The Hills Run Red

[jonbly]

Another film trying to be clever... a horror movie about a horror movie being made about a hunt for a lost horror movie. Some good bits... her father's reaction to her directorial efforts were entertaining. Let down a little by not-quite special effects.

Unfortunately here, what's sticking in jonbly's mind is the rapid-cut sequences of 'memories' which Alexa 'sees' at random points in the first half... it's an attempt to spice up the slow build of the film, but it's just annoying. And there's a general problem that Alexa is the focus of the tension-building in the first half... which makes no sense by the end.

6/10

[giles edwards]

It makes sense if her daddy's still shooting the film and, therefore, her "acting" of the terrified victim.

Good stuff from, Parker. Liked this a lot, even if it was a trimmed R Rated version. Roll on his next splatterpunk opus! Was it Skipp ort Specter?

[tschill]

First FrightFest film - and a major disappointment. The film considers itself to be so clever, so understanding, but the film analysis inside the narration doesn't add anything to the film's structure despite some cheap laughs. Also it had the same problem like Behind the mask - it is not very satisfying to switch the perspective from analysis to empathy just for the sake of building up tension.
SFX were okay, but didn't help you to overcome the feeling to watch a conglomeration of standard situations. What I also don't like: "Realistic" torture in combination with "funny" comments by the tormenter. Too cynical for empathic people like me.

5/10

[krispyg]

As a slasher fan I thought it was ok and the concept interesting enough to maintain my concentration. I hoped we may have found a new slasher hero in Babyface but alas that was not the case

[StuartOC]

There's now a full review of The Hills Run Red over at Screenjabber:

http://www.screenjabber.com/hills-run-red

[Paul]

This is the worse horror film ever.

[sherbetbizarre]

I seemed to like this one more than most... certainly the premise more than the execution.

[splittter]

As one of the questioners said afterwards this brought back fond memories of my youth, reading about films for years before finally tracking down some 19th generation laserdisc dub from a sketchy bloke at a market ... great days

As for the film itself, the beginning was really dodgy... bit too cheesy and mainstream ... when they started to intercut the stripping and the sex scene ... I mean, come on. But once the hills really did start to run red thought it was a decent-ish slasher movie, am always up for a bit of teenagers-running-around-woods-getting-cut-up fun. The film angle didn't work that well, and most of the fun came from the deaths and over-the-top gore ... liked the hiding in the bucket of blood quite a bit. Overall i thought it was just about OK.

[Wolfshade]

I'd agree with 6/10, there was just something very 6/10 about this film - standard low budget straight-to-DVD gorefest, fairly enjoyable but certainly nothing mindblowing.

[Jekyll]

Was alright but the whole search for lost film has been done better before.

[kimblebee]

Ended up skipping after half an hour - took way too long to get going, was hyped up too much by the director beforehand and just looked a bit too much like a softcore porn movie for my liking... A lot of people said it improved in the last half but come on people, that's what test screenings are for - filmmakers really need to make the most of them then they wont get so many walkouts...

Although i did like the mask, but was that really from a child's doll? if so it must have been a pretty big doll!

[Maniacal]

7/10 from me, nothing like a no brainier slasher movie. It gets an extra points for tits.

[odishon]

This just got an ok from me. Fun in parts, nicely gory in others but forgettable over all.

[streetrw]

It wasn't bad at all - it certainly did the job on the blood and screaming level but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The presence of an Italian poster (which is inside the mad director's house) for this mysterious old movie surely indicates there were prints in other languages at least - I couldn't therefore see how it could be so completely lost so I think it tripped itself up there. But it wasn't bad.

[lupogirl]

Thought this was very much in the Texas Chainsaw style. Looked good. I felt the film could not decide whether to be a horror or comedy horror. It was one of those rares films I wanted to see more gore. Really felt it was holding back.

I think later in the Q&A it turns out we were shown a R rated film.