SPEAKER_03 0:04

Not gonna lie, I would probably be quite tasty.

SPEAKER_04 0:11

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. Come on in and stay a while. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, and I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac, Hola Muchachos, the Gore Lover Alexis, hey everyone, the Cowardly Creeper Ryan, and the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Hey sweets.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Come on and step right up and grab it while it's hot, folks, because we have another two-for-one deal for you this week with an old versus new episode. This time we're comparing a gritty 70s exploitation film to its remake by the same name. Now, Alexis lined this up in honor of one of the original film stars, Michael Berryman, whose birthday is coming up next week. Well, next week as this episode releases, happy birthday, Michael, you legend. Now, before we get there, we have to stop some follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

We do have to stop for some follow-up, Chris. Uh so recently we reviewed a film called Fright Night, and you know, it was a pretty mixed bag here, slash I was the only one that hacked it. But I believe that Ryan may have been on my side. Ryan, were you able to watch these?

SPEAKER_03 1:33

I haven't yet, but I have faith, Paris, that you know my hacks well enough to judge me properly. But also you like vampires.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

I know, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

Yes, okay, that is that is the one thing that is a good uh disclaimer. I do like vampires, and that's because I've seen one movie with them in it. So, and it wasn't Dracula.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

And how do you feel about Colin Farrell?

SPEAKER_03 1:54

I don't know who that is, so I feel real, real neutral.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

All right, wonderful. Well, we asked our friends on Twitter how they felt about either of these films, the 1985 version or the 2011 remake, and actually the 1985 version won by quite a bit. 71% of our viewers preferred that one to the 2011 version. We have a comment from one of our listeners, Gabriel, who said, The original is my favorite, but with that said, there is a ton of eye candy in the remake. Colin Farrell looks like a snack, and David Tennant in leather pants and eyeliner is a godsend. And I didn't even really consider David Tennant a snack until you said that, but I can see it now, Gabriel. We also have a new listener that's reached out to us on Facebook who said, I just watched Hellhouse, and oh my god, my favorite horror film is the Blair Witch Project, but this is close. And I just discovered the Hackerslash podcast. Great podcast, guys. Keep up the good work. I'm your biggest fan. Stay safe. Greetings from Holland. So shout out to our friend Patrick in Holland.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Oh, so nice to have you, Patrick. I'm so happy he's here. But I am judging him for his favorite movie being the Blair Witch Project. Just my personal feelings, you know. Seriously? You know I hate it. Horror is for everyone, girl. It is for everyone. We're for everyone.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

It is for everyone, including the makers of your favorite movie of the year so far, host, who also love the Blair Witch Project. Hey, to each his own, right? Mm-hmm. Indeed. So let's go and get on to our own for this week. This week we're taking a look at yet another brutal film that came early in Wes Craven's career and saw itself resuscitated with a rise of horror remix in the early 2000s. The story has had its layers peeled back to reveal a number of different themes. Class divides in America, outrage towards American culture and the brutality experience in the Vietnam War, or, if you squint just right, simply a modernization of Hansel and Gretel. Its remake sought to up the ante and revisited the same story with even more gore, brought to you courtesy by both Craven himself and the pair who teamed behind High Tension. At their core, these movies tell the story of a family who breaks down in the desert and shows what happens when they collide with another family who's been forced to adapt and survive there. While these films are iconic in the horror genre, we'll see how they shake out for our team. This week we're talking about both versions of The Hills Have Eyes.

SPEAKER_05 4:04

Now, who has seen either of these before? I definitely have seen uh the newer version, but I'm not the one from the 70s.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

For me, it's weird. If you would have asked me, I mean I would have bet money, literal money, that I had seen The Hills Have Eyes in 2006. But then I got into this and realized I haven't, and I think I had mixed it up with uh maybe wrong turn or something, because I definitely thought it was a West Virginia-based movie. Same, same, but different. Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

I've seen the 2006 a couple times, but I had never seen the 77.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

This was around the time that I was living with some of my cousins, and we all went to see the 2006 version in theaters. Uh, but the original had not seen.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

Interesting. Okay. So I saw the remake, like many of you, uh, when it was released, and spoiler alert, I absolutely hated it. Uh so much so that I'll be honest, we've been doing this show for three years. This is the first time on our podcast where I actually haven't looked forward to watching a movie for the episode. And I know that's probably sacrilegious because hey, it's Wes Craven, it's so iconic, but honestly, the remake turned me off so much that I refused to watch the original. Despite many people trying to persuade me, despite trying to be convinced, I refused until now. So we'll see how this goes. It's gonna be a ride. In terms of expectations for the original, I expected it to be really gritty and different from the remake. After experiencing the differences between the original and the remake of The Last House on the Left, Mac, I know you weren't with us for that episode. I expected the original to feel darker somehow, but not necessarily have the better performances all around. I really expected to prefer like a mix, kind of like with Last House on the Left, where you like the protagonist from the remake, but the antagonist of the original. But how about you all? What did you expect from either film?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Having seen the 2006 a couple times, I'll be honest, I didn't know that it was a remake, and maybe I should feel bad about that. But now I know. I was expecting it to be a worse movie. I was expecting to think that the 2006 was monumentally better in some way, and I was expecting that I would remember the 2006 perfectly, having seen it again several times. I was wrong in many of those things.

SPEAKER_05 6:16

That's so interesting because I feel the exact opposite. I felt like The Hills Have Eyes, Wes Craven, this 77 version was gonna be so amazing. So my expectations are like super high. And you have you have Michael Barryman, who is super famous in the horror genre. So I really thought that that was going to, I mean, pivotal movie, pivotal characters, and I just thought like it was like, okay, cool, like what is this gonna be exactly? And I was pleasantly surprised.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

I'm more on Mac's side here. Uh, having seen the remake a few times, I also did not know that it was a remake. Um, but I'm slowly learning that a lot of the movies that I watched in the 2000s were actually remakes of things that were made before I was born.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Pretty much everything.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Yeah, but as I tend to do with most films from like the 70s and 80s, I had pretty low expectations for the original. Um, what I was expecting though, most of all, was for it to be something that was really good for the time.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

For me, my expectations, uh honestly, I really expected to enjoy both of these movies. I just have this like connection, uh, again, like a bunch of us have said, to seeing so many of these remakes that I didn't know were remakes in the early or mid-2000s. So I, you know, I relate this movie to like um Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and then obviously things like Wrong Turn and like Last House on the Left, stuff like that. So I expected to really like both of these because in my head I had already seen this and it was great, but I hadn't seen it. And so uh my expectations maybe are invalid here.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

Okay, that's totally fair. I'm really curious to see how those expectations shook out. I know I'm really curious, especially for Alexis's, because I know that we had a little bit of dialogue over the last couple years about this kind of movie because she's always been suggesting it, and I've always been like, hell no, not yet. I'm not ready to cross that bridge yet.

SPEAKER_05 8:04

I've never been shut down so bad in my entire life. Like uh crazy.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

It's like you're a cat calling for this movie, and I was like, I'm gonna keep walking.

SPEAKER_05 8:12

It would be like, Oh, let's do the hell's advised. And uh, what's another choice? Maybe next year. And then this one, finally, I was like, she's like, okay, just put it in a lineup. And I was like, well, I feel bad.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

So let's talk about why. All right, because there's one thing that just can't be crossed in a horror movie for me. And we've already broken the rule this year with uh uh The Last House on the Left. This movie, as a content warning for all of you listening who haven't seen this, does feature sexual assault. And that's actually the reason why I absolutely hated the remake. I saw that in theaters and I almost wanted to walk out because it just it disgusted me. And it disgusted me because it didn't even feel like it was done in a particularly meaningful way, it was more just like exploitation for exploitation's sake. So when I was watching this again, I was thinking back to that time, and that was a challenge to like kind of get through. But I know I had to get past that at some point, and Alexis has been a trooper and sticking with it. This is the only movie I have done that for, just to just to be clear. Now, for the remake, I felt many of the same thing feelings that I did the first time around. I felt grossed out, I felt annoyed, exhausted by some of the lengths they go to in order to be pretty on the nose with things. It wasn't all bad, I will admit, but I didn't feel much beyond that. In the original, though, I felt uh tense, I felt anxious, and I actually felt more compassion for the antagonist without even being told that I should feel any amount of empathy for them. The original version I found was like relentless and it had this constant creeping toward an end result, and it felt like even though the stakes were high, the conflict wasn't insurmountable. So it felt I wouldn't say plausible, but it felt more real to me than the dramatics we get in the second movie. But how about you all?

SPEAKER_03 9:56

How did you feel while you were watching these? In the 1977 version, I felt like my ear ears were gonna bleed. Uh, because the hysterics from the women are unbearable. And I hope that Alexis was also annoyed by that because I always expect her to be on the page, the same page as me with that.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

Honestly, same.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Yeah, it it's like ruined a whole 20 minutes of a movie for me, honestly. I felt a lot of tension in the in the second one. It's so funny. I feel the opposite of what you just described about 1977 and 2006. I felt very little stressed during 1977. And I have some reasons for that, and I felt pretty concerned with uh the 2006 version, but it did go a little too far in some places and drag on a little too long in some places. It just kind of made like you could get you could get detached from it easily.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

It's interesting that you say that about the 2006 version, Ryan, because I actually felt that way about the original a lot more. There was like from the jump, it was really hard for me to get invested into it just because it was a it was a very bizarre way to start a movie and sort of introduce a story. Um, mind you, I hadn't seen the remake in some years, so I was only sort of vaguely remembering what the the sequence of events in the film was as I was watching. Um, but all throughout it, I found it pretty hard to watch at times and very easy to check out of.

SPEAKER_05 11:23

I too felt very similarly. So I did watch them in sequential order this time, so you guys would be proud. But so I had seen uh the 2006 version plenty of times, so I was actually looking for like similarities, differences. So it kind of kept me entertained in that perspective. I was like, oh, look at that nod. But it's not a nod to 2006, it's a nod to itself in that 2006 reference. So I when I watched 2006, I was highly entertained, definitely enjoyed it a lot. So even watching the 2006 for another multiple time after watching the 77 version, I still was cool to just go back and forth and see the differences. And I found it I mean it was really entertained in both of them. I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

I had a very different experience from what I was expecting to have, having not even realized there was a 77 version until this came up on the list. I was kind of expecting it to be bad, and I will say that my experience wasn't necessarily bad, but I was ready for it to end. And it seemed like it was like a three-hour movie, somehow squeezed into an hour and a half. And I think that's maybe just me. But I like slow movies, but for some reason it was a little too slow for me. The 2006 movie wasn't necessarily as slow, but my experience with that was this is not as good as I remember, and I don't think it's necessarily incredibly better than 77. I still have a preference between the two that we'll get to, but I feel like I saw the 2006 right before I watched it because I watched the 77. I feel like there was literally lines pulled from the script and just pasted into 2006. Maybe it makes sense. Maybe it's like this is the perfection of my original vision, and that I that I could respect.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Because Wes Graven is involved in the 2006 remake remake as well, so it's not just like a random person.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Yeah. Right. And so I can respect that. I feel like it's it's a much more polished version of the original movie, but you know, the 77 version was a little bit too slow for me, the 2006 version was a little bit too gruesome for me.

SPEAKER_04 13:24

Mmm. And there's your hacks. Maybe we'll see. And I'm surprised by that actually, because I feel like Mac usually trends towards my kind of preference for like the original movie. So I can agree that the the 1977 version feels slow, but it also feels like a good slow burn that's constantly moving. Whereas I feel like I don't know, there's a there gets to a certain point in the 2006 version where things just kind of fall apart and there's so many things that are happening simultaneously that it just feels a little excessive. I will admit though that I was surprised when I managed to find a few elements I did like in the remake. Some of them are visuals, very few of them are visuals, but most are in the way that the characters themselves are handled. And some, again, some of the characters, right? So it's not like I can definitively say like this one whole segment or one whole aspect of this movie is far superior to the original, but it had some nice bits and pieces. Uh I was disappointed with the direction the messaging goes, but that may be a little bit ranty. So we'll get to that in the second half. In terms of the original, because all I knew definitively was a remake, I was surprised by just how different the original feels in its story, in its cinematography, and in its I'm going to use air quotes here, and it's villains. Um it feels more like a true depiction of class divide rather than a straight up exploitation of tragic events that humans kind of go through. How about you, folks? What surprised you about the two?

SPEAKER_03 14:52

So I have two things that surprise me, and they they kind of function as disappointments, honestly. And the first is how similar, I know we just talked about this, how similar the even just like the the characters, the the plot, everything. I was so surprised how similar the 2006 version was to 1977. And I think you're right, it does, because Wes Craven is still involved, it does seem like maybe he was trying to just perfect or redo with new technology and everything his first baby. But I generally don't like that in a remake, like being so close to the first one. It wasn't quite like line for line, but like, man, there's some parts where I was like, oh, we know what's gonna happen next. And I watched them a couple days apart. And that was something, you know, I I'll be straightforward. That is definitely something that influences how I feel about these movies, is me watching both of them. Uh, because if you watch 2006 by itself, you're gonna get a different feeling than having just watched the same story with works technology. Another thing that disappointed me that I was actually really excited about and let me down is the special effects in the 1977 version. I felt like they really had a chance to have people that are different that look incredible. And to me, aside from one character, I felt like I was watching people that just like rub dirt on them or something. And I I don't know. I just really had an expectation for them to look a certain way for them to be mesmerizing in a way. Because like I love those old, like practical, I mean, I guess all makeup and stuff is practical, but those that old type of monster makeup is what I kind of expected to influence this, and it didn't for me.

SPEAKER_04 16:31

There has never been a better time for Paris to point out a bad wig.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Oh my god, you better believe the wigs are in my notes. But like you were saying, Ryan, I also watched these uh pretty close together, actually back to back last night with my boyfriend.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

God bless you. Yeah, you're bold.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Listen, I didn't quite know what I was getting into, but yeah, I was very surprised that you're right, like the sequel or the remake in 2006 was almost line for line, shot for shot, um, until it gets to a certain point where it deviates pretty considerably, um, which surprised me. And then the other surprise that I had was how I was surprised with how difficult it was for me to get my footing in the original. You know, we're introduced to like the the main family of characters, and it was maybe halfway to three quarters into the film before I realized like what everyone's relationship was to one another, like who's dating, who's related. So it was it was pretty challenging for me to kind of get a foothold, and the rest of the movie doesn't make it any easier.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

Yeah, not a great game to play. Who's who's having sex and who's related?

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

You really don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_04 17:34

If there's an appropriate movie for it to be in, it might be this one. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

But it wasn't the family you'd think.

SPEAKER_05 17:41

I definitely saw this two days, um uh two days ago. I definitely saw one yesterday and one today. So I watched mine very close together, and uh, it's funny, I have a different impression. Like, I actually like how they intertwined. Um, to me, it was a more reimagination instead of a remake. So I actually was surprised, one, like you guys, at how very similar they were, but I I did enjoy that. Um, just to go along with like the makeup. I think that's what surprised me too, is I I saw in the 2006 version these like very like, you know, I could imagine this was what happens after like a nuclear explosion, like something crazy like looking, and and I didn't get that in the first one. So I was like surprised at how like caveman they looked like, yeah, yeah. And they did rub a lot of makeup, did rub a lot of dirt as far as how they actually did it. Yeah, Wes Craven said, um, or someone on the cast had mentioned that she looked so pretty that they had to keep rubbing dirt on her face. So that's probably why.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Can you just imagine they're they're applying the dirt and they're like, no, she looks prettier.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

What's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

You have to pass past the threshold of dirt to become grosser looking.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Are you saying you like dirty women?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

No, I like freshly showered everybody, every human should be freshly showered.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

All the time?

SPEAKER_01 19:07

All of the time.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

As soon as you get out, you get back in.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, well, basically, as soon as you leave, you just start getting dirtier. So as soon as you feel that you know that certain level of dirtiness, get back in the shower. Speaking of showers, let's talk about what surprised me because showers are unsurprising. I love them, they're amazing. So the 77 version surprised me because, again, I didn't know it existed. So when I watched it, I was kind of expecting it to be an older, crappier version, effectively. I was not expecting them to be so similar. We've talked about this. It was it's pretty interesting to see though that they went that route when when doing the remake, that they wanted to really pull in as many pieces from the first one as as they could. That was that was kind of interesting. It wasn't like a shot-for-shot remake though, which was cool. I do appreciate that. After seeing the first one, uh not the first one, the original, after watching that and kind of soaking it up for a minute, I realized like while they pulled in a lot of the pieces from the script, a lot of the characters, and a lot of the scenes, some of which I would have been fine without, they did add a few new things and a few changes that I I appreciated. So that was surprising to me, the fact that while it was so close, they were able to change some some stuff up, uh, which was which was cool. I am surprised that Michael Berryman's character was shown so heavily in 77. I definitely thought they were going to use him mostly in the shadows and kind of hiding him to make him seem creepier. And we really like highlighted him, got we got to see him a ton, which was kind of cool because obviously a great actor, love weird science, but very, very interesting to me.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

See, one of the things that bothered me is like I felt like he didn't match with the rest of his family, uh like their the their aesthetic, the way they looked, the way they appeared. And it was so enjoyable to watch him, and he he was like a light of the 1977 version.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Also, he had great abs.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

You were looking at his abs, hello? I noticed the abs.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

We saw them too.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

So he has a condition called hypohydrotic ectodermal dysplasia. So hypohydrotic there sounds awful because while I hate sweating, it is really useful and good for the human body. Not everyone with this form of ectodermal dysplasia doesn't sweat, but it can reduce the amount that you do. But I I think it's kind of it's kind of interesting that he rolled with it in his career and accepted roles, because I don't think people today would be able to do that as easily in in any way, shape, or form. Being typecast kind of hurts a little bit. But to roll with that and say, okay, they want to cast me for this role, they want to cast me for that role, and then to use that to hopefully get to a better place career wise, you have to respect the hustle at the time because it was very hard to make it in Hollywood in in any you know, way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_04 21:57

I love that you specified that, Ryan. That he was the highlight of that movie because one of the things when looking at the 2006 version, A, his counterpart in the 2006 version looks like an unmasked Jason Voorhees. And looking at the way the family is treated in both films, I almost think that you'd do better with making things a little bit more menacing, keeping folks in the shadows instead of just wanting to expose the excellent makeup work that you see in the 2006 version. I feel like if you see it too much, it becomes a little bit numb, right? It's a little like desensitizing almost. Looking at the fear factor that these characters bring, looking at how frightening they can be. This movie didn't scare me. It's not gonna make me reconsider any road trips. It's disgusting though. It's really gross. And I'm not even referring to the biological condition or the the uh effectiveness of the makeup and effects, but rather the approach it takes to vilifying the folks in the hills. I've never been a fan of movies like this or the idea of air quotes deformed backwoods hillbillies preying on the innocent. Like you see that in wrong turn in every movie in that franchise they're after. And I think Tuckerendale versus Evil kind of counteracts that, right? So it takes like these two guys who are just trying to have a nice time in the woods, and everybody assumes they're something totally different. And realistically, like there are families who are, you know, uh products of inbreeding, and oftentimes they need support. And I think I'm just at the point in my life where I don't feel like the human struggle is ripe for a joke or worthy of vilification anymore. But how about you guys? What scared you, or did either of movies scare you?

SPEAKER_02 23:43

I was definitely scared by the uh remake when I saw it in theaters and the few times I saw it afterwards throughout my teens. The original, however, did not scare me whatsoever. I felt like they could have used a lot more like darkness and shadow, which could have been more effective in scaring me. Um but now hearing you say this, Chris, I too am here to advocate for the destigmatization of hill people.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Is this a platform?

SPEAKER_02 24:05

It is now.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Shout out to all of our listeners that live in some hills, because you are now hill people.

SPEAKER_05 24:10

Yeah, if it was a little bit if it could have been a lot more menacing in the 77 version. Um, and I think I got the you know, when they're talking on the the heads, the headphones, the uh the radio. Sorry, I'd never seen one of this before in my entire life. What are those things? Girl, you watch stranger things. Oh, yeah, that's true. Same, same. Same, same, old same, yeah. Just big.

SPEAKER_04 24:33

Same, same, different color. That's it.

SPEAKER_05 24:35

It's the same thing. So it was I I just thought I was like, okay, what are they like playing a game and their voices? So I was not scared at all. But let me tell you, I myself, just like Paris, was so scared watching this in theaters, but clearly not scared enough because I watched number two in a theater by myself. It was the only time I could watch it. Like I was working during the day. I was like, oh, I've been wanting to see this movie so bad. No one wants to go, because not many of my friends like horror movies, so I'm gonna go by myself. But this is terrifying.

SPEAKER_04 25:07

Classic Alexis, strong, powerful woman, take herself on a date to see some torture porn. That's what that's what she does.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

I was just about to say it. You got it before me.

SPEAKER_05 25:16

This was me in my early teens, though. Right now, I will get I would get scared. I would, I my imagination would be running. I would be like, there's someone down there, but I would still like be like, please someone watch it with me. But yeah, this was really this was scary at the time, and I kind of lost that momentum because I've seen it so many times. Um, and just that like scare factor for me. But I definitely like, and we can talk about it in the gore, but like some of the looks of these um mutants are like kind of bizarre and crazy, and I think that's what keeps me up at night sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

Lexus doesn't sleep much, too many horror movies, pretty much. I r I really wasn't scared. I think these are not like the these don't instill that like realistic fear. I mean, there's some realistic, fearful things that happen in this movie, in both of these movies, but it doesn't, you know, I'm not worried about going on a road trip. Although I haven't driven through a desert before, so maybe I'll feel differently if I try that. But there's definitely some tension in the second one, and again, this is a thing I I feel like the tension is partially ruined for me because I just saw the same story from the 1977 version. So I I think I can uh I can see the tension more than I felt it for what other people would feel if they were just watching the 2006 version. 1977 wasn't scary, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Correct, it was not scary, and neither was the 2006. For me at least, neither of these was very scary. I just don't feel that this is a threat that I should be concerned with. And I've driven through some country roads in the southeast before. Mostly the the horror that you might imagine is running out of gas in the middle of nowhere. Then again, there's not many gas stations in big cities either, which I always found strange.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

We have a similar issue here at the ocean front. Actually, yeah, you have a good point. In downtown, you just can't get gas. Stresses me out.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Right. So if you are like riding around in a manual transmission, it's horrifying already. If you don't get good gas mileage because you have an older car, maybe I'm just scared of repeating my trip to New York when I was driving a uh late 90s sob. Maybe that's what I'm really afraid of. Running out of gas and not being able to drive.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

I am an expert at driving my tank on empty.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Well, you shouldn't get that close.

SPEAKER_04 27:20

Like I know exactly how many miles I can go before I actually need to put gas in.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

It's not that good for your car to scrape the bottom of the barrel. You need to, as soon as you hit that halfway mark, just think about where am I gonna get gas.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

Hey man, when you're poor, you're poor. Facts. Okay, grandpa.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

I'm not saying that's what I do. I'm just saying we should think about it because I've definitely seen that gaslight come on. I know what it's like. I'm not worried about hill people though. I don't think this is a thing, a fear that most people should have. In fact, I don't are there hill people in New Mexico? Is this a thing? It just seems like a weird setting. If we were riding around like the Appalachian mountain area, maybe that's like an appropriate term would be hillbillies, hill people, etc.

SPEAKER_05 27:59

Or if we're in Australia, clearly.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Well, Australia is a scary place. Because the real life stories there are probably scarier than the movies that they could make.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Yeah, shit's going down in Australia.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

It's kind of like Florida, except big, wide, open, and nobody ever knows that you're gone.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

It it's still like Florida. It's like Florida, but as a continent.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Bingo. And more attractive people.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

And fewer New Yorkers.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

So it's interesting that well, of course, Mac, obviously, this wouldn't scare you at all. And I think when I look at it, I think part of the reason why I didn't find it particularly frightening beyond the tension that I feel in the original version, is because it's something that you've seen before. This feels like a movie that's crossed with a bunch of other movies. And 197 the 1977 version in particular, Wes Craven actually paid a lot of homage to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I don't like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I like the remake, but something about the original just feels too dirty and sweaty and filthy and screamy to me for me to like really take it seriously. So I think when I look at this, the original does just enough to feel original, to feel different, but the remake didn't stand a chance for me at all. And I feel like the things it did do differently, it didn't do well enough or do differently enough to really cement it as an original product. But what do you guys think?

SPEAKER_03 29:21

Real quick, I just have to add, I feel like these movies smell so bad.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Since you just mentioned the dirtiness, I there's had significant amounts of thought about how these movies smell, which is strange. But to me, these are original. Uh I feel like the 1977 one, I mean, it does feel like a cross between a lot of things we've seen, but I think they mostly came afterwards. It's kind of like something that we mentioned before where you can have some of the same elements, but when they come together, they make an original movie, uh, to me. And then I felt like the 2006 one is obviously a remake, but then I really liked uh all the parts that changed towards the end that were um again another, I feel like more original, fresh stuff, uh, in some ways, not in all ways, but I I would give it those points.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

I can agree with that, Ryan. The original had a nod, like a very quick, brief uh reference to some of the stuff that the remake really dives into deeper. Um, but like you're saying, this is a lot of stuff that we have seen before. It's just kind of scrambled up and presented to us in a different way. Um, I don't think either of these movies are particularly original though, just because there's there's such a it's basically a genre now at this point. Like gross, sweaty, filthy, middle of nowhere, hill people. There's like a a a checklist that we can go through and probably pick off like 30 different horror movies that fall into it.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

But see, was it a genre at the time? That's the question, you know?

SPEAKER_02 30:55

I don't know. I was born in 1990.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

I know. I'll give the 77 original version, if you will, credit for being original. The story back then in 77, you know, when it was released, I think was probably fresh and new and different from other horror at the time. I think, however, at least when I watched it, the 2006 was able to convey more of the question of brutality when it when it was referring to the people that we consider victims. I don't think we saw that as much in the 77. I think we just saw a family kind of fighting for their own and and trying to get revenge when it was appropriate. But I think in 2006, while we have some of that, we do get some of the feeling of this family is taking things a little bit far when it comes to getting revenge and being pretty brutal about it. You know, is it are they the victims? Are the other people the victims? Is all of America the victim? I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 31:52

Everybody's dead. It's a good question. And that's where I think um the originality for me comes into play because um that struggle, those questions, that tension, um, the conflict reminds me of something similar of Last House on the Left, which came before this in the original. So I see those kind of sort of concepts just like maybe um different setting. Um, but I definitely do still think it's um original. I think the newer um version, 2006, still has its nods to um other movies. I get the same gritty film that I do from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and you know, you you dap into this like mutant nuclear energy sort of stuff, which I will admit is my favorite. Catch me on some Silent Hill, Chernobyl diaries. Like, I I don't know. Like, I'm like, oh, it's history, but it's horror.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

What about the Hulk?

SPEAKER_05 32:45

Oh god, get the F out of here.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Nuclear energy, right?

SPEAKER_05 32:49

Okay, yeah, I guess so. I meant in the horror genre.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Oh, that's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_05 32:54

That could be, though, depending on which if you're a kid watching it or not. But yeah, I definitely do think both are original.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Alexis, now that you mention it, I do feel like the uh original feels less original now that I'm realizing it's the last house on the left on wheels.

SPEAKER_04 33:09

Yep, in the desert. I love the angle you bring up, Alexis, and it's really important when you look at Wes Craven and the commentary that he tried to bring like early in his career, right? We saw that with the last house on the left, you have America as it's you know kind of emerging out of the 50s and 60s in the nuclear family, and you're expressing a lot of rage. And in this movie as well, there's a lot of rage expressed.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

And a nuclear family.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

When looking at the message that is sent, and you know, Mac, you you mentioned like who is the victim here, who was the perpetrator is all of America the victim, etc. and so on and so forth. Really, what those come down to is how they're communicated in the ending of each movie. Because the original, certainly, just like Lost House on the left, it ends you in a very like jarring place with not a lot of resolution. But the remake allows things to breathe a little bit more. The original, however, I think kind of drives home that message even better of really who is the victim and what lengths will you go to for your own survival. But how do you feel about the ending?

SPEAKER_01 34:13

I was satisfied with the ending of each film. And it's it's odd for me because I didn't expect that I would be. I didn't have the fondest of memories of the 2006. I you know, it's something I had seen and I knew what happens in the film, and I was just thinking, okay, it's just one of those mid 2000s horror movies and it's whatever. And then when we get to the ending, I feel like it was a pretty solid resolution. When watching the 77 for the first time, I've I felt the same. Like I feel like we brought it to a close in a reasonable way.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Yeah, I mean, I feel I feel cool about both the the endings. I don't feel a lot of things, but I don't have anything against them, I guess. I really did enjoy the changes that 2006 took on the wait to the end, um, but we kind of end up in a pretty similar place.

SPEAKER_05 35:01

Then I I was cool with it. To me, there's like a one main climactic part in each movie. Um, it's the same in each, and then I feel like there is this huge amount of time, and really the runtime is only 15 minutes longer for roughly for the 2006 version. But I feel like they do so it does it gives me all the feels because it adds this more element, and honestly, I think that extra 15 minutes towards the ending or wherever they wanted to put that 15 minutes, but I'm pretty sure it would be towards um your resolution really drives home some characters for me, and really like I appreciate more characters, you get more character development at 15 minutes. So I definitely enjoy the ending of the 2006 1977, it just kind of ended abrupt. I was like, oh, uh okay. Classic Craven. Yes. So I was like, all right, cool. Um, and literally that's the only thing I said, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

Yeah, I did the same thing, Alexis. I was actually pretty mad when it ended uh the original, uh, just because it was so abrupt, like it feels like you're on this roller coaster ride and then they just slam on the brakes. But after like letting it simmer for a while, and by that I mean like less than 24 hours at this point, um, I'm not as mad as I was, and it kind of uh hearing you guys talk about it, it kind of helps me to appreciate that kind of an ending more. Um it's reminded me a lot of Sleep Away Camp's ending, in that you're not expecting the film to end immediately, but it is, and you're left with a very specific image that's meant to convey some some feelings. Um the ending in the remake, however, I think I think they made a few slight changes to a couple things. Um, and I appreciate the result of those changes. I'll leave it at that.

SPEAKER_04 36:51

I think it's really interesting to look at the approach for both because it's Wes Craven having his hand and really tailoring it to the audience at the time, right? In 1977, he's trying to send a message and leave you with a feeling, whereas that's less important in the 2006 version. By that time, America has evolved from the moments of the 70s, and it's really just a completely different demographic.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

I totally agree, Chris, and that sort of would explain that having seen the remake a few times, it never occurred to me to consider the uh the who you're supposed to think of as the antagonists, to consider them um as possibly victims. Um but since then I've been able to really kind of step back and look at it and be like, oh, these really are just people at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

We're all just people doing things. And I think that's people who eat people. Yeah, you know, people's gotta eat protein at some point, unless you're a vegetarian, then you get it from other resources. But you know, hey, you do you, you eat what you want. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_05 37:53

I promise I'm not advocating cannibal cannibalism. I'm just making a point.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

You sure?

SPEAKER_05 37:57

I was gonna say, should we tell that for the people that were in the the cannibals in the walking dead? Like, uh, it's all cool.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

But there is that documentary of that plane that crashed in the Andes, and like the uh student athletes or the young athletes had to start eating the bodies of the dead to stay alive, and that's just a scary situation you don't want to be in. It's that classic icebreaker question of if we were all on Stranded Island together, who would be the first to go? I don't want to know the answer, and I don't want any of you to ask.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Oh, I was ready.

SPEAKER_04 38:24

Of course you were. Is that a classic icebreaker question?

SPEAKER_03 38:28

Yeah. Who would you eat first? Because I've been in a lot of first days, and that ain't anything I've ever answered.

SPEAKER_04 38:32

It is. Oh my gosh. The last job I had, when I took in a a leave leave of absence from my current job and I worked at another place for a little while. That was like such a popular question to ask, and I'd never understood why, but people had strategy, people had answers, and I was just not I didn't want to be a part of it. I'm concerned for them.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

Well, you have to consider like the body, and you also have to consider like the value. Like, what does someone contribute to survival and then like versus how much food will they provide?

SPEAKER_04 39:01

Not gonna lie. I would probably be quite tasty.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Uh I just watch a lot of Survivor.

SPEAKER_04 39:05

Well, I think the feelings you get from the endings, and I think the way you view the families in each are gonna contribute greatly to how this movie fares when we look at each rating, and then later on we put them head to head and when we compare the two. Now, before we get to our scoring, Alexis, for the original, what's our body count?

SPEAKER_05 39:22

We have nine deaths, and there's some halves in there for you that Ryan will elaborate on. What about the 2006 version? Baby, we got a high number at 16. I was so happy about this.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Honestly, it's like, how do you even get 16 in the same story?

SPEAKER_02 39:39

You just kill more people.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

I know, I love it. It's just the brutality. You have to have the numbers, that's how you do it. And Ryan, how about our animal report for both movies?

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Look, I'm gonna be real with y'all. Okay. I think a lot of our listeners are probably aware of this, but I'm not being a pansy when I say it's not cool. Like it's it if if you've got a soft spot for dogs, animals, pets, it's not a good move. You don't want to be a part of this. I mean, I'm not saying don't watch the movies, but just be aware that there is some brutal scenes in both of these movies. And um you just just keep your guard up, you know? I'll be your mental support.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

That's good. Thank you so much for giving our listeners that warning. I will say that at least there is a very good boy in both movies that you can root for. Oh, such a good boy. Now let's go ahead and start getting into our ratings. Let's start with the 1977 version. The Hills Have Eyes. Was it a hack or a slash?

SPEAKER_05 40:35

It was really tough for me because I will admit to our listeners, um, I watched this and then I watched uh a YouTube documentary. Well, it wasn't, it was on YouTube, but it was a documentary. So I saw these like cool things. So I was like, oh, that's interesting. But had I not watched that, I would have given this a hack. So with that said, I am giving it a hack just because that's what my feeling was coming after this movie. That's what I was gonna come to the table with. So if you ask me tomorrow and I'm done with that documentary, I might have a different answer for you. I don't know. I just wish there was more character development. I wish I had more intensity, but maybe that's because I've seen the 2006. But um, or even more brutality, like I got on in Last House on the Left. Like if I had some sort of like eeriness to make these people more spookier, I'd be scared. I'd be in this situation, I'd be more um, I feel like I would have enjoyed this a lot more. But shout out to um this family being from Cleveland. That was their hanging. That was that was a point for them.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

Yeah. This movie doesn't take place in the Midwest, but for sure 100% of the events that transpire are certainly some Midwest shit.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

Alexis, I have to stand up with you in appreciating and respecting the fact that you are rating this movie solely based on the movie itself and not allowing like supplemental materials to influence your decision. Um, because I feel like if a movie is gonna be a slash, it has to be able to stand on its own. You don't have to know the history or the backstory or the making of in order to enjoy it. Um, and this movie did not meet that at all. This is definitely a hack for me. It was painful to watch. There were a few times where I was like, is this the worst movie I've ever watched for this podcast? Um, it did not scare me. It was painfully goofy most of the time. I hated every character. I didn't like a single one of them, while they were all annoying to me. Um, there was way too much that was shown in broad daylight where I was like, is this how is how was this ever scary? Um and it felt like, having seen the remake uh previously, it felt like when you go back on like your favorite TV sitcom and you watch the pilot episode. Oh my god. Where it's like everything's like pretty much the same vibe, but like everything's kind of off and like not quite there, because they haven't found the rhythm yet. So this felt like the pilot version of The Hills Have Eyes. And if I was Wes Craven, I might wish that this was just gone from the face of the earth.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

That is a bold statement. I don't know that I wish it gone from the face of the earth, but I'm also going to hack it. The makeup was trash in the 77 version, and not just compared to 2006, but compared to makeup that existed in the 1930s, I think. It was still bad. The wardrobe that we had on our mutants or hill people or the locals in the area, I guess I'll call them, was so weird and cheap. And I don't know why they chose to do it that way. I just was not a fan. So makeup bad, wardrobe bad. Sound in this film was really painful. So however they filmed, wherever they filmed, having to re dub later on, still the dubbing was not very good. It was it was it was hard to listen to. So those three things alone, I think, earned it a hack in my book, aside from the horrible pacing. In the 2006. It's not a shorter movie, but it feels like a shorter movie, which is wild because it's longer, and this somehow feels like a longer movie because the pacing is so wicked weird. So yeah, it's a hack for me.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

So I'm going to completely agree with those points that you that you brought up here. The sound, the visuals, the pacing. I'm gonna add to that the characters, the racism. There's nothing that I enjoyed in this movie except a bit of Michael Berryman. And it didn't even come until about halfway through. And it was truly nothing. Um, and I feel like that's really harsh, but it is what it is, and it's a hack.

SPEAKER_04 44:49

Alright. So so far we have four hacks, and some of these hacks are honestly more brutal than the movie itself. So that's pretty interesting. Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Oops.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

So the original was unlike anything I expected. And need I remind you, again, I hated the remake when I first saw it, and have been avoiding this my life up until this point. I I expected sexual brutality to the degree that we got in the original Last House on the Left, because in my mind it was like, all right, West Craven, you did it once, you don't need to fucking do it again. Additionally, this is his second movie ever. His first movie was Last House on the Left. The second movie that was done technically in between this and Last House on the Left was an adult film about incest. So there you go. I expected it and it didn't happen. I expected a tasteless depiction of villains that would detract from the central theme of the movie, and that didn't happen. And some of the performances leave something to be desired, but ultimately I fully get why this movie is as highly regarded as it is, and I even felt emotional at some some spots in the right ways. And as jarring as the ending was, I loved it. I'm not a huge fan of the final message that we're left with, and we'll talk about that more in the second half when we step back and look at the whole story. But overall, it's a slash. All right, like this movie is all that I needed to see from the remake. So the remake I struggled with, and I struggled with it so much. It was exceptionally difficult to like walk into a movie I knew I hated and try to not only view it objectively as a movie again, but actively seek to assess it for like its quality as a remake when you're watching this compared to the original that came before it. And it's a movie I didn't even expect to like. There are a number of things I strongly dislike about this movie. So especially like the inciting incident that really starts the action going in the camper. And there are things I enjoyed. And I it's really hard for me to admit that, to let down my guard a little bit, be vulnerable. There are things about this movie that I like, now being 30 instead of like a teenager when it comes when it came out. I appreciated the fine touches that were applied to a few of the characters, and I liked the approach to the beginning and how it separates itself in that way. Ultimately, though, the movie falls apart for me in the third act, and there are a few too many things I disliked for it to be completely redeemed. So the remake for me is a hack. But how about you folks? The 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes when Wes Craven tried again. Was it a hacker slash?

SPEAKER_03 47:15

So I like I said, I had a bit of a hard time watching kind of the same movie, watching the 2006 version. There are some small changes, and then of course, towards the ending, we get a lot of change. And I would say this movie pretty much lost me halfway through, like right at the halfway point, when I was like, this is the same thing, and it just while it was better, I was just like, I just am so sick of seeing the same movie, and then it went towards the end that Chris hates, and I enjoyed that a lot, and it really brought me back in. There are a lot of things that are imperfect and a lot of things that are good in this movie. It it really has a lot of both, and I really struggled with what to say about it, and I considered this a slash only because it is a not a hack. I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out. Like, it's I can't hack this, it's not bad. It wasn't really my favorite movie. Like, I I I'm not like stoked I finally saw it and like loving it and you know stuff like that, but it's not a hack, contrary to Chris's belief. So that's where I'm gonna stand. I'm gonna stand with my slash, just knowing that it's a soft slash.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

Um uh mine's a full slash. Uh exactly what I expected. Um, I don't know. I just I just like this whole thing, I think it puts me in like a crazy scene. It drops me in in this place where you don't know what's going on, you have this like crazy stuff, and I don't know, I just I mean, there is one scene in particular, is really hard to watch, and it's all in this, you know, airstream. So I think I'm one claustrophobic, two, like trying to help everyone out. So I did feel for that scene, and I thought it was a little too much, but I loved the brutality in it. Um, but I also like, you know, sauce. So I love that sort of stuff, and not the when I talk about brutality, is some of the scenes where the mutants are getting killed are my favorite. Um, I like the look of the mutants in here. I think they're super creative. And if I were to think of something um similar to the opening credits when they're flashing to and from like news clips to um some things, I'm not even sure if it's real, but some of the genetic defects that come from like the atomic bomb or nuclear like energy, uh whatever that is, I'm sure Matt can tell me. But um, I like that. I like that this whole imagination, and I think they did it well. I think that part that Ryan is talking about, I love that. I love that you build, in my opinion, we can talk about it, a final guy, um, which I like seeing. I think it brings a different um perspective into this movie compared to the um 1977 version. So definitely giving this a slash.

SPEAKER_02 50:07

So going into re-watching the 2006 version, uh, I will admit this has been one of my top 10 favorite horror movies of all time. Uh now it is no longer in that top 10 uh for a few reasons. One, watching the original right before it really tainted my experience. Um, but also it hasn't aged as well as I would have hoped. Um, and there are a lot of things that didn't make me feel the way that they used to make me feel. Um, but a lot of the characters I found to be more relatable. There were actually a few characters I was rooting for in the remake. Um, and in the way that this film makes a lot of the same mistakes as the original, because for the most part it is like word for word, shot for shot, uh, it doesn't make them as badly. So there's still a lot of things in broad daylight when I feel like shadow would have been a much better uh depiction, but it's not as like obvious and blatant and over overly visible as to be goofy like it was in the first. Um, and where the film does deviate is I think where it really shines, uh, because there's a whole extra climax really packed into this film that wasn't in the original that I think really allows it to make more sense as an overall story arc. Um and specifically there's a monologue added into this movie that really explores something that was only vaguely implied in the original. Uh, so while it is no longer amongst my top 10 favorite horror movies, it is still a slash for me.

SPEAKER_04 51:42

Let's be honest, is the only reason it's not a top 10 because you discovered Sleepaway Camp and Slepaway Camp 2?

SPEAKER_02 51:47

Yeah, a lot of things bumped it down. But hey, Sleepway Camp 2, I don't know if that's top 10, top 20 for sure.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

This is also not in my top 10 or my top 20. I had memories of it as being like a pretty decent mid-2000s horror movie. Like it wasn't trash, it wasn't absolutely astounding or anything like that. After watching the 77 version, I watched this one. I gave myself a little bit of a break and then cued it up and hit play. And I also just didn't enjoy it. So I feel bad because I had better memories of it than when I watched it. I still think that it's probably better than the 77 version. I just don't think it's a slash for me after watching it. The beat you over the head with the whole nuclear effect thing was painful, and then to show pictures of children who were were experiencing issues due to Agent Orange in the intro sequence just seemed really strange to me. I'm not sure why we went the nuclear route in the 2006 when the 77 was obviously an Agent Orange kind of situation, so that part was strange. But then when we get into the movie later, we have a character give some exposition talking about the effect it had on the locals, and again just beating beating us over the head, and it was a bit too much for me. Along with the whole sexual assault thing in both films being a lot to watch on film. Not easy to watch, not as brutal as some, thankfully, but still not an enjoyable segment of the movie. But yeah, I think it was more polished. I think the audio was so much better, and I'm so appreciative of it. The makeup was far better than the 77. Obviously, how many years between the two though, so we gotta give it credit for that. The wardrobe made way more sense, so that was good. The pacing still wasn't perfect, but I want to bring out two characters from the films. So the first one, Big Bob, was horrible in the 77 version, much better in 2006, and then Doug was total trash in 2006. And I feel like there's possibly a redemption arc that we try to get to. I don't think it was actually a redemption arc, but I hated the character so much, and it was so painful in the first half of the movie to have to suffer through him.

SPEAKER_04 53:54

Toxic masculinity.

SPEAKER_01 53:55

It's it's it's a hack. That's a hack, first of all, and then this movie was also a hack.

SPEAKER_05 53:59

Damn, I thought Doug made a comeback. Fuck. I thought I gave Doug a second chance, y'all.

SPEAKER_04 54:05

We'll see, Alexis. We'll we'll talk about Doug because Doug went through hell or high hell and high water, uh, even though it was in the desert to kind of get to the point where he was at the end of that movie. But Mac makes some excellent points, and I'm glad that while I may stand alone as Soul Slash for the original 1977 The Hills Have Eyes, and he got four hex, I'm glad that he's at least on my side for the 2006 remake. Again, there's some things that I like about the remake. I no longer hate the movie. Uh, I do hate a moment in the movie, but we're gonna have some stuff to talk about. Now, you can find both of these movies online. The original 1977 version is free on Tubi. You can find the 2006 remake streaming on Cinemax if you have a subscription to that. Either way, check them both out and join us in the second half where we unpack the differences between the two. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 55:02

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SPEAKER_04 55:45

Alright, welcome back. The Hills Have Eyes from 1977 and 2006 have shared very different fates. I was the Soul Slash for the 1977 version, and while it earned four hacks, and I was also joined by Mac as the only two hacks for the 2006 version. So it seems like we know how the head-to-head comparison is gonna turn out later. Now, before we break down each film in comparison to each other, Alexis, what's up with the gore score for both films?

SPEAKER_05 56:11

Well, I can safely say that the 1977 version, OG, is um pretty low on the gore. I mean, there's some a few scenes where I'm like had to turn, but I don't think necessarily like the gore comes from and at least especially in this one. I think it's just more like you mentioned Chris, like the brutality in this is in kind of where that conversation can kind of go. But um, for the 2006 version, a hella gore, we see a blant man's head blown off, which is crazy. Yeah, so there's that gory part, and then like you you said there's like this brutality. So I think it kind of can be, I don't think they're gore and brutal. I mean, I think you could talk about them in the same sense, um, especially since that can be a reason that would turn off someone from watching this movie. So I'd love to hear your commentary on that. But slightly before that, I'd love to hear. I know that in my opinion, the deaths were kind of lame in uh OG version. So I'd love to know just in general, between the two, what everyone's favorite death was.

SPEAKER_03 57:13

Yeah, I don't have a favorite death in the 1977 version. I'm sticking to my guns that there's almost nothing I enjoyed.

SPEAKER_04 57:20

Wow. Okay. The flaming crucification of Big Bob. Like, that is an amazing death. He's burned to a crisp in both films.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

It's not my Bob. Yeah, that was that was very huge. That scene was just it just really stood out from every other death in each film.

SPEAKER_03 57:39

I'm sorry, I couldn't uh appreciate any part of it because there was a woman screaming the entire time. So saying that's not my mom. As she should be. Look, it's a movie. I needed to be less realistic as far as the screams go.

SPEAKER_01 57:52

I think for me it's a sequence of deaths, and it's the shootings that happen in the camper in each film.

SPEAKER_06 57:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 58:00

Because it's such a wild ride immediately. The pace there is so crazy fast because we're dealing with Big Bob's crucifixion and burning, and then suddenly we're just shooting members of the family and just left to deal with that all in one go, all within what, like two minutes. That was crazy for me.

SPEAKER_05 58:17

It was a really wild ride. Um, I think my death, um, out of the ones, and I'm just gonna go for um the sake of being funny. Um, because I could totally say someone's head being blown off, and normally you don't look at those, but I was like, I'm kind of curious to see how this actually works. I really like Pluto's death in the 2006 version. Um, I love how you get this dug that's just like, oh fuck, I have to kill these. I have to kill them. Possibly maybe I'm smarter than them. Um, but I'm gonna go full force. And I think like it's so intimidating having this tall person and just like it to me would be crazy. So he's at one point he's pleading, and I'm like, oh my goodness. So he's on his knees pleading, and I think it's so great because I was like, damn, this guy turned out to be a bitch. I'm done with you. Like I he really had me going for a second, and then all of a sudden, like, bam, bam, and then favorite part, American flag, okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Okay, freedom.

SPEAKER_04 59:23

So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna piss on the parade at this moment. However, once everybody goes through their desk, I do want to talk about why that was my least favorite part of the whole film. But it was pretty intense. Too on the nose for you, huh? But maybe we'll find out. Way too on the nose. The mechanics, like having like it wasn't objecting to like the the three-point kill there, like that was good, but the fact that it was the American flag was too much, but we'll get there.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

I will go on record as saying, uh, even though I enjoyed the 2006 version far more, my favorite kill was actually in the original, and that was the rattlesnake kill at the very end with Ruby. Um, I thought that was really unexpected. Uh, she just sees this rattlesnake and sees an opportunity and is like, well, I'm gonna grab this snake and then jab its fangs into the back of this guy's neck. Um, so I thought that was really cool and creative of her. And I haven't seen a kill like that before, so that's my fave.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:18

I'm glad you pointed that out. I like that too because it gave me this moment of like, oh wow. So those snakes they were talking about in the beginning actually did have a purpose beyond just like being like a penis metaphor.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:28

I'm sorry. I need to give credit where credit is due, uh, even though I'm trying to hate on the 1977 version as much as possible. Um, the death of Pluto via Beast ripping his throat out was so lovely. And, you know, we get like a bite at first, and you're thinking, like, oh man, like, come on, we you know, we really need you to come through. We need more than like a bite here. And then once he gets to his throat, it it was very satisfying in that moment to see Beast coming out as the good old boy that we needed. I loved it. I got so many Kudra vibes in Idah in that part.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:02

Beast was the best boy, and he went for the throat really early on a different character in the remake, and then I was really satisfied to see how pivotal he was as the deaths continued in the remake.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

Yo, he had a fearless look to him though, in both films where he was just like, yo, you don't mess with beauty unless you're ready for that beast.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:20

I don't know. When he went after Big Brain, I was like, damn, also deserved it for talking all that shit, dude. But also the best boy because he sat in that car all quiet. I was like, man, he's not giving anyone away.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

Speaking of Big Brain, Alexis, that character to me was so horrifying just sitting, especially because he had that like long extensive monologue. So, like, in a way, you're seeing this like horrific uh person who has had god only knows how much radiation and uh other things going on in his life to make him that way. Um, but he's going on in this like really cerebral monologue about the predicament that they're in. It reminded me very much of a weird like art film from the 2000s called Rubber Johnny. Is anybody familiar with this?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:11

Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:13

You know you're the resident art film expert here.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

Uh, okay. Um, so my friend Katie showed this to me when we were in high school, and it was basically like an art film meets music video for Apex Twin, which is a music artist I've know nothing about except this one video. Um, but the whole thing's shot in uh like night vision, and it's basically a character that looks very similar to Big Brain here, and it's like a doctor like interviewing him, and he's kind of like speaking in like gibberish. Um, but I don't want to give too much away, but it was truly terrifying at the age that I saw, and it's still really scary to watch today. So if you're watching this or if you're listening to this podcast right now, go YouTube Rubber Johnny and turn off all your lights and watch it. Um but I definitely got those vibes from Big Brain, and I hated him the most because he was the most unsettling character to me, like visually, because those effects were nasty.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:00

Yeah, definitely probably don't Google that on a porn hub. Um, but did you? You sound like you're speaking from experience, Alexis. Well, now I'm about to. But I'm thinking it's a literally one of those like chickens. Um, but I'm glad you mentioned that, Paris, because I think a big part of the gore, and this could be tied individuals of visuals too, but is the like look of these mutants. You know, there's just so much that you could stare at that's really gory and horrific. You know, you have um cyst, which in the 2006 version was like my favorite to look at. He just had this like cage sort of thing on his head, and you're just like, what the heck is going on with these people? You know, and of course you have lizard with the you know teeth showing, and I mean, all these people look so brutal and gory with uh probably you can smell, you can smell them, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:54

Yes, exactly. And then, you know, on top of just that, then you have like a character just eating a leg, you know, like and blood dripping out and then like squirting the the bird's blood into their mouth, or like, you know, pouring out like it's a Pepsi, you know, like that's intense. We got you know, dog guts, you know, we see the inside of beauty in the 2006 version. It's just so many little things. It's not even just the kills in the 2006 version that's like that. I mean, pretty, pretty gory. It's a pretty gory movie. It is what it is. This you kind of know that going into the Hillside Bies.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:32

And you're right, so it's not like a saw kind of. And I always I will always have everything back because I think that's where it's like zero or saw. Zero or terrifier or terrifier.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:44

That's the real scale. Pretty soon it's gonna be zero to terrifier to terrifier two scale.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:49

Oh no, I'm not looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:51

I don't want it. I know, and I like this version because you get a lot of those different elements too. It's not based on the kill, it's not based on this, you know, torturing people, you know, to get this like gore out and get this feeling um from the audience, but you do get that in the second one. So uh hold your hold your britches on that. I know part of this is, you know, blood and guts and insides of dogs being met, you know, missing, or you know, sometimes your mom being eaten in this movie, you know, which is kind of terrifying. But I know there's a level to this that's a little bit more serious, and I don't know if that's something that like Chris, do you want to talk about? Because I know this is what definitely like turned you off from this movie.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:31

Yeah, I think one of the things that you were talking about earlier, in terms of like the brutality of the movie and just how much the auntie is upped, one of the things that was a pitfall for me and why I hated the original was the unnecessary addition, right? So like when we look at the assault scene in the airstream camper in the original, it's I mean, he's like laying on top of it. If you squint just right, you can just pretend it's not happening, right? Like it's not something that they dwell on a lot. Like, you know it's happening, but It's not anything like you get in the last house on the left. So I was pleasantly surprised by that. But the extent they go to in the remake, to not only just like have it happening, but also have it happening in the background, you can see like some hip motions and then to see what happens with Lynn's character. It's just seemed kind of gross and unnecessary. And I still cannot think of a single good reason. And the last house on the left, in both versions of that, I could look at both of those movies and think like, okay, but I I get what they're trying to do. And this one I just couldn't. I can't think of a single reason to defend it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:33

I don't think I'm not gonna come in here to defend the scene, but to me it's it's the brutality of these people that are left with nothing, and this is the way they're living. They're they're eating people. Um that has a certain amount of weight to it, and they're not necessarily gonna treat those people well while they have them before they kill them and eat them. And like I definitely didn't enjoy that scene, and it also happens to come in around the part where I was kind of sick of seeing the same story. So it's just about halfway, and I was just like, cool, it's worse. I'm kind of ready to tap out anyway. So it wasn't good timing. Um, and yeah, it's not enjoyable, but like I understand, and I feel that if this family was stuck in the desert in these situations with these things against them, um, having to live the way that they are, that this is a pretty realistic uh representation of something that might happen if a woman is found in a camper by herself, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:38

I don't disagree, but I think the threat of it would have been sufficient. Simply the walking in of the two characters, apparently. If they just walked in, he pushed her back, he undid the belt buckle, and her screaming then caused people to come to the camper. I think that would have been sufficient. I don't think the action itself needed to start or happen in order for that threat to be realized.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:01

Yeah, it's just that exploitation film thing, I think. Like we kind of know these lean towards exploitation, and that's a part of it, uh, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:10

I also feel like a part of the fear in that scene was that there was really nobody coming to help her despite her screaming, because there was so much going on with like Big Bug being crucified across the canyon. Uh, and that's what made it scary because it was like they heard her screaming, but they weren't acting. So she was really uh on her own in that moment, which made it more impactful for me personally.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:32

And then they had that uh coordination of the timing over the radio in the 2006 version, which was like even more frightening.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:40

But then in the 2006, they also added, and I feel unnecessarily, the um breastfeeding moment with Lynn.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:48

Which is more so the like the point of excess that I was referring to.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

Exactly, Chris. I totally feel it with that breastfeeding moment, partially because Lynn was uh our girl Allison from Hocus Pocus. And I did not need to see that happen to her. I didn't need to see it happen to anybody, but I have a soft spot in my heart for her. So that really was, I was just like, oh God, oh, it felt almost like I don't want to say as bad as the first assault, but it felt like on par with that same level of like violation.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:17

It was rough, it was definitely rough. I don't think it was unnecessary, I think it was necessary to make a difference between I think Wes Craven might have been thinking, you know what? I didn't make them scary enough, I didn't make them what I wanted to. So I'm gonna do that. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of other people. Um, but yeah, that's how I felt about it. I will tell you guys what he thought once I'm finished with the documentary.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:43

That's the thing. It's like I totally get wanting to raise the stakes and up the ante and like make these people more menacing, and I understand that. I don't even disagree with the idea of having it, but it's it's just as Max said, it's the way it's shown and then the excess of the breast moment when she comes in. And it's just like it's like a long stretch of something for shock value that I just can't really get behind. But I know you guys were talking about the, I think Ryan, you mentioned this, the timing on the radio in the 2006 version. I don't understand how Ethel didn't hear him screaming now from the same damn camper because he says now and then it explodes. It's a couple seconds. How does she not hear that?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:23

Honestly, there are several logistical things that are uh a little questionable here. It's almost a little bit weird in the 2006 version because the radios are like a really significant portion all the way through. And then in 2006, it kind of seems like they're like, oh man, I can't think of how to do this without using radios. In this part, let's use radios again. But the rest of it, we're not really gonna use the radios. And it's like, I don't know, it it almost is too modern for that to work. But just because they're in the desert, I think they barely got away with the radio situation. Another like random thing, but it was so small but so significant in the 2006 version, is the gas station employees' complicity in the in the crimes, you know? Like he tells them to go down this road. And even though he starts the movie by yelling, I'm not doing this anymore out to the hills, um, he sends them down that road, and it's clearly a setup, and it's clearly a setup that he is unsure about and reconsiders and what has been doing for a long time and now he doesn't want to anymore. Whereas in the first one, in in the original, you get the true feeling that this guy doesn't is he's really trying to tell them, like, please don't go this way. This is a bad idea, you're not gonna make it. And so there's that was one thing that was a big plot difference in these two that just came out really fast. Not a big, not a big conversation about it, but it made a big difference.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:50

For sure. And that's a that's like small kind of deviation that I can appreciate. I did like in the original that his gas station is called Fred's Oasis, so that was super cute, and I dislike that they called him his character's name in the remake is Jeb. It just seems like let's just give us the the most stereotypical name you could think of for a middle of nowhere gas station attendant. It just kind of bummed me out. But I do like that it gave reason to beauty exploring the gas station, whereas that is inconsequential in the original, where aside from like Doug just being like something's fishy around here. But how did you guys feel about like the differences that that kind of lays out for the story? Obviously, Fred is no longer Papa Jupiter's dad, and the gas station tendon is just kind of complicit in the in these crimes, as Ryan was saying. And then you also get like the spikes when they go down that road and everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:42

It's just a different feel, totally.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:43

Oh, yeah, that was a straight up rip-off of wrong turn.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:46

They felt much more coordinated.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:48

Yes. And I feel like I'll take that over them fighting in the car and then it just being like, oh, we got into a car accident. Like that was so unrealistic. I threw the map in the air.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:58

To be c yeah, the dad being thrown off by like, what was that? When it's just a plane, like you know, like there are planes around, and it's just you can't you couldn't live in Virginia Beach, man. You couldn't live in Virginia Beach with all these jets going around.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:10

But there was also that rabbit in the road. No, that dad driving in the beginning was so shitty. My boyfriend and I laughed so hard at that. Um, but really starting from that first gas station scene, it set such a tone in the original where this awful family just spills out of their camper and really just starts invading this man's space in a way that I was like, ew, stop. Like control your dog. Um, stop using that man's water. You don't know like what he needs that for. And they just felt like they were really imposing all over his whole uh job. And they were also super rude to him. Uh, and then in the second one, they were more reasonable and more like, you know, like, oh, we're just gonna use the restroom and like like what normal people should do and behave. Um, so it made me like the family a lot more. Whereas the original, it started off on such a bad foot with the family where I was like, Yeah, you you guys can die, and I'm not really gonna care.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:02

The family being that way is actually super intentional. Uh, when you look at the fact that Ruby is talking in the beginning about how she's starving, and Fred's like, I know you're starving, but I just can't do this anymore. How why'd you guys rob a PX? Things like that. It really raises the stakes of establishing the situation that she's in, and then the family gets out of the car, and they're like, Hollywood, and I want a cheeseburger. How far to the next cheeseburger? It just really establishes the stark difference of the two classes.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:28

The haves and have not. I had some trouble with the differences between Fred and Jeb. Because in the first one, Fred obviously can't deal with it to the point where he's going to try to kill himself, and then Big Bob stops him, of course. And in 2006, I just don't think it was dealt with in exactly the same way. I feel like we missed out on on so much of the of the OG's character. Fred really seemed like he was having some trouble with the fact that this is all his fault and this is his family, and he's really responsible for it, at least genetically. Or or in some way genetically, only half of it was his, you know, his genes. But he was really dealing with with the guilt and was gonna off himself and seemed kind of surprised that this ex-cop wanted to stop him from from doing this, and then he's killed, which of course is kind of sad because you have to feel for him in a little at least a little bit, you kind of feel bad that he has to deal with this guilt while at the same time kind of condemning him for doing what he did. But in 2006, getting your head blown off in I assume that was the outhouse that he was in, is no bueno, and I don't think it really added to our empathizing with him at all.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:40

I agree, that did take away from the story, especially now that you point it out, because when he is brought back into the story, you know, in the middle of the night, Fred gave us a lot, and there was a lot of feeling and a lot going on, and then Jeb is truly just drunk in an outhouse. And so it it yeah, it doesn't have the it doesn't have the richness, that's for sure, in in those parts.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:03

Just a further reminder that nothing good happens in outhouses.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:06

Yeah. Two things happened.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:08

Alexis, you were right to avoid that on your trip. Thank God. So, Alexis, you mentioned earlier that one of your favorite things visually, even like in terms of the death, was the American flag, right? And I feel like the difference that you get in Jeb and Fred kind of sets up this difference of this isn't just like one family experiencing one singular tragedy that has just kind of evolved over the years, and like this one guy is is bearing is like bearing the weight of that guilt. Instead, you get almost like a government conspiracy type of situation, right? So you get like the government did this to us, therefore the country did this to us. And when you look at this movie, and and really in in both stories, you can think of it as the family in the hills is attacking is attacking the Carter family. Sure. They're just trying to survive, but it becomes a question of like who is the real villain here. When you look at that death and you look at the monologue, and I think Paris, I think the monologue was like a standout moment for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:10

By big brain, you know, you we are what you made us, and then he goes boom, boom, boom, and then Pluto kind of comes in and the boom boom kills me still. Oh, look at that. It's it's too much for me. It's so much exposition when I feel like we got I didn't need that moment because we got that in the beginning. We got that with the test footage, we got that with that like travel back to the 50s and look at all the experiments that have happened. When you look at that kill from Doug, it becomes less about like two families just trying to survive. And it goes back to that class war. You have Doug who's dressed as business casual on a road trip for some reason. He's selling cell phones, he's like a man of means and he can pay for things, and then he kills Pluto and then sticks the American flag in his head. And it's like the American conquering. It seems way too on the nose for my taste.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:00

At that point, I was not thinking that deep into it. I think I was just like, oh, interesting. And I think I was still trying to put together, and I think when I've seen movies too where they've done these like test sites, I was like, okay, was this a test site that like I think I was asking myself a lot of questions, which might have been plot holes, or maybe they just were questions I had because it's fair.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:24

I mean, like Area 51, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:25

Yeah, I don't know. I just like all that. Like, I think it's super interesting. So I don't think that's why I wanted to know more uh on that side, like um exactly what what happened. I would have been fine with a flashback, too, guys, to a whole incident. Do you want a prequel? Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:42

Oh, I would definitely watch that. I'm with you a little bit, Chris, in that the American flag was a little eye roll of a moment, um, especially because they sort of preface it and they build it up as being like, Big Bob's a Republican dad, and and um He's a Democrat, he doesn't believe in guns. Yeah, and Doug is yeah, Doug's a Democrat. Um, and then Doug like comes out on top, and I was kind of like okay. Like I wasn't super excited about rooting for Doug, um, but the the climax really kind of lent itself to being like, well, I did enjoy all of these kills, so I guess I'm team Doug.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:13

Don't forget, we also have Big Brain seeing the Star Spangled Banner.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:18

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:20

Right as he's introduced, so it's just more to it, more to be together there.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:24

So unsettling. I hate it to this day.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:27

While it is unsettling, if you go back to this whole thing being about class warfare, it makes a lot of sense because he can be a proud American and also be a victim of America.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:37

Big brain?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:38

Indeed.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:38

Big brain.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:39

He was patriotic. He is patriotic, he loves it, right? They love America, except for what has happened to them because of their their testing and neglect and everything. But it is really a good story, I guess you could say, aside from the fact that the family wins in the end, they all should have lost, to be honest. But yeah, I mean they're they're fighting between classes. You have the wealthy versus the poor, and the poor seem depraved because they're having to do what they're having to do to survive when they've been destroyed and mangled and everything, and it what they're doing is is not cool, of course, by anyone's standards, but they're trying to survive the best way that they can. And then we get this family come through who's at least in 2006, they're somewhat decent, unlike in 1977, when they kind of seem just really trashy for the most part. In 2006, though, Doug is pretty trash. Just saying he's trash. I hope you guys see that.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:34

Why are you so strong against Doug in 2006?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:37

He literally cursed out his own wife and her father.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:41

And looked at his wife's sister.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:43

And looked at his wife's little sister. So, yeah, pretty trash.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:46

Yeah, he's trash, but I I thought his I thought it he he made it come back.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:50

He made it come back in terms of surviving, but not as a person.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:53

But maybe he's gonna grow. No, I feel like he could have cared less about the baby and he wasn't gonna go find the baby.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:00

I have to be honest, I think we're giving them all a little bit more credit than they deserve, considering they're still being watched. They definitely didn't live. They lived in the movie, but they did not get home.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:09

That's true. They don't have a vehicle.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:11

Well, I guess we had to just check, we had to check the credits for the sequel.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:14

I'm just saying, like they were there's clearly more families in the 2006 version, and they're still there and we'll hunt them, and they still don't have a way to get home. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:25

When you look at Doug, it's really interesting how he goes from being like this cool, suave macho guy in the 1977 version, and then he's just emasculated every step of the way, no matter what happens in the remake. Uh, it's hilarious that Lynn tries to make him wear a hat, and he's like, I don't want to fucking wear a hat. I'm wear okay, I'm wearing the hat. You see, I'm wearing the hat, and she's like, ah, don't get don't get that tone with me. Um one of the things though that really bothered me, and Ryan, this goes back a little bit to what you're talking about with like how smelly things are. There's that moment in the camper, and he's like lighting up a cigarette, and they're discussing how like Lynn doesn't know that he smokes, and uh how Bob is gonna be upset, and he's like, fuck, fuck Big Bob, and fuck your sister too. It's like, okay, one, you're a jerk. Two, why do movies keep ignoring the sense of smell as if no one's gonna smell cigarettes as soon as they open that door when they stop? Very good point. But it's still like the even the logic of this guy, like just thinking about that, like, why would you do that when you know they're gonna smell? Like, if you're trying to keep this a secret, why would you do it?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:26

Because you know that as soon as they say something to him, he's gonna be like, oh, whatever, dude, and he's just gonna walk away.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:31

Because Doug is trash, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:32

Instead of being like, hey, this is an addiction, I'm so sorry that I haven't dealt with it in the way that I thought I could, and the way that I told you.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:40

Wow, Mac. Sorry, this is a high stress situation, and I needed a cigarette.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:44

So evolved.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:44

No, he's just gonna be like, whatever, big bad, whatever, man.

unknown 1:22:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:49

So I will admit that that was definitely my least favorite part of the movie, not only in terms of the the plot and di and Doug's character, but it's just kind of like ruined this visual of like it broke the fourth wall. Like, these people don't even consider the sense of smell. What about you guys? Was there anything that stood out in a positive or a negative way visually about either movie?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:11

While we're on the topic, Doug getting trapped in the box with the bodies was disgusting. It felt like I was in that box, and he was he did not give up on kicking that thing out. And like, I think sometimes in movies, people will like try to hit something three times, and like if it doesn't open, uh, go well. And he was like, nah, I gotta get out. And that that moment for me visually was just like new, and I loved it. It was scary, like, and just just so gross, so smelly, so gross.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:42

Ryan, I also loved that scene where he's trapped inside that little box. Um, particularly the the wide shot that they did where you can see the baseball bat bouncing on top of it as he's trying to kick his way out. I thought that that was just like a beautiful, like well-filmed uh little sequence there. Um, but for me, the best visual element is the nuclear test village in the 2006 version. Um, because you really just get to see like a little kind of like time capsule of a time where things were really odd because you have like these mannequins that are like all smiling and happy, and there's children everywhere, but there's obviously like radiation and decay and all this like dilapidation. Uh so I thought that was a really like a great setting for that climax to take place. Um, and then like as you're seeing all these uh like perfect little mannequin faces, you're also seeing like a lot of the characters that still live there, including those two precious little children who, when Doug walked in, the little girl says, Mr. Will you play with us? And that just like broke my heart there for a minute because she was so sweet and she was just like a child, and it really helped to humanize uh these characters that are, you know, maybe considered less than human by some. I'll give least favorite visual element to uh 2006 Brenda uh holding a pitcher of tea with her nasty bare feet.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:04

I didn't even notice that. What?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:06

Yeah, that was it was horror. Yeah, really added to the foulness of this movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:12

It was around the same time as the uh, you know what Freud would say about your obsession with snakes, mom. Yeah. Very uncomfortable comment that nobody would say to their mom.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:21

So not only does this movie smell like sweat and dirt, but it also smells like feet. Yeah, feet.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:28

Don't all road trips smell like feet?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:31

I keep my shoes on when I'm on a road trip. I wear my driving moccasins, but that's just me.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:35

Road trips smell like feet.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:37

I love that you have driving moccasins. Absolutely. I have I have only two pairs of moccasins, but one of them is specifically driving moccasins.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:44

Mac is down for anything. Come on. So, my favorite visual element, I think, of both movies, um, they go hand in hand, would just have to be like the setting. Um, it was super cool, like seeing both of them. Um, and you have this like vast all of this rocks, and you just don't know where these people are going to be hiding, which I think is great. Um, I do think um the 2006 version does it way better, though. I think you you get these panoramic views, and then you also get the characters talking about okay, you have to go this far, and you get to the end of the road, and then you actually visually see what's at the end of the road. You see these, like this crater full of all these cards. So you feel I feel like this setting was way bigger, which I kind of enjoyed because it was like, where could these people be hiding? What like what is going on? Which spoiler alert, you find out uh what's inside the hills in number two. Clearly, y'all guys should watch this, but yeah, no, I really appreciated that. And I I think um from what I'm hearing from this documentary, it's cool they just drove and picked this place, and I guess they ran out of water, so they too were almost stranded. Wes Craven and the producer.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:58

Did you ever feel uh very stressed about their ankles as they ran through these rocks for hours? When Bobby, I was like, you lord, these are sharp. I know I was like, them ankles is gonna be twisted, okay? Y'all are running too fast.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:11

Yeah, if anyone's run into Mojave, please hit us up, hackerslash hotline, because I want to know what that experience is like just running around the Mojave Desert, because that's wild.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:19

Seems not good, not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:21

I love that you bring that up, Alexis, because one of the really cool things in terms of like just the shot itself was when Doug was in that like graveyard of cars, sifting through all the belongings of people he didn't even realize are dead. Uh note on that in a moment, but it pulls back and you see just how like empty everything is, and yet there are so many little pockets, and he's just there is nothing in everything at the same time in this really like weird way. But I'll tell you this if I were in Doug's circumstances, as unlikely as it would be for me to end up in those circumstances, there would be nothing on earth that would convince me that the belongings that he picked up in the eventually returned home with were not dirty and filthy or carrying some kind of disease. Who dusts off a little bear and thinks this is a great thing to give my small child whose immune system is very weak at this point.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:15

I totally agree, Chris. I wrote in my notes tetanus bear because that bear was disgusting and he gave it to his infant and I was like what? He's like, I found all this clean brand new stuff. And I'm like, did you though? Did you?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:28

Also, why was he not uh completely panicked about the fact that the road they were told to turn down is a dead end and runs into a crater full of old cars. Like his his stress meter should have been much higher and he should have been like cool we all need to go back to the gas station try to figure it out from there. Because they could I mean they got cars right there. It mostly started that car almost started which means it could probably be be started. But he was not stressed.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:55

Like a true American he was distracted by free things.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:58

Yeah. He's like hey man there's a cool place down here. Like doesn't seem cool when we're looking for safety.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:04

Why else do you think all these things are just sitting here in the middle of nowhere so can I just take a moment to say it's 2006 right in in the 2006 version. So y'all know they got TomToms. So why didn't they charge up a TomTom if they're about to do a long road trip? It's like a hundred bucks or whatever it was I don't know 200 bucks at the time maybe maybe it was more expensive back then.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:25

Either way TomTom it was great.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:27

Right? I mean now we just have our smartphones which is so much better. But in 2006 I know for a fact that we had TomToms or Garmin's or whatever they were at the Tom at the time yeah I mean Garmin was probably better I think still at the time I think it Alexis had that bougie Garmin.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:44

TomTom was for the folks who could afford to go somewhere but couldn't afford to get there the right way the first time I'm pretty sure I still have the Garmin in the car.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:52

I don't know what it does but it it takes you from point A to point B. And I find it so ridiculous that they one were relying on the map and two would take the advice of a strange man in a gas station in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:06

He was very friendly.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:07

Yeah I definitely would have taken his advice you haven't met a friendly stranger who told you something and you were just like that's cool but I'm gonna do what I originally planned to do.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:15

Well I'm very skeptical so yeah yeah I pretty much listen to very few strangers about anything even when they're right but on this type of road trip it's it's tempting.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:24

Mac have you never met a dad like Big Bob before because my best friend has that dad and his name actually is Bob and we call him Big Bob which is funny. And that dad does not believe in a GPS system. So true like staunchly such a good point.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:38

I feel like this family was definitely like let's make this like an adventure and just use a roadmap because sometimes out there you I have shitty service on my phone and one time had to actually use the map on the Apple well I I use uh Google Maps but and had to shrink it and find which way it was going I was like okay cool it's still going the way I'm supposed to we don't have to turn around so I was following the blue dotted line probably to really round out the uh visual experience that this movie was I have a brief checklist of horrible things that I had to see in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:17

Uh one we mentioned before terrible wigs in the 1977 version.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:22

So bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:23

Truly just hard front dry dusty just like I don't want to know it's a wig, you know? And if I know it's a wig, at least like give me what I need to convince myself it's not. Also the uh twink in the 1977 version that played Bobby at one point when he fires a gun he definitely has a hand double and it turns into this like hairy like butch man's hand even though he's like the tiniest little boy.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:45

What's a twink?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:46

Oh a twink is like a blonde haired blue eyed like smooth young gay man.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:53

Is that you? It feels so derogatory.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:55

I was once a twink but no longer I've aged out of twinked them. I'm uncomfortable it's not derogatory don't worry I did appreciate the bone and teeth jewelry that was found throughout I thought a few of those pieces would look cute in my personal accessory wardrobe.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:10

100% had to have come from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre especially since there was like the bone throne at some point in that house in that movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:17

Oh they must have also did anybody notice the tarantula in the 1977 that was not Eduardo i it must have been his grandfather this is a legacy acting tarantula family. The final thing that was really just the most annoying and jarring and boring and tedious to me besides this list was the collective 10 to 15 minutes of footage of a German shepherd running through a rocky canyon. I was so sick of watching that and they just kept cutting back to it and I was like oh my god please somebody kill the dog or get the dog and put it on a chain because I don't want to watch it run through these rocks anymore.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:51

Stop letting me out the stop letting him out of the camper like seriously.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:55

Anything get back inside coral so speaking of worst part I'd like to talk about my best part of the uh 2006 version and that is the the whole experience that we get and I know we've kind of talked about this a little bit but once we get into where they live with the in the test facility I felt like it completely refreshed this story because I truly would have killed myself if we had to watch the same thing two times. Like it it's really hard. And uh it just felt so much better. I know that there's some parts of it that were a little bit on the nose with the American flag and everything and big brain but having that fight happen in that house it was so brutal. I felt like Doug was so exhausted and he just kept trying to push through and we get you know different elements where you see a lot more death a lot more people a lot more it's like a lot more than just one family. That was something that it just got me through and then it it makes a lot more sense as far as the setting kind of like Alexis was talking about earlier like it it gives us a scope of where you're at whereas in 1977 I think a lot of it was just shots of rocks and you don't really understand where things are you know outside of like a cliff and a cave. And that it just that's the only thing that saved 2006 for me the whole year. That's what saved the year the version.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:19

No worse parts in 2006 sorry guys um classical I will say that my favorite two parts were um definitely and we'll get into it too is this like cliffhangering um ending which I think is kind of cool. Like I was not expecting that and normally I hate it because I think it's just thrown in but I just love that twist on the end for sure. And like I've mentioned before I just like this nuclear like backdrop. Anything could go sort it it's like sci fi sort of like that and that's what draws me in a little bit a little bit more. Definitely for the 1977 the worst part was um the one jump scare that was done so ineffectively when um Papa Jupiter comes in and grabs Fred through the window and which I thought was like a cool scene but I was like really it just didn't scare me. And I was like okay this is a perfect like put some jump scares in but then it's clearly not Wes Craven style.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:29

So it's because you're still thinking about Friday the 13th part two.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:32

Yeah that might be why or um hosts too so that might be up in my head right now like where are these jump scares are so effective and are still effective even though I've been watching horror for like 20 years on this.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:44

Even though you get that bad jump scare in the 2006 version where Bobby throws himself against the side of the airstream while Lynn is looking onto that weird mysterious reflection yeah that did that was horrible.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:56

So I was just gonna say we're not only looking for jump scares we're looking for quality jump scares right we're looking for both I I've got some best and worsts as well for for both movies.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:07

For 77 the worst part had to be everything about Papa Jupiter every time we had to do a close up of that nose and that face I was like please don't go close up again. Why are we seeing this horrible prosthetic that that we're rocking I don't just like that never looked the same twice. Right just back the camera up a little bit you know maybe put him in a shadow maybe see the the cut in his face just like a little bit but that was the worst part of you know for me was just the character and the prosthetic and best part and this is probably for both movies uh because this character was fantastic it was Ruby. So Ruby was my one of my favorite characters in in both movies probably my favorite uh in the 2006 for sure but in the first one I think best part for me was her in the like the beginning of the movie just showing how defeated she was by life and dealing with Fred and like trying to settle internally with the fact that like life's not going to get better and she's never gonna get out and by the end of the movie at least helping other people to show that she was a decent human being. So that was that was awesome. In the 2006 the worst part was the entire exposition and so we had that first opening scene first let's start off with like the text that we get for this nuclear backdrop. I mean like if you're gonna hit me over the head with something at least use like a baseball bat or something interesting maybe Lucille from The Walking Dead. So yeah that would hurt. So that was bad. And then we get to the scene of the people in the testing equipment and then we transition to the actual movie. I'm like just chop that whole thing out and reveal it through the story please which would have worked alright but they didn't do that. And they gave us more exposition later with Big Brain it hurt it hurt so much to have to suffer through the the excess of explaining just just too much. But best part again was of course Ruby and Ruby's sacrifice at the end of the film. Absolutely fantastic. So redeemed herself in both cases as a decent human being and probably better than every other character in the film as a human being.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:19

Ruby and Beast for sure were the real MVPs of both movies.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:23

Yeah Beauty and the Beast I think were actually the best characters and then come the actual humans.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:28

You know I did like Ruby uh especially more so in the in the 2006 version but you know for me the characters of Ethel and Bobby were the real pain pointslash highlights for me. Starting with Ethel the mom in both movies I found her generally insufferable but it was amazing because when she died both actresses were able to make me actually care about the character. The original Ethel when she's dying in the camper she's talking she's kind of just like incoherent because she's obviously slipping away um but she says she's talking about the camper she's like oh this camper's so small when it gets messy it gets so messy and I was like oh this poor mom is just really trying to like make things good for her family and now she's dead.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:12

I'll admit it I cried what really yeah both times I teared up okay I didn't cry. Here's the thing though a mom dying in any movie I can't I can't take I can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:22

Oh yeah that's fair. Chris would you agree that in the 2006 it was an even more impactful performance when she was dying 100% superior actress. Yeah the way she was like cold and like quivering and just like trying to like be strong for her family while also being like can you help me because I am dying um that like really tugged at my heartstrings in a way that I didn't expect the character to be able to do. But then when it came to Bobby the original Bobby awful truly a useless character to me. Why didn't he tell anyone that the dog was killed didn't really understand that. And then he proceeded to just kind of make bad choices and be ineffective for the rest of the movie. But then in the 2006 version Bobby's played by the same actor who was in Easy A, which is one of my favorite movies and I didn't remember him being in this but he played the character in such a way that it made so much more sense and it kind of clarified what the original character was intended to be and intended to do. So I feel like he brought much more heart to the character and a sense of realism that I would be willing to give like best performance of both films to that character.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:29

Interesting. Not bad not bad. I would say that I agree with the take on Bobby Bobby in the original I felt good about and I even appreciated his emotional confession about beauty. But then he just goes to being hysterical and borderline flamboyant in a way that I didn't really understand so his performance just tanked it fell off sharply after that moment. But I want to go back to the ending because we're talking about just how strong Ruby was and when you look at the two endings in general you have in one movie you have Doug just being purely brutal and resorting to the same level of brutality that the other family has shown him he's conquering and then in the remake you have one of them sacrificing herself to save the other family.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:15

How do you guys feel about the message that either of those movies send I don't have a lot of feelings regarding that parts that part of the ending but I know I I enjoy what they did I guess in both of them um they took slightly different turns um and then you can you get a little more exciting kill uh with like the snake and stuff in the 1997 version and then they go into you know standing as a family together in the 2006 version and there's some small differences but I generally just kind of felt like like not that I expected it but this is how it was going to wrap up and it's you know the only thing that really could have been different is that everyone died all together in both. It made a lot of sense the 2006 version has that perfect amount of doom that the whole movie had.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:06

Now that I'm looking back back at it Chris I never like thought to think of those differences um but I do feel a little bit more warm I think in the first one um so I'm like oh okay like this girl Ruby you know she's helping like these people are clearly caring and it's just you know that was just the way she was raised but clearly the way you're not you're the way you're raised isn't the way you necessarily need to come up but I think like since I had only seen 2006 that I was like where the hell is this brutality? Where is all this stuff? So I was missing that so I kind of maybe had missed that message in the first part but um definitely in 2006 if you want to go on this like you know class um issue and this whole like you know America thing you got we had going on I feel like no kidding and I didn't write this in my notes but it because I was like I'm not sure if I'm but I just felt when he was like walking up to his family it was just like this sort of like Captain America the music they had in the background was kind of weird. It was like oh look what I achieved. It wasn't like a kind of like a buildup and like a okay you're really you're allowed to have your emotions released now. It was kind of more like a victory kind of like music in my opinion which I thought was very interesting now that I am like thinking about it and looking back.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:31

I can't think of when it was but I think there was one more moment that had that like weird victory type of music like maybe in the house when he's like finally escaping. I'm not quite sure but that was weird super weird.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:42

I'm glad somebody else brought up the music because the music like I know that you guys dog the 1977 version because of the screaming and the in the audio in that movie but the misplaced music anything after that opening credit song was just kind of awful for me. From the moment that it starts to swell when things are popping off in the camper to the moment you get this dramatic build as if Doug is the ultimate hero it just seemed a little out of place. But we've said a lot about both movies and I've broken them down and I know that I'm in the minority of people who actually like the original but for old time's sake let's go ahead and get into our head-to-head comparison. I have a feeling I know how this is gonna go which movie had the better visuals the 77 or the 2006 2006 2006 obviously yeah 2006 I'm actually gonna go 77 because I appreciated the cinematography more I hated how warm everything was shot in the 2006 version is desert you can still have a white shirt in the desert but let's look at the story 2006 or 1977? 2006 2006 2006 indeed geez alright alright I'm going uh 1977 again uh clearly in the minority and what about to round out our performances also 2006 yep 2006 yeah 2006 2006 this is the only time I'll agree with you that 2006 did have the better performances although I want the story of the 1977 version with the performances of the family from the 2006 version if that makes sense but there you have it in a head to head comparison as iconic as the original The Hills Have Eyes was from 1977 it loses out big time to the second time Wes Craven did it as a producer in 2006. Now there's so much to say left about these movies and we want to know what you think. Reach out to us give us a shout let us know what you think there are a number of ways to reach out to us starting with our website hackerslash.com and on our social media accounts on Facebook Instagram and Twitter.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:42

You can also hit us up at the Hackerslash hotline particularly if you've ever been stuck in a desert I'd love to hear about it. You can text us call us leave us a voicemail or an audio message our number is 757 606 0128.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:55

Or if you were stuck in the desert but now you're back to where there's internet you can send us an email to feedback at hackerslash dot com.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:02

And if you've enjoyed listening to our podcast consider becoming one of our patrons check out patreon.com slash hack or slash where you can earn cool perks for as low as one dollar a month.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:11

We'll see you next time bye it