Based on Wes Craven's 1977 film of the same name, THHE06 is a tense, violent, brutal film. It also is a good movie, thanks to Alexandre Aja direction - he knows how to build visual tension, as demonstrated in High Tension - and the cast, who quickly make their characters sympathetic. The special effects - both the plentiful gore and the mutant make-up - by Greg Nicotero is great, with some imaginative kills and gruesome (and believable) mutants.
The Carters - patriarch Big Bob (Ted Levine), matriarch Ethel (Kathleen Quinlan), son Bobby (Dan Byrd), daughters Brenda and Lynn (Emilie de Raven and Vinessa Shaw), son-in-law Doug (Aaron Stanford) who is married to Lynn, granddaughter Catherine (some baby...they're all the same, right?), and two dogs, Beauty and Beast - are traveling across country, heading for San Diego where Big Bob, a retired cop, is going to start a new life with his family. They are directed into a former nuclear test site by Tom Browser, playing a nameless gas station attendant who is working with the cannibals. Soon, their vehicle has been disabled and, when night falls, they are attacked. Half their number (Big Bob, Ethel, Lynn and Beauty) are killed, Brenda is raped by two mutants and Catherine is taken. Whether this is done to taunt the survivors, bring some new blood into the clan or as a snack isn't clear.
 Brenda welcomes the mutants to the camp |
The next morning, Doug and Beast head off to find Catherine, while Bobby and Brenda rig up a warning system and trap around the disabled camper. From this moment forward, the film is relentless, with Doug engaging in various acts of brutality to save his daughter, while Bobby and Brenda get some payback against the head of the Cannibals - Papa Jupiter, played by the always great Billy Drago. As the film ends, most of the mutants are dead. Doug, Brenda and Bobby are all traumatized, but still alive, having shown just what people are capable of when their survival - and family - is threatened. Of course, this being a horror movie, the last scene is the survivors walking out of the desert...and then we see they are being observed by another mutant through binoculars. The end.
 The mutant Pluto asks Doug "Want to see my butterfly collection?" |
The movie does make some stabs towards larger issues instead of just wracking up the body count. The cannibals are a stand-in for the poor, their clash with the Carters a very physical manifestation of class warfare. And, both are to some degree victims of the government/upper class. The mutants are descendents of people who were exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons tests, albeit their ancestors refused to leave the area when ordered to by the government. The Carters are not the "1%." They are solidly middle class. But, because the government/the rich can't clean up the messes they make they become victims. Okay, not a very "deep" theme; but, it is there and it does shown that writers Aja and Gregory Levasseur (who worked on High Tension with Aja) had more of an agenda than just a sun-blasted entry into the gore-porn genre.
Anyway, check it out.
 Doug wakes up on the mutant version of a therapeutic mattress...finds he does not like it |
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