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'The Hills Have Eyes': More laughs than chills

The latest in a mixed run of films remaking well-known horror flicks, "The Hills Have Eyes" offers a more plausible origin for its villains (they're mutants created by nuclear testing, not merely outcasts from "Deliverance") and a group of protagonists so unappealing you can't decide who should die first.

Fox Searchlight Pictures 'The Hills Have Eyes' 2 out of 5 stars Director: Alexandre Aja Starring: Aaron Stanford, Ted Levine, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie De Ravin Run time: 107 minutes Release date: March 10, 2000 Rating: R for strong gruesome violence and terror throughout, and for language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'The Hills Have Eyes'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Sadly, the most appealing actor is the first to go — just one way in which the film's structure fails to please. Soon we're left with three family members stranded in a bombed-out New Mexico wasteland.

The clan of mutants hunting these three sports some exciting deformities and a taste for really gruesome violence. "Eyes" is clearly as influenced by the no-holding-back aesthetic of "Saw" as it is by Wes Craven's original film.

On a small scale (as when a row of spikes booby-trapping a dirt road accidentally impales a lizard) this bloodthirstiness is clever; when it extends to rape and cannibalism, it makes the tale a little harder to find humorous.

Which is too bad, because unintentional comic value is this remake's biggest asset. The film performs passably until our six travelers (not counting the infant who exists only so the bad guys can kidnap her) are whittled to three; those who remain are so inept the audience turns on them immediately.

The filmmakers might not realize this — by the climax, we laugh even more when the camera and soundtrack frame these doofuses as giant-slaying heroes — but camp goofiness is the main, albeit slight, reason to keep our eyes on the action in these hills.