"This is our favorite slasher flick of the year."
Cast Members of Note- The awesomeness of William Sadler, and the hotness of Sophie Monk and Janet Montgomery.
The movie begins with a kid cutting his face off with a pair of scissors, and all the while some creepy chick is singing Hush, Little Baby. He does so, slowly, without screaming or showing any sort of pain, and then screams at his faceless self in the mirror. I will never listen to than song again now. Not ever!
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| This is way less Emo than cutting. |
Flash forward... Tyler is obsessed with the legend of a movie called The Hills Run Red, and he will do anything to discover the truth behind the dark film. While his whore girlfriend is screwing his d-bag best friend, he sets off to rescue a stripper from her whore life, get her off of drugs, and takes her into the woods to "make a movie." Or is it to search for the director of the mysterious The Hills Run Red? Why not make it both? She's a stripper after all, like she's gonna say no?
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| Then again if she does say no, don't push her. She has a knife. |
It's not long before their film study trip into the woods turns into a fight for survival, because the star of the movie within the movie, Babyface, shows up and starts ripping everyone to shreds. It's important to note here that I'm not talking about Babyface, the sexy, smooth R&B Singer who gave us such soulful hits as "When will I see you again,"
but the grown up version of the sick kid that cut his own face off at the beginning of the movie. He's not so sexy or smooth, and I don't think he can sing.
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| I would love to see him show up on American Idol though. I'd vote for him. |
I won't spoil what happens next here, because why ruin the twist? Suffice it to say though that Babyface is a creepy bastard who unleashes a special kind of mayhem on everyone who dares to seek him out... and the hills run red with blood! See how I made that last line jibe with the title? Yep, I'm clever like that.
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| Stop whining, it's only a ball gag for Pete's sake. |
This is my favorite slasher movie of the year. I don't know what it was, but everything about this movie worked for me; the atmosphere, the quick cut flashback scene editing, the gore, the acting... and especially the killer. Some of it looks a bit cheap at times, but for the most part it does its job admirably.
Babyface
makes for an awesome movie maniac. An icon even. I think it's the mask that does it for me, or the way he just kills at will, but he just oozes terror and coolness. There's a scene towards the end where he actually gave us chills... I'll say no more on it other than it is one of our favorite moments in any Horror movie we've seen this year. Great stuff. Absolutely great.
William Sadler is awesome as always in this one. We've loved that guy ever since seeing him in Trespass and Demon Knight back in the day, as he is truly a great character guy. Also, I was surprised at how good Sophie Monk was in this; she's obviously hot, but she can act too. Who knew she could act?
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| Those lips rival even those of Angelina Jolie's. That's right, I said it. |
I'd kinda like to see the movie of The Hills Run Red that played within the actual movie... in theory. Sure there are hundreds of reels to it, and it wasn't really "a movie" per se, but it looked as if the old footage could be as good as the movie I watched. Maybe you piece it together and give us a sequel, Dave Parker?
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| Whatever. Here's Sophie Monk. |
The very end was a bit cheesy. It also left me with a question or two, which leads me to believe that the DVD I watched is a cut version. Rumors of 10 "intense" minutes being cut from the film are floating around, and if true, I'd love to see them. Especially if they're gory.
The filmmakers didn't shy away from the blood and gore in this one, and some of it is even pretty clever.
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| She's hiding in a barrel full of blood and rendered human gristle... now that's survival instinct! |
This one has all kinds of boobs, butts and sex in it. Also, looking at Sophie Monk is extremely easy to do, especially when she's stripping on a pole or rolling around on a bed all naked-like. Then again, her face alone is quite captivating, so I see the boobs a a sort of bonus.
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| She's a bonus from head to toe, really. |
"You can keep singing, if it makes you feel better." that's one of the best, most effective lines I've ever seen in a Horror flick.
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| Okay, you are seriously skeeving me out. |
All Horror Filmmakers are insane. Also, do not ever underestimate a mother's love.
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| Also, Sophie Monk! |
The Hills Run Red is a kick-ass little slasher flick, on par with this year's other kick-ass slasher flick,
Laid to Rest. I actually liked
Hills a bit more, though both were great in their own ways. An awesome new killer has emerged on the
Horror scene, and I really hope we get to see more of
Babyface's exploits in the future.
Bloody, creepy, and a really fun movie overall,
The Hills Run Red is one that you definitely need to see this
October. Check it out.
B+
The Hills Run Red is available now on DVD and VOD.
Sophie Monk has some amazing ____& ____ (Lips? Eyes? Boobs? You fill in the blanks.)
*My answer is acting talents...
Sophie Monk has some amazing acting talents. Big, wonderful, acting talents.
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Babyface kinda looks like the slasher from Dark Ride.
ReplyDeleteWell that movie was JUST AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your great reviews, they always get me into watching something good! =]
Keep it up!
Vanessa from Berlin
Email: schnessi13@yahoo.de
You know I've never watched Dark Ride...
ReplyDeleteAnd Wie Heist Du Vanessa! Ich spreche kleine deutsch. Meine Grossvater would kill me because I don't speak it better :)
i think it's a decent slasher, but that's it, it was good, but it didn't fullfiled my expectations. it was just ok. the gore was fine but too much CGI, the acting sucked, but babyface is a great character, and the line u mention in this review was so badass. anyways, great review!! keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteGonna check this out on the strength of the hotness of the actresses in this one :P
ReplyDeleteThe review suffers a bit from its comparison to Laid To Rest, one of the most laughable disasters ever burned onto celluloid.
ReplyDeleteHopefully THRR is more than "slightly" better.
You have to keep in mind though, or at least I try to, that movies like this are what they are and usually no more, which makes them enjoyable in their own way in a lot of cases.
ReplyDeleteSome people praise Laid to Rest to high heaven... I just thought it was mostly fun.
Well, believe me I understand that, like you I watch a minimum of 31 horror movies every October (at 27 right now), and I've had to put up with a lot of the usual horror BS.
ReplyDeleteI can usually accept it without a blink.
But LtR was an exception. I've never seen such ridiculous behavior in a horror movie, not even Hell Night.
I reviewed this in my Horror thread on rottentomatoes, and basically I said, there's a lot of good footage here and a great killer, but it's just too stupid to be passable.
Give me the existing footage and the actors back for 5 days and I can make it an amazing horror movie, but about 30% of it has to go.
Sry, I should probably be posting this under the LtR review.
just finished it
ReplyDeletei really liked the movie but ending wasn't the greatest but you know nothing can be perfect
Babyface was a great character
and that girl was really hot
which is what in the end makes the movie
"You can keep singing, if it makes you feel better." Actually, when he talked in his "educated" voice is the best part because it was was so unexpected. I like it overall. So, I guess I shall agreed the DVD version is cut, because I felt we could get more than this.
ReplyDeleteSo, I just found out this:
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the version that is available is a heavily cut one. These are excerpts from an interview with Dave Parker and producer Robert Burnet conducted by Dread Central’s Heather Wixson:
“There is an uncut version but it probably won’t get released because it does mix sex and violence,” explained Parker. “The original version more than pushed the boundaries. Let’s just say there was a character that was Concannon’s wife, and we had to cut her out of the film because he ultimately kills her while having sex with her. A lot of the cut scenes are on the level of where the European horror films are these days.”
“Schow doesn’t flinch from the dark side of humanity in this script or in anything he does. I mean, there is an incestuous relationship in the film which is hard enough to feature as a storyline. The scenes that were cut were honestly beyond the pale. Our on-set doctor walked off the set in disgust at one point.”
“The rape scene was honestly hard to shoot and even harder for Janet (Montgomery), but she was a trooper through the whole process,” explained Parker. “For me, this was a guy in a mask so the rape has an otherworldly aspect to it. Even though it’s nasty and takes the film to a darker level, I still think there’s a fantasy aspect to it so I don’t think it goes too far. If we went farther in showing what happened (the movie ultimately cuts away from the act itself), I still wonder if it would it have been too much for audiences.”
Now, I want it so bad. Doesn't it feel ironic that makes me sounds like Tyler himself?
Yeah, that always sucks when they do that. Hills Run Red was a really cool movie, but I agree, seeing all of those deletes sequences would have made it even better.
DeleteWith all of the explicit garbage that does get released, what would it hurt?
I'd easily give this a solid four ghouls. But, because of the cut reason that I felt we supposed to get more than this, I give it merely three and a half ghouls. Unrated director's cut, pleaseee!
ReplyDelete