31 Nights of Terror #21 - The Hills Run Red (2009)

The Hills Run Red (2009)
Director: Dave Parker
Starring: Sophie Monk, Tad Hilgenbrink, William Sadler
Format: DVD (Warner Premiere)

- Nasty little opening. Is this going to be torture porn?
- And a fake "this is real" text scroll, ala Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
- Horror movie fans as protagonists. Will they be funny like the two kids in Summer School or as know-it-all as the Scream teens.
- William Sadler. A favourite of Frank Darabont (appeared in Green Mile, The Mist, Shawshank Redemption) and a great all-round actor. Who can forget him as the Grim Reaper in Bill and Ted?
- Less than five minutes in and we get our first naked breasts. Not that I'm complaining.
- Nice, they're watching House on Haunted Hill (the Vincent Price original).
- Sophie Monk. British former pop singer. She's certainly attractive enough, but let's see if she can act.
- Okay, Tyler is definitely gay. Passing up a naked Sophie Monk sprawled on the bed? Yup, gay.
- All you need to kick a hardcore drug habit is a montage. Even Rocky had a montage.
- So according to IMDB three of the four main protagonists are British, pretending to be American. Wow.
- Nice messy kill, but boo CGI! Boo-urns!
- Kidnappy, rapey rednecks, meet Babyface.
- That chick is good at holding her breath for a long time.
- How'd she get so clean again?
- Twisty ending.

Overall thoughts: The Hills Run Red has all the elements of a great horror movie, in particular a good plot (with several good twists), good music, a creepy and isolated location and lots of blood, gore and nudity. Unfortunately the sum of the parts don't add up to a final product that quite hits the mark. Don't get me wrong, there's some good viewing to be had, but there's something missing, something intangible that stops it from being really good. That being said, if you're after a modern horror movie with tits, gore and an interesting storyline, you'd do worse than checking out The Hills Run Red.