Hammy house of horror

Based on Wes Craven's 1977 film of the same title and produced by the master himself, Alexandre Aja's movie has the bad taste to present us, before starting its story, with pictures of those affected by atomic radiation. It is bad taste simply because the following story is a hopelessly melodramatic horror.

An ordinary family on holiday in the beautiful wastes of what looks like the Mojave Desert find themselves faced with a posse of mutants - the result of atomic experiments in the Fifties. The mutants grunt and groan and scream blue murder as they eat the family's dog, rape the women and generally behave like the ghouls in most good horror movies do.

Thumping music illustrates the worst excesses as if the director wasn't quite up to producing the required frisson without it. The script is basic and the acting only just passes muster. Aja can't even make much of the moment when one of the survivors walks into the makeshift town filled with dummy people left behind by the authorities after testing atomic weapons.

The whole becomes increasingly like Grand Guignol, spattered with gore but hardly with intelligence. Still, I predict a minor hit for those who can suffer this sort of thing better than I.

The Hills Have Eyes
Cert: 18