It could largely be due to the fact that I’m pretty jaded to gore these days. If there is a balance between gore and, say, character, I tend to not notice the gore. If there is a lack of the latter, the gore is the only thing that stands out to me. For Hills it was the characters and story, the chop was just a perfect bonus.

Damn do I love that trailer invasion sequence.

I don’t think either of the friends in question saw [i]The Descent[/i].

For the original remake, Craven basically just handed off the project because he trusted the duo behind it completely. He hand picked them after seeing a cut of Haute Tension even before its release. And I think he couldn’t have possibly picked any better.

The Hills Have Eyes is fantastic. Ask your friends what they thought of The Descent, if they say they loved it, but they still hated The Hills Have Eyes, then they’re nuts. Actually, scratch that, anyone who says Hills is terrible is nuts, regardless of anything else they like.

And they’re dead to me. And by association you, too. I’m talking to a ghost.

That said, it has a new writer and director, with some indications (I think…) that Craven might be more involved this time. In other words: this one might be pretty good.

If nothing else, that’s one of the best damn teasers I’ve ever seen.