The Hills Run Red

source: The Hills Run Red

Back in the 1980s famous great horror aficionado Wilson Wyler Concannon (William Sadler) was renowned for no movies whatsoever apart from one that wasn't even released, as it went missing. That movie is "The Hills Run Red", a story about Baby-Face, a guy who cut off his own face and sewed on a dolls mask to replace it and soon afterwards goes on a horror rampage. Enticed by the story and hoping that it becomes his own claim to fame aspiring director Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrink) decides to track down the long lost picture and its infamous director. This leads him to Concannon's daughter Alexa (the beautiful and oft naked Sophie Monk), now working as a * in a biker's pub. After convincing her to partake in his endeavour he takes a camera and two filmmaker friends to retake that which had been forgotten. Dark Castle Entertainment has an unrivaled gift of releasing crappy horror flicks in succession with the odd gem hidden behind a cascade of crappiness. This one unfortunately flows down straight to the gutter together with flicks such as "The Reaping" or "Thirteen Ghosts". The main flaw of all these seems to be exceptionally poor character development and script inadequacies substituted by extreme gore. This time around we actually have a lot of promise in the movie, which runs like a "Friday the Thirteen" ripoff for large parts of its runtime, only to counterpoint this with some "Scream" type movie references. Some scenes hilariously hit the spot, with Baby-Face's out-of-character response to one of the hapless victims a delightful highlight of this otherwise poor movie. Despite some admirable qualities the twist introduced two-thirds into the movie largely fails. In a big part due to the incapability of William Sadler and Sophie Monk to carry their roles. Their bickering about the art of horror films is irritating and badly written, which doesn't help in the plot resolution, as this was the issue that would either carry or drown the movie (especially the poorly scripted debate between old-fashioned slashers and modern gorno). It isn't entirely a waste of time and those fans of over-the-top gore (occasionally going into gorno territory), but given the limited emotional involvement and the sub-par payoff it seems like a wasted opportunity for a decent horror. As it is I would suggest passing and seeking out the Rob Zombie "House of 1000 Corpses".

This is a pretty good "B" slasher movie, and was actually entertaining for most part and the nudity especially by elevates it. Because in slasher movies such as this, the plot doesn't matter as much although it's decent in this film for a slasher flick. The plot was interesting and the acting wasn't that bad either, it can be said the same for the atmosphere and there were some good tense moments as well. The story is about a wannabe slasher director who goes on a hunt for a film called The Hill Run Red, which is said to be the most brutal and gruesome slasher flick from the 80's. So him and his friends venture out into the woods to find it, but they are in for more than they bargained for. Although some people that aren't into these types of genre might be turned off by it, but for those that are slasher fans will most likely enjoy. Even if it could have been been better, it was still surprisingly entertaining and is worth checking out, especially for slasher fans. 6.3/10

I'm a big horror fan. I have about 200 horror dvds in my collection. I have been reading a lot about this movie, and I was excited to finally see it! It's been getting quite a bit of publicity in horror mags and on horror sites. Well, all that buildup -- and no release :( What a letdown. Let me say that the killer is pretty awesome looking, even if the look isn't that original (Dark Ride?). With the right director and right script, Babyface could have been terrificly scary. Here, though, the director fails to build any tension or suspense. When we finally do see Babyface, his scenes feel rushed, and he's not menacing at all. The story was nothing original. (Have you seen last year's Carver? If not, check it out. The story is very similar, but that movie is much better --and more brutal-- than this.) But, even though the story isn't bringing us anything new, it had potential to be good. But no! No scares, and a clichéd twist that any horror fan could see coming from the get-go. Ho hum. This wasn't a horrible movie, but it will disappoint any horror fan who's hoping for something special. If you're okay with mediocrity, you have nothing to lose by watching this.

At first one would think that 'The Hills Run Red' is just another 'teens in backpacks get hacked about by backwoods psycho' flick, but the movie is much much more. It tells the story of a group of a friends who trek into the wilderness to find the long-lost reel of a legendary 'cropsy'-style horror film. Once this group arrives at the various locations used in the mythical movie, they discover a horrifying secret about the director...and the cast. There's more to it than that, but I don't want to spoil the (numerous) surprises in store for the audience including an ending that will make you doubt your own faith in humanity. Yeah, it's dark. But it's also scary and - amazingly - often funny. Young directer Dave Parker brings a real zest to the proceedings with some ingenious set-ups and environments. The third act is a roller-coaster of sick gory setpieces that are choreographed expertly and put recent, more bigger-budgeted films like 'Friday The 13th 2009' to shame. The cast is also above-the-cut for this type of genre, including the gorgeous Sophie Monk who is given a juicy role and runs with it. Throw in some interesting character dynamics, subtle in-jokes for horror fans, well-built tension, and amazing nudity (a staple of the genre and done very professionally here) and you have a modern horror film that calls back some of the best slashers of the early 80's.

The hype surrounding "The Hills Run Red" is really the most impressive aspect of this film. Mr. Disgusting of "Bloody-Disgusting" called it "a really solid horror film that many horror fans will be pleasantly surprised with." Gareth Jones of "Dread Central" adds to that, saying, "If you're a fan of slasher flicks, or even just truly inventive and twisted horror, you owe it to yourself to pick it up." Doesn't that sound absolutely wonderful? Could it be that there is a straight-to-disc horror film that actually delivers the goods? Having bought into the hype, I eagerly anticipated this film and began to watch it with a sense of giddy excitement…only to find that it is actually quite bad. No, that is a little too nice. "The Hills Run Red" is undeniably terrible. Its initial premise is basic and fascinating. A young documentarian, trying to track down a supposedly horrifying film that has been missing for decades, heads to its shooting location with the director's daughter, only to discover that the disturbing images in the film were actually real. But then, this story becomes mired in weird plot twists and an unnecessary sense of strangeness. Read My Full Review Exclusively At: www.thecinemaview.blogspot.com

"The Hills Runs Red" tells the story of three young horror fanatics,who are searching for the copy of a supposedly lost and extremely brutal slasher movie under the same title.A movie that was supposedly so notorious and disturbing it was only screened once before disappearing from the face of the earth...as did it's entire cast and iconic director Wilson Wyler Concannon.Tyler decides to shoot a documentary of his quest recruiting his best friend/cameraman Lalo and cheating girlfriend/sound mixer Serena to come along.He finds the director's daughter Alexa and heads into the woods to find her father's old house.The Babyface killer hides there and suddenly strikes turning the movie into bloodbath...Lots of gore and nudity plus several clever allusions to past horror classics.The killer dons creepy and effective doll mask and the death scenes are very gory.8 out of 10.

Badly written, badly acted, nothing to really redeem it. The story was about a slasher film in the 1980's that was pulled from theaters and has never been seen since. A trio of filmmakers decide they are going to find him, and they meet up with his daughter, a drug addict working in a strip club. Even though they comment on the absurdity of the setup, they proceed to go into the deep woods where people in movies like this always end up going off to die. What we get is after introducing what seem like kind of likable characters, we are treated to an hour of unremitting gore and overall ickiness... and not worth your time to watch unless you are a high-grade masochist. Joe B. Watching Bad Movies so you don't have to.

(No significant spoilers, actually) This movie is really, really bad. Even if you tell me the Budget was 1.5 million, It's a waste. Straight-to-DVD is the only destiny this flawless film could deserve, despite it should never have been made. First of all: it violates one of the main principles of every decent movie (including of course Horror movies), which consist on revealing the kind of movie it is and settle the film's tone and climate at the first 5 minutes. The Hills Run Red, by the contrary, is a Horror, Slasher film, with no murders, neither violence, during the first 30 minutes! Not even any kind of intense darkness (unless you consider a short scene of a * using heroine is dark and intense for a Horror film of the 21th Century). Second: the acting is awful!!! Almost annoying. The exception is Sadler (who nearly doesn't appear in the first half of the movie). The plot is garbage. The altruistic way the *, Tyler's cheating girlfriend, and Tyler's traitor "friend" decide to help him with his crusade is simply ridiculous. The reaction of Tyler to the cheating and the betrayal suggests that producer's dog ate some pages of the script. Then you have some pathetic attempts to gain depth with far-fetched dialogues explaining incest and ambition issues (similar to the villain exposing his plans to the hero in cartoons), combined with revelation of artificial "pervert" behaviors linked to sadistic filming and monsters breeding. The killings, the ways the good ones escape, and the tricks of the bad ones, are all extremely artificial (but not even filmed in a comic way: just artificial boring garbage). And the "gore" scenes are less interesting and less intense than in Hostel. In addition, the Topic of the movie (obsession, and all the things you may sacrifice for it) is tackled in a soft, dull way. And the most interesting character, Concannon, has a too secondary role. The positive: a little bit of nudity from Sophie Monk (strange face, lovely tits; forget about a long scene building a really sexy climate: just flawless nudity), a nice sex scene with Janet Montgomery, and a scene with a short dark moment of son-mother love (normal love, not incest). The 5,5 IMDb users' rating is extremely generous, unfair. Even in Cinema Terror and Bloody Good Horror it gets 3/10. The 5,5 rating is obviously inflated by radical Fanatics of Slasher sub-culture. Indeed, for example, one of the reviewers who rated the film with an unbelievable 8 (eight!!!!) stated himself "t's a great movie for film geeks and horror buffs all around, and a sly poke at the gore-nography sub genre culture." Trivia: the Director, the Screenwriters and some of the actors have (before and after this movie) no career in films.

Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrinck) is obsessed by the horror movie "The Hills Run Red", considered by those that had seen it the scariest movie ever made, with the deranged serial-killer Babyface (Danko Iordanov) in the lead role. However, the director Wilson Wyler Concannon (William Sadler) and the movie vanished many years ago and there is no available print. His research is affecting his relationship with his girlfriend Serina (Janet Montgomery) that is needy and feels neglected. When Tyler discovers that Concannon's daughter Alexa (Sophie Monk) works in a night-club, he decides to meet her and asks about the missing movie. The woman tells that the movie might be in her father's house in the middle of the woods, and Tyler decides to travel to the spot with Alexa, Serina and their friend Lalo (Alex Wyndham). Along their journey, Tyler films and interviews some locals. During the night, they are attacked by the rednecks, but they are saved by Babyface that kills the assaulters and is controlled by Alexa that runs away from him. Tyler, Serina and Lalo get rid off the ropes, but Tyler decides to help Alexa, disclosing fate of the movie. The gore "The Hills Run Red" is a movie with potential of cult for fans of slasher movies. The gruesome story is original regarding the search of Tyler for the movie and has a great surprise when he discovers the secret about the Concannon's family. William Sadler has a great performance in the role of the insane director and Babyface is a scary character. The conclusion is extremely macabre and dark, and I believe that fans of this genre will like this movie very much like I did. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Colinas de Sangue" ("Hills of Blood")