The Hills Run Red (2009)

Director:

Dave Parker

Writers:

John Carchietta (story)
John Dombrow (written by)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

A group of young horror fans go searching for a film that mysteriously vanished years ago but instead find that the demented killer from the movie is real, and he's thrilled to meet fans who will die gruesomely for his art.

Plot Keywords:

Blood Splatter | Torn In Half | Masked Killer | Barbed Wire | Plead For Help

Cast

Sophie Monk	...	Alexa
Tad Hilgenbrink	...	Tyler (as Tad Hilgenbrinck)
William Sadler	...	Concannon
Janet Montgomery	...	Serina
Alex Wyndham	...	Lalo
Ewan Bailey	...	Sonny
Danko Jordanov	...	Babyface (as Danko Iordanov)
Mike Straub	...	Gabe
Hristo Mitzkov	...	Jimbo
Georgi Dimitrov-Bomba	...	Lance
Ekaterina Temelkova	...	Sherri
Raicho Vasilev	...	Babyface actor
Ithai Dyakov	...	Teen Babyface
Itai Diakov	...	Young Babyface
Petya Ivanova	...	Alexa, age 5

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and torture, grisly images, sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:R (2009) | New Zealand:R18 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Sofia, Bulgaria

Company:

Dark Castle Entertainment

Movie Connections:

References Deliverance (1972)

Solid slasher

In an age where most horror films are either sequels or remakes; one should rejoice when original slashers worth a damn pop up.

"The Hills Run Red" has a knockout hook that sets up quite a decent story. A mysterious "lost" slasher film, called "The Hills Run Red", has many horror fans obsessed with finding it. Such is the case with Tyler, a horror buff, who sets out with his friend and girlfriend to visit the film's locations in order to make a documentary. Along for the ride is the film's notorious director's daughter, Alexa, and once on location the group gets to enliven some true horror.

Good story, solid acting and some decent grue ensure "The Hills Run Red" has some definite highlights and the first half works very well. Present are the irritating "fast-cuts" that have invaded all horror films, it seems, but a decent atmosphere is built and the old "woods-scenario" in slashers never fails when well executed.

A fair amount of jokes and "rulebreakers" enter the film and work surprisingly well (the cell phone bit and the gun (guns are never present in slasher films)) and avoid going over the top. But despite the short running time the film loses steam and goes for one ending too many; both of which aren't too good (don't turn off after the first end credits appear).

"The Hills Run Red" is a solid slasher film for fans of the genre. Most can appreciate the fact that many things are well done here, the film remains faithful to the genre while poking fun at some obvious faults inherent with it and it's quite the gory feast as well. The only ones yawning are not slasher fans to begin with, I think.