The Hills Run Red (2009 film)

The Hills Run Red

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Dave Parker
Produced by Roee Sharon
Jonathan Tzachor
John Carchietta
Robert Meyer Burnett
Carl Morano
Written by John Carchietta
John Dombrow
David J. Schow
Starring Sophie Monk
Tad Hilgenbrink
Janet Montgomery
Alex Wyndham
William Sadler
Narrated by Robert Burnett[1]
Music by Frederik Wiedmann
Cinematography Ilan Rosenberg
Edited by Harold Parker
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Premiere
Release dates
  • June 12, 2009 (Seattle)
  • September 29, 2009 (United States)[2]
Running time
 81 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Hills Run Red is a 2009 horror film directed by Dave Parker and written by David J. Schow[3] and starring Sophie Monk, Tad Hilgenbrink and William Sadler.

Plot

Tyler is obsessed with the lost horror film The Hills Run Red, considered to be the scariest movie ever made, with the deranged serial-killer Babyface in the lead role. However, the director, Wilson Wyler Concannon, and the movie vanished many years ago and there is no known copy. When Tyler discovers that Concannon's daughter Alexa works in a night club, he decides to meet her and ask about the lost film. Tyler's obsession with the film leads him to neglect his girlfriend Serina. He visits Alexa, who works as a stripper, and asks her about the project. As she gives him a nude lap dance, the audience sees Serina cheating on Tyler with their friend Lalo. After Tyler helps Alexa with her addiction to heroin, she tells him that the movie might be in her father's home in the woods. Tyler decides to travel there with Alexa, Serina and Lalo. During the night, they are attacked and bound by rednecks who threaten to rape Alexa and Serina, but they are saved by Babyface, who kills the assaulters, then disappears.

Tyler breaks into the house and finds a red room that contains many film reels hanging from the ceiling. When Tyler hears pain-filled screams, he finds Alexa tied to a bed and releases her. The two leave the house and find Serina, but Babyface breaks through the door and brutally throws Tyler into a wall and injures Serina. Alexa is slammed against the wall by Babyface and says "fetch," telling him to run after Serina. Tyler drops unconscious as Alexa approaches him, smiling. Serina hides under the car parked in front of the house. Babyface enters a barn as Serina quietly moves to an adjacent building. Serina is shocked to find bloodied bodies in the room, which turns out to be a smoke house. When Babyface goes inside the smoke house, he doesn't find her and leaves. Serina emerges from a drum that was used to store blood and changes clothes. However, when she leaves the smoke house, Babyface jumps down at her from the roof.

Tyler wakes and finds himself tied to a wheelchair. On the shelves behind him are many film reels, all titled "The Hills Run Red." Tyler is shocked when Concannon, the missing director of The Hills Run Red, appears. The director tells him the secret behind the scares in his film, and plays a video of 20 years before, when the film was in shooting. Concannon is dissatisfied with the actor portraying Babyface, and angrily explains to him how to properly make a scene feel scary. He takes Babyface's costume and axe, and violently axes the actor to death. It is then that the reason why screenings were canceled and all actors vanished is revealed: the film was considered too violent, and all the death scenes in it were real. He also tells Tyler Alexa was only 13 when she "had him" indicating Babyface is a child born of incest between father and daughter. The next shot is Alexa taunting a bound Lalo and Serina. Babyface appears, carries Serina into the next room, and rapes her. Concannon pushes Tyler into the barn, where Alexa is making cuts into Lalo's skin. It is revealed that Alexa wants to be a director as well, and to prove herself to her father, she continues to viciously slash at Lalo's flesh. Wilson and Alexa start arguing.

Babyface is called away by Wilson and returns to the barn, leaving Serina alone. She breaks free from her binds and successfully escapes the room. Alexa stabs Lalo in the chest, killing him. Concannon tells his daughter he's the only director of the family and shoots her. Babyface, angered by Alexa's death, turns on Concannon and fights him. Concannon screams out that he is Babyface's father. Tyler takes a camera and encourages Babyface to kill Concannon – which he does. Babyface then turns on Tyler but before he can kill him, Serina stabs Babyface through the back with a long iron staff, apparently killing him. However, Serina is hit by a shovel and Alexa, still alive, hits Tyler as well, knocking him unconscious.

Tyler awakens in a cinema room built in the house's basement. Set up as members of a macabre audience are the corpses of all those who died in the filming of The Hills Run Red, including Concannon and Lalo. Alexa gives Tyler the opportunity to do the thing he'd wanted all along - watch the entirety of the film, uncut. Alexa leaves as the film is screened, leaving Tyler to watch all the bloody deaths of the actors by himself. He bursts into maniacal laughter and the film abruptly cuts to the credits, leaving Tyler's fate open for the audience to decide.

Alexa walks into the cellar, checking in on Serina. Serina, bound by the wrists, struggles, and Alexa shows Serina Babyface's mask, asking if she thinks it'll be good for the baby: Serina is several months pregnant, presumably with Babyface's child (Alexa's grandchild). Alexa sings a lullaby to Serina's baby, and the end credits continue to roll as Serina screams.

Cast

Release

The film was released on DVD on September 29, 2009[4] by Warner Home Video.[5] It had previously been shown at the UK Frightfest.[6]

Reception

Critical reception for the film has been mixed-positive.

J.R. McNamara from Digital Retribution.com praised the film calling it "the best 80s styled slasher [films]" "[With] perfect sized doses (all lethal) of beatings, brutalizations, babes and breasts all make for a great film".[7] Daryl Loomis from DVD Verdict.com gave the film a positive review stating "The Hills Run Red is an above average little horror movie that is a love affair with horror for its director. He got to make his movie, but also got to travel back in time to make a film from what he feels is the golden age for the genre. It's a good idea that is pulled off reasonably well. For horror fans, this is definitely worth a rental".[8]

Gareth Jones from Dread Central awarded the film a score of 4 / 5 stating "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".[9]

It currently has a 57% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Exclusive: Dave Parker & Robert Burnett Talk The Hills Run Red". Dread Central. 2009-09-28. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  2. ↑ "DVD Releases: Sept 29, 2009: The Trauma of a Shortcut to The Hills that Run Red". Dread Central. 2009-09-29. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  3. ↑ "Excl: The Hills Run Red 's Sophie Monk". Shock Till You Drop. 2009-09-29. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  4. ↑ "The Hills Run Red and Trick 'r Treat at a Dark Delicacies Signing!". Dread Central. 2009-10-08. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  5. ↑ "Watch 'The Hills Run Red' Original Trailers". Fearnet. 2009-09-28. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  6. ↑ "Joe Lynch's Body Count: Frightfest UK Edition". Shock Till You Drop. 2009-10-06. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  7. ↑ McNamara, J. "The Hills Run Red DVD Review | Digital Retribution". Digital Retribution.com. J.R. McNamara. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Loomis, Daryl. "DVD Verdict Review - The Hills Run Red". DVD Verdict.com. Daryl Loomis. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  9. ↑ Jones, Gareth. "Hills Run Red, The (2009) - Dread Central". Dread Central.com. Gareth Jones. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Hills Run Red - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 31 October 2014.

External links