Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Wes Craven's 1977 horror film tells about a family heading to California, but have car trouble somewhere in the desert. Soon, they become terrorized by a family of brutal cannibals dwelling in the hills. Dee Wallace (The Howling, E.T.) is also featured in this. This isn't bad, except for some of the acting, but I like the settings and the score is eerie. I'd check this out at least once, especially if you're a fan of the late, Craven.

On a road-trip through the New Mexico desert, a family stranded in the area finds that a group of inbred, cannibalistic hillbillies have targeted the group and are set on killing them for food, forcing the family into a desperate race to stop them and get away alive.This here was quite the fun if slightly flawed effort. When this one works, it's mainly due to the fact that there's quite an effective atmosphere here of being out alone in the wilderness. The film does an incredible job in the first half of depicting the desert of this one as creepy and chilling which really makes it so that being trapped on an open road in the middle of nowhere is a pretty terrifying ordeal and forces the ultimate traveling nightmare. The darkness that surrounds the family is terrifying, as anyone or anything can hide in there, and this film provides that fear in spades as tons of times we see or hear all these sights and sounds that would terrify any sane person. That gets exemplified best in the one scene of the characters run down the highway in the dark as these crazy laughs were heard echoing alongside him, a pretty terrifying ordeal, and it only gets better from there. That comes from the rather impressive event that kick-starts the film into overdrive which is the main assault on the van as the family gets into attacking the trapped members during an insanely fun ploy here, as the mounting tension plays into the initial first trap before the charge into the van and all the battles to confront them attempting to escape as well as one of the most horrendous acts ever committed to screen, and the audacity to pull it off and make it as striking as it is a huge testament to do something like that. By subjecting us to this scene, it works to keep the audience on the edge because now we don't know what else will be thrown at us and become anxious as the waiting game begins. The best part is the events that follow as the film is all action featuring plenty of solid action as the brutal encounters offer a lot of great moments. Also great is the family has a creepy air around them that makes us all become scared of them, and along with their great behavior patterns are the best parts. It doesn't have too many flaws here as the main issue is the illogical manner of getting them on the shortcut which really makes no sense and features plenty of stupid character decisions to move them along. There's also the manner of the rather sloppier effects for the gore and kills which does take away a bit of their effectiveness. Otherwise, this is quite an enjoyable effort.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, attempted rape, violence-against-animals and children-in-jeopardy.

Unusually, this is one film that I ended up watching long after I've already seen the remake; I always try to see the original films first but this Wes Craven chiller slipped me by. Sadly, I was left feeling disappointed and let down once it was over, mainly because the remake is, surprisingly, superior in every way: the actors are better, the gore better, the direction better, and the music better. The remake also sticks VERY closely to the plot of this film, so all of the surprises and twists were well choreographed in advance and there was little to intrigue me here.For a '70s horror film, it's not a bad effort: there are some good chills and the film makes a horror star out of Michael Berryman, the bald bad guy who traded on his appearance here for the rest of his career. The problem is that the low budget hurts the proceedings somewhat, with the rest of the cannibal family resembling hippies rather than mutants. Despite the savagery of their actions, they end up laughable instead of frightening. Another problem is Craven's direction – it feels insipid rather than inspired and in light of Alexandre Aja's excellent job on the remake, I can't help but feel it's lacking. Some of the cast don't help, with Susan Lanier standing out as one of the most irritating screamers in horror history (the dog's great, though). Back in the day, THE HILLS HAVE EYES was a shocking and depraved horror flick; today it's a dated intrigue that doesn't stand up alongside fellow '70s movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It's okay but I'd recommend the remake over this any day.

Wes Craven is, to me, probably the greatest director of horror ever. The volume of work that he's been able to produce, combined with the fact that he's been able to do quality work decade after decade puts him above just about anyone, in my book. He was at the absolute height of his powers here as he was releasing classic after classic and this movie is no exception.The film shares a lot of thematic similarity to his previous movie LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. In both movies you have the idea of a group of savage villains with no redeeming qualities at all laying siege to wholesome family types. The conflict between that ultimate good and ultimate evil sets up the reveal that no one is all good and even the most pure can be pushed to savagery in the wrong conditions. These elements are put to much further extreme in LAST HOUSE and toned down (some) in this movie, yet are still there for sure. Some would expound that this comes from the recent events in Vietnam and the atrocities that our soldiers were forced to witness (and participate in), though only Craven could tell you for sure if this is intentional. .In Craven's own words he had been highly influenced by Texas CHAINSAW a few years prior. So the end result is the themes of LAST HOUSE mixed with the messed up cannibal clans of TCM and you get this instant classic. It's depraved and sadistic and violent and no one escapes from the movie unscathed and unchanged. It's also a masterwork in atmosphere. Long before the cannibals ever show their faces, Craven has established an unsettling feeling using the harsh desert as his canvas. Even if you knew nothing of the movie going into it and knew nothing of what was going to happen, you immediately get the sense that this night is not going to go well for the family.There are certainly a lot of taboos here, with Craven willing to kill dogs, kidnap babies, rape young women, burn old men and touch on incest along the way, as well. Yet, despite its' reputation, there is also some amount of reservation, as well. He could have pushed things much further and many of its' legion of imitators have done that and more. It's certainly exploitative without ever feeling trashy.It has, maybe, not aged as well as some of its' contemporaries like TCM and HALLOWEEN and doesn't always share the same legendary status that it once did with those movies, but make no mistake. This is one of the best horror movies the 70s had to offer.