| Review:
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The Hills Run Red is the latest in a long, ever-growing
line of docu-horror films. The film follows a documentary
filmmaker on a hunt for a legendary, missing film. But as
is often the case in horror films, nothing goes as planned
and he and company soon find themselves in over their heads
with a threat looming over their shoulders. ***
The Hills Run Red is a mixed bag of a movie, and after
watching it, it isn't too hard to see why the horror genre
has lost so much of its respect. The movie attempts to be
a throwback to the numerous “slasher” horror films that
were so big in the 80s, but makes the mistake of throwing
in too many undesirable elements of the genre in modern
days. ***
When you were watching those 80s slasher films, you
enjoyed every cheesy minute of it, because the kills were
fun to watch. Even though they were the “good guys”, you
couldn't help but enjoy every cheesy, campy blood-filled
moment when a character bit the big one. Disappointingly,
this film continues the modern trend of having to make the
violence realistic. Why don't film studios see that people
once went to horror movies just to have a good time? This
is one genre I wouldn't mind returning to its campy, cheesy
days. And after watching The Hills Run Red (which ISN'T
a bad movie by any means) I just longed for the old days
even more. ---
Image And Sound:
The Hills Run Red is presented in its 2.35:1 aspect
ratio. As a movie that was shot in a “hand-held camera documentary”
style (which is becoming more and more common these days),
it's not the sort of thing that's ever going to look like
a million bucks on home video. Still, it's a good transfer
for what it is, with occasional heavy grain and motion blurring
being the biggest problems. Audio fares similarly, getting
the job done but again it isn't going to win any awards.
---
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| Special
Features: |
Not a whole lot to speak of here. We get an audio commentary,
which is a pretty boring affair for the most part, with
the crew generally giving themselves a little too much credit.
Likewise, a half-hour making-of featurette is included,
and while interesting it doesn't go quite as in depth as
you may hope. Oh well, guess these are better than a bare
bones package.
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