The Hills Have Eyes: The Scene That Was Too Dark For Wes Craven’s Movie

While shooting his classic The Hills Have Eyes, filmmaker Wes Craven admitted that there was a scene too dark for even him to shoot. The late auteur, who would go on to create A Nightmare On Elm Street and the Scream franchise, discovered one boundary that even he couldn’t cross.

The Hills Have Eyes was a surprise hit with audiences when it opened in the summer of 1977. Though eclipsed by other big studio films including Smokey and the Bandit, it ultimately grossed more than the expensive Dino De Laurentiis Jaws rip-off Orca, which was released on the same day. The story of a typical American family stranded in the Nevada desert and terrorized by a cannibal family hit a nerve with the public. After a busy platform release, it was expanded in the fall and continued successful playdates for several more months. Its success led to more commercial work for Craven, including the TV movie Summer of Fear and PolyGram’s Deadly Blessing.

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Before the filmmaker courted the mainstream, his claim to fame was the unexpected hit, The Last House on the Left. The gruesome and shocking 1972 film, propelled by a notorious ad campaign, typecast him as an exploitation director. Originally conceived as an adult film, the direction was changed after it was suggested it might make a better horror movie. The plot revolved around four criminals who kidnap two young women looking for drugs. The women are taken to a secluded area where they are raped and murdered. Fate leads the four to the home of one of the murdered women, whose parents take out bloody revenge. The film caused a lot of controversy during its original run and was re-released multiple times.

The Hills Have Eyes Scene That Was Too Dark For Even Wes Craven

Several years later, when Craven was finding it difficult to get work, producer Peter Locke suggested that he make another horror film. Locke recommended the desert location as it would make a stark, memorable landscape and would be inexpensive to use. Craven agreed, taking as inspiration the Sawney Bean legend, a Scottish cannibal clan reportedly responsible for the deaths of over a thousand people. While Locke wanted another violent exploitation movie along the lines of Last House on the Left, Craven was adamant that it be more suspenseful work. His final script split the difference with elements of both.

While shooting the film, the director toyed with the idea of having the cannibal clan in the film kidnap the family’s baby and eat it. It had been reported that the cast was uniformly against this plot point, which Craven eventually decided against. Even after the brutality of Last House on the Left, the murder and cannibalization of a baby proved too much for him. Baby Katy is kidnapped in the film, but is eventually rescued by Ruby, one member of the cannibal family. This was a wise decision as the jeopardy it creates—and the mere idea of what might happen—generates considerable suspense. A popular remake, directed by Alexandre Aja in 2006, kept all the elements of the original The Hills Have Eyes intact.

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