While celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, a couple are traveling through the desert with their 3 children, son in law and their baby granddaughter. While the rest of the family agrees there are plenty of better and more appropriate things to do to celebrate an anniversary, they make do with what they have, but things take a turn after a sketchy gas station attendant informs them about a "short cut" that will take them in between a series of hills in the desert. It doesn't take too long before they realize they're not alone and the hills indeed do have eyes.Written by
ahmetkozan
The mini-series of The Ten Commandments (2006) was being filmed in Morocco nearby. The cast and crew of both productions were all staying at the same hotel. See more »
Goofs
(at around 1h 12 mins) The clear fluid poured onto the tire changes into a cinematographic "burn gel" just before Brenda lights it. See more »
Alexandre Aja listed what had to be cut from the film to receive an R rating:
There were additional shots of Bob burning and his eyes turning white.
A close-up of Lynne being shot in the head; the muzzle-flash and the direct impact.
A more explicit shot of the gun being pointed at the baby
The rape scene with Brenda was a half a minute longer
In the finale, Doug originally shoots Lizard three times with the shotgun rather than just twice. Aja has stated that despite these cuts, the version released in theaters is still his "director's cut", but that there will be an unrated DVD with the above mentioned scenes re-instated.
Also, there was an extra cut not mentioned by Aja, but was ironically available for viewing online before the film was ever released. It is when Doug kills the "shotgun mutant" (the one with the head brace and the plaid shirt). In the online clip before the film's release, when Doug slams the pick into his eye, it was followed with a quick push-in close up on the wound. However, the CG did not look complete, but possibly because of the low quality online clip. This being said, it was uncertain if this was cut for gore (the close up on the bleeding eye) or if in fact the CG did not look realistic enough. However, it can be confirmed that the push in shot has been inserted back into the film for the unrated DVD.
I haven't seen the original, but I now want to because this movie rocked. The movie starts as a slow-boil suspense/horror movie, provides some decent jump-scares (at least in the theater) and spends some time building up character. The movie then switches gears and turns into a gritty, brutal horror movie more the likes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and further switches to gears to a action/revenge movie, but still with horror elements. It's scary, sick, nearly uncompromising (the unrated cut will undoubtedly be so) and disturbing, but also adrenaline-filled and riveting. Certainly NOT for the weak-stomached person. People were leaving the theater, and the IMDb boards are rife with people damning the movie for it's 'lack of moral substance' and 'taste'. This movie isn't for the average movie-goer. It's for the horror buffs. Alexendre Aja should be proud, and is 2-for-2 in my book having done this and High Tension.
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I haven't seen the original, but I now want to because this movie rocked. The movie starts as a slow-boil suspense/horror movie, provides some decent jump-scares (at least in the theater) and spends some time building up character. The movie then switches gears and turns into a gritty, brutal horror movie more the likes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and further switches to gears to a action/revenge movie, but still with horror elements. It's scary, sick, nearly uncompromising (the unrated cut will undoubtedly be so) and disturbing, but also adrenaline-filled and riveting. Certainly NOT for the weak-stomached person. People were leaving the theater, and the IMDb boards are rife with people damning the movie for it's 'lack of moral substance' and 'taste'. This movie isn't for the average movie-goer. It's for the horror buffs. Alexendre Aja should be proud, and is 2-for-2 in my book having done this and High Tension.