Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected Nov. 9 for the release of a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack edition of writer/director Wes Craven’s 1977 horror masterpiece, The Hills Have Eyes.
This is a new 4K film restoration featuring both the original and alternate ending to the film.
In 1972, Wes Craven burst upon the indie filmmaking scene with the landmark horror film, The Last House on the Left. Craven then set about to write his next film, which was to take place in the same general area as The Last House on the Left, but in a moment of inspiration the filming was moved to the Mojave Desert in California.
The setting was perfect for a story that begins with a family on vacation in their station wagon, with a trailer in tow, who stop by Fred’s Oasis and get an ominous warning from Grandpa Fred to not go wandering around looking for an abandon silver mine that they say they have inherited. The warning is not heeded.
The Carters are not a bunch of inept tourists, which makes what follows a much sharper story than just an assembled “victim pool” and a slaughtering of the helpless.
Big Bob Carter (Russ Grieve — Foxy Brown, Dogs) is a retired cop, he has two German Shepherds, guns, a wife (Virginia Vincent), an adult son, Bobby (Robert Houston), two daughters, Brenda (Susan Lanier) and Lynne (played by Dee Wallace, whose only other screen credit at the time was a small part in The Stepford Wives … The Howling, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Cujo and more would follow) and Lynne’s husband, Doug (Martin Speer), as their family-on-vacation group.
It’s only when their car breaks down and they are separated — in search of help — that they become vulnerable to the inbred cannibal family headed by Papa Juniper (James Whitmorth — Terminal Island). Ruby (Janus Blythe), Mercury (Peter Locke), Mars (Lance Gordon) and Pluto (Michael Berryman — One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Deadly Blessing, The Devil's Rejects, etc.) are, in effect, the “other team” in this life and death contest in the desert. Brilliant!!
Bonus features include three vintage commentary options. One with writer/director Wes Craven and producer Peter Locke, the second feature cast members Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Susan Lanier and Martin Speer, and the third with author Mikel J. Koven (“Film, Folklore, Urban Legends”).
Also included here is the feature-length making-of documentary, Looking Back on The Hills Have Eyes, outtakes and two featurettes — “Family Business” and “The Desert Sessions.”
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