beneath the Planet of the Apes was released 23 April (Italy) and runs 95 minutes. Pierre Boulle, author of the 1963 Planet of the Apes novel that started the franchise, wrote a script that was thrown out by the studio. Heston agreed only to a brief appearance and wanted his salary to go to charity. Schaffner was not able to return to direct due to his work on Patton (1970). Shooting took place from February - April 1969 in California, including in Los Angeles. Fox cut the budget in half to 2.5 mil. $ due to several recent, costly flops, and one cost-cutting strategy was the incorporation of sets from musical Hello, Dolly! (1969) in the film.It opened #9 to a 250k $ first week in 4 theaters, and it reached #1 in its 6th week with 863k $. The success immediately prompted another sequel to go into production: Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). Post returned with 9 TV and TV movie credits prior to his theatrical return with The Baby (1973). Franciscus returned in Night Slaves (1970, TV movie) and theatrically in The Cat o'Nine Tales (1971); Kim Hunter (The Kindred (1987)) in 5 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). Beneath the Planet of the Apes is rotten at 37 % with a 5.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Beneath the Planet of the Apes?

Atom Age Vampire/Seddok, l'erede di Satana (1960) or, Spaghetti Mutant Trash

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It's pretty much guaranteed that you will not 'gasp with horror' from watching Anton Giulio Majano's Atom Age Vampire, as this poster promises, - although you may... - FALL ASLEEP!!

A stripper gets disfigured from a traffic accident, and she fears that her boyfriend will leave her as a result, so she gets a mad professor to cure her with radiation. He, of course, falls in love with her, and turns into a kind of mutant.

Recounted like this, the plot may sound pretty funny. If you have a thing for mad professors/doctors and/or strippers in movies, you may wanna check this film out, which is now in public domain and available for free, legal watch right here.
No vampire ever actually appears in the film, which must be its main defect. The sensational title promises something spectacular and a lot more thrilling than the actual movie, unfortunately.
Susanne Loret (Uncle Was a Vampire/Tempi Duri per i Vampiri (1959)) as the stripper acts horribly; the dialog is long and boring, and the American dub is scratchy.
Co-writer-director Anton Giulio Majano (The Eternal Chain/I Grandi Peccatori (L'Eterna Catena) (1952)) was a life-long director in Italian films and TV, - something that is not beneficial to Atom Age Vampire, but interesting to know. Majano wrote the script with Alberto Bevilacqua (Black Sabbath/I Tre Volti Della Paura (1963)) and Gino De Santis (Fury of Achilles/L'ira di Achille (1962)), and with Piero Monviso (Red Lips/Labbra Rosse (1960), second assistant director) contributing story elements.
What keeps Atom Age Vampire from totally failing is the dark fear of the atom age, which shines through it and remains fascinating, and also that it does have a fairly good ending, which I won't spoil here. Still, Atom Age Vampire is a terrible film.

Listen to the theme from the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 90 mil. Italian Lira (Italy only)
= Unknown
[Atom Age Vampire opened 16 August (Italy) and runs 105 minutes; there are truncated versions of the film; the release outside of Italy was 89 minutes, and there is also a 69 minute version in rotation. Majano only directed one more theatrical feature before committing himself exclusively to TV: The Corsican Brothers/I Fratelli Corsi (1961). Loret returned in The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete/Teseo contro il Minotauro (1960), Alberto Lupo (Blood Feud/Il Sicario (1961)) in Anna Christie (1960, TV movie) and theatrically also in The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete. 1,170 IMDb-users have given Atom Age Vampire an average rating of 3.7/10.]

What do you think of Atom Age Vampire?