The Hills Run Red (2009)

Director: Dave Parker
Cast:
Sophie Monk/Alexa Concannon
Tad Hilgenbrink/Tyler
Janet Montgomery/Serina
Alex Wyndham/Lalo
William Sadler/Wilson Wyler Concannon

PLOT:
Tyler is a horror movie obsessed geek who is out to find the legendary film The Hills Run Red which has only been seen once by public. It was deemed as too scary and gory. He finds the director’s daughter, and they, along with Tyler’s girlfriend, Serina and best friend Lalo set out to find the lost film. But what the quartet finds is much worse. The movie is NOT done being finished.

BREAKDOWN:
Color me surprised! I saw the movie, thinking it would be good, but nothing more than just good or okay. I actually LOVED it! The movie is definitely one of my favorite movies of 2009 thus far. The film had a brutal edge that is missing from most movies these days. Thankfully the film lived up to its R-rating. Usually when a movie is gory, it isn’t scary. Sometimes it feels like a movie can be one or the other, but never both. Obviously there are exceptions (like Inside or Haute Tension…both French films) but this film…shows you that it can be both. This is one of those exceptions. The movie was really suspenseful in places and put out some NICE gory death scenes, my favorite being the tree scene. You’ll know it when you see it. I knew from the opening scene, that this film would be different.
The movie isn’t just good death scenes though; the characters themselves were developed and likable. I actually felt myself rooting for them. But they weren’t perfect and moral and did all the right things. They were flawed people who did bad things. Sometimes they were even a bit selfish or oblivious. But the flaws made me care for them, because it made them more realistic and relatable. I especially related to the character of Tyler. He’s a horror obsessed geek who would do anything for the sake of a horror film. I grew up LOVING horror films. I didn’t grow up on Disney like most kids. I grew up watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street…all the originals of course. So I saw a lot of me in Tyler. I would do anything for a horror film. I don’t know if I would be quite as oblivious as he was though. His girlfriend, Serina, ends up becoming a different kind of heroine. She isn’t perfect. She’s immoral and makes mistakes like any other human being. She isn’t completely behind Tyler’s search for the film and isn’t always trying to help others. The friend Lalo was okay. He was the most boring of the group. I liked him though. He seemed like a chill dude, and he got me to crack a few smiles. The character that blew me away though would be Alexa, who was brilliantly played by Sophie Monk. The character had so many facets and I never knew where they were going with her. It was nice to be surprised in a horror film for once.
Acting wise, EVERYONE was on the ball. Sophie Monk stole the show though. Her character had so many facets, and she hit every single one of them. She was sexy, bad, vulnerable, sweet, and so much more. This girl was amazing. William Sadler, in his limited screen time was amazing and really rocked. The other three were great and did what they had to do. Hilgenbrink was great as Tyler and was pretty cute to boot. Call me boy… ;-) Wyndham as Lalo did good, but Montgomery as Serina was amazing. Yes all she really had to do was run and scream, but she really seemed to be terrified. Her screaming was almost heartbreaking; she really put everything she had into this role.
The directing and soundtrack was great. They really pulled me into the movie more than it could have. Parker even milked a lot of suspense and scares out of his film. Great job man! Kudos!
This movie could be considered “torture-porn” but it is so much more than that. It is a great film. It reminds me more of a slasher film, with torture in it. It even has a bit of an 80’s feel to it, a GREAT time for horror.
Onto Babyface though. We have Freddy, Michael, and Jason. Let’s add Babyface to the list. He was one BADASS killer. He wears a Babyface mask sewn onto his face and a bright red jacket and wears a necklace with a rattle tied around his neck. It is his death rattle. He is a killer to be afraid of. He scared the shit out of me and was a big part of what made the movie worked.
The whole film side of the movie was great. It was a nice twist and made it seem even more fucked up then what it was.
Any flaws? Yeah, I have a few. One of my bigger flaws, was that as awesome as the gore was, the blood was a little to CGI in places. The scenes with practical gore were the best. Personally practical effects are the ONLY way to go. I despise CGI. I also think the gore didn’t go as far as it could have, but I’ll let that slide. I heard more than ten minutes were chopped off the movie.
As likable and flawed as the characters were, they did to some selfish moves that had me almost not like them in places. One scene in particular is when one character gets attacked and their friends says fuck it and goes to run for it. These are supposed to be a close group of friends…but in real life, who knows what we would do? This is probably more realistic...but still I feel like they could've fixed the characters...
This leads me to my biggest flaw of the movie. The first half or 3/4 of the film was amazing...when it was just being a plain old slasher film. It was clever, fun, and even creepy. But then the last block hit and the movie lost me here. It became torture porn and...I'm not a torture fan. I don't mind some of it in my horror films...but when it comes down to it, it never scared me. I'm not a Saw fan...and I thought Hostel was okay...but I prefer slasher films. So the last half hour became just kind of boring and ridiculous to me.
These few flaws didn’t tarnish a thing. It is still a strong scary and gory film that knows what it is. It provided some new twists to the genre that is getting old…and is NOT a remake which is good in my books. This film should have gotten a theatrical release!

OVERALL GRADE: 8/10