The Hills Run Red (2009)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Dave Parker

Writers:

John Carchietta (story)
John Dombrow (written by)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

A group of young horror fans go searching for a film that mysteriously vanished years ago but instead find that the demented killer from the movie is real, and he's thrilled to meet fans who will die gruesomely for his art. |

Plot Keywords:

Blood Splatter | Torn In Half | Masked Killer | Barbed Wire | Plead For Help

Cast

William Sadler	...	Concannon
Sophie Monk	...	Alexa
Janet Montgomery	...	Serina
Tad Hilgenbrink	...	Tyler (as Tad Hilgenbrinck)
Mike Straub	...	Gabe
Alex Wyndham	...	Lalo
Itai Diakov	...	Young Babyface
Raicho Vasilev	...	Babyface actor
Ewan Bailey	...	Sonny
Danko Jordanov	...	Actor Babyface (as Danko Iordanov)
Ekaterina Temelkova	...	Sherri
Ithai Dyakov	...	Teen Babyface
Hristo Mitzkov	...	Jimbo
Petya Ivanova	...	Alexa, age 5
Elene Mshvidobadze	...	Alexa, age 10
Georgi Dimitrov-Bomba	...	Lance

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and torture, grisly images, sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:R (2009) | New Zealand:R18 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Sofia, Bulgaria

Company:

Dark Castle Entertainment

Movie Connections:

References FeardotCom (2002)

Surprisingly Entertaining

Going by the DVD cover and title alone, The Hills Run Red looks like it's just capitalizing on the success of The Hills Have Eyes remake from 2006. So going into the film, that's pretty much what I was expecting. Since it's a horror film that was released straight to DVD, expectations should never be high since they're usually released that way for a reason. Surprisingly though, that wasn't the case this time around as this turned out to be a pretty solid little horror flick. The film winds up bearing little resemblance to the Alexandre Aja directed The Hills Have Eyes as it delivers a fairly original concept and a satisfying experience overall.

The film will pretty much reel any horror fan in with the opening sequence as the atmosphere for the film is set up early on and doesn't shy away from blood and gore. Lack of nudity and sexual content isn't an issue either as there is plenty of that to go around. With all that in mind, this pretty much has everything any horror fan could ask for already: lots of blood and tons of T&A. The acting is also a bar above what you're probably expecting for a release like this. To be honest, it's pretty decent and there really isn't much to complain about in that department. Although, I do think William Sadler steals the show but he's also probably the only recognizable actor in the film. Babyface actually turned out to be quite sadistic and better than his origin let on. When you're shown how he got his name and who he really is, it's kind of lame at first. The concept eventually grows on you though and is pretty original as far as serial killers from slasher films go.

If you ever saw Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, one of its peaks was that it not only pointed out cliché moments in other horror films and dissected them but also wound up breaking most of them while going in a different direction. The Hills Run Red touches on this a bit, as well. Some examples are cell phones actually work out in secluded areas, a gun is brought just in case they run into trouble, and flares are brought in case flashlights don't work. Horror movies need to be as fresh as possible as it seems like just about everything has been done, which is probably one of the reasons remakes are so popular right now. It's just refreshing to see a movie not follow the same generic formula.

You can't always rely on your first impression as The Hills Run Red seemed like nothing more than a copycat horror film that was rushed straight to DVD. In all actuality, however, it turns out to be a sexy, blood-splattering wet dream for horror fans with a better than expected storyline, above par acting, and what could be a new face in the horror franchise. If you like films like this, give this one a go. You may be pleasantly surprised and be sure to catch the extra scene in the middle of the credits at the end.