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The general plot of the film had me hooked immediately from the beginning. I am a
sucker for films that fuse into their story films themselves as part of the whole subject
matter. The Hills Run Red is the story of a filmmaker and his film. A film that was so
nasty and graphic that upon completing it, theaters that had initially agreed to give it
a full theatrical run quickly pulled it from their screens and wanted nothing to do with
it. Gee, that sounds like the treatment some of my favorite films of recent years have
been treated like-Trick r Treat, Midnight Meat Train, and Splinter just to name a few.
The film within the film’s director, Concannon (William Sadler), and his slasher flick
were never to be seen again and all that remains to be found was a trailer for the
original film. Fortunately, Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrink) has a hard-on for finding the lost
print of this film and getting down to the bottom of the truth. He is determined to
make a documentary on Concannon and all those still alive that were involved with the
film. Tyler drags his girlfriend and best buddy along for the ride. Unfortunately, after
finding the daughter of Concannon, Alexa (Sophie Monk), stripping at a club, Tyler sets
out to find the mystery of the film and its creator. What he does not know is that the
demented killer in Concannon’s film is real and is not done killing.
For starters, the killer in the film dons a cracked baby doll mask and looks very cool,
almost creepy, especially in one is disturbed by dolls. I, for one, HATE dolls-they have
always left an unsettling feeling in me whenever I see them. Stuart Gordon’s film
DOLLS did nothing to quell this irrational phobia. I also do not dig midgets and clowns.
Now that you know that about me, lets move on. The killer is a big, bulking heap of
mass that dons a lumberjack flannel, a scary-looking busted dolls’ mask and with a
highly deformed head. The grotesque baldness with patches of long scraggly hair
reminded me of one of the many incarnations of Jason Voorhees from the Friday the
13th franchise. So, with our killer, aptly titled “Babyface” (played by Danko
Jordanov), we have a very iconic design within the mask and the style in which he
kills which happens to be by any means necessary. I was sort of shocked when in one
scene “Babyface” used a handgun to shoot one of his victims when prior he had been
using a pickaxe, machete, or any number of sharp instruments.
The film was shot with very slick stylized shots and I enjoyed it very much. It was a
slasher film that had some artistic flair to it, moved along at a very quick pace but
slowed down for the entire necessary plot segments that put together the whole film.
At times, one wonders who is doing the killing, who is telling the truth, and who is
going to live or die. I really felt the director did a fine job of throwing a large amount
of twists and turns into the plot of the film to keep viewers unsure of what exactly
would be happening next.
I also really enjoyed seeing actress Sophie Monk in varying stages of undress throughout
the film. She is a very sexy woman, as well as a fine actress and played the part of
Concannon’s daughter to a tee. The rest of the cast was rounded out by Janet
Montgomery as Serena, Tyler’s girlfriend, and Alex Wyndham as Lalo. The cast was very
believable and everyone gave an above-average performance. The film had a
satisfactory amount of gore, even though there was one scene that some CGI just
made it look awful and it was very evident that going the organic route would have
been a better way to go about doing the effect. Aside from that specific complaint,
the gore and effects were done extremely well and I think most gorehounds will find
that their quota for gore and violence will be adequately and sufficiently satisfied.
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No comment.
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No comment.
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No comment.
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With all the films that have been coming out that are either sequels, remakes, or
redux, I found it very refreshing to see that director Dave Parker has a pair of balls and
some ingenuity in his head to come up with something new, maybe not completely
original in subject matter, but certainly in creating a new arch-villain in the slasher
genre that I would like to see more of. I ended up enjoying this film far more than I
thought I would have. The film has slick packaging, hot faces and bodies, and turned
out to be a solid entry into the slasher film arena. I was very pleasantly surprised. I
highly recommend checking out The Hills Run Red.
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