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The Hills Run Red (2009 film)
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = The Hills Run Red
| image = the-hills-run-red01.png
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Dave Parker
| producer = Roee Sharon Peled
Jonathan Tzachor
John Carchietta
Robert Meyer Burnett
Carl Morano
| screenplay = David J. Schow
| story = John Carchietta
| based_on =
| starring = Sophie Monk
Tad Hilgenbrink
Janet Montgomery
Alex Wyndham
William Sadler
| music = Frederik Wiedmann
| cinematography = Ilan Rosenberg
| editing = Harold Parker
| narrator = Robert Burnett
| studio = Dark Castle Home Entertainment
Fever Dreams LLC
Ludovico Technique
BUFO
Warner Premiere
| distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
| released =
| runtime = 81 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $4.5 million
}}
'The Hills Run Red' is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Dave Parker and written by David J. Schow and starring Sophie Monk, Tad Hilgenbrink and William Sadler.
Plot
Tyler is obsessed with the horror film 'The Hills Run Red', considered the scariest movie ever made, with the deranged serial killer Babyface in the lead role. However, the film's director, Wilson Wyler Concannon, disappeared years ago, and no known copy of the film exists. Tyler's obsession leads him to neglect his girlfriend, Serina. When Tyler discovers that Concannon's daughter Alexa works in a nightclub as a stripper, he decides to meet her and ask about the lost film. He visits Alexa and asks her about the project. As she gives him a nude lap dance, the audience sees Serina cheating on Tyler with their best friend, Lalo. Alexa informs Tyler that the movie might be in her father's home in the woods.
Tyler drives out to Concannon's home, accompanied by Serina, Lalo, and Alexa. On the way, they are bound and attacked by rednecks, who threaten to rape Alexa and Serina. Babyface appears and kills the assaulters before chasing the teens into the woods and disappearing. Tyler breaks into the house and finds a red room that contains many film reels hanging from the ceiling. When Tyler hears pain-filled screams, he finds Alexa tied to a bed and releases her. The two leave the house and find Serina, but Babyface breaks through the door, brutally throws Tyler into a wall, and injures Serina. Alexa is slammed against the wall by Babyface and says "fetch," telling him to run after Serina and revealing she has been in league with Babyface all along. Tyler drops unconscious as Alexa approaches him, smiling. Serina hides under the car parked in front of the house. Babyface enters a barn as Serina quietly moves to an adjacent building. Serina is shocked to find bloodied bodies in the room, which turns out to be a smokehouse. When Babyface goes inside the smokehouse, he does not find her and leaves. Serina emerges from a drum used to store blood and changes clothes. However, when she leaves the smokehouse, Babyface jumps down at her from the roof.
Tyler wakes and finds himself tied to a wheelchair. Many film reels are on the shelves behind him; all titled The Hills Run Red. Tyler is shocked when Concannon finally appears. Concannon tells him the secret behind the scares in his film and plays a video of twenty years before when the film was shooting. Concannon was dissatisfied with the actor portraying Babyface and angrily explained how to properly make a scene feel scary. He takes Babyface's costume and axe and violently axes the actor to death. It is then that the reason why screenings were canceled and all actors vanished is revealed: the film was considered too violent, and all the death scenes in it were real. He also admits that Babyface is his son, a product of incest between him and Alexa; after his wife died, he lusted after his daughter and raped her when she was thirteen, producing Babyface. Growing up watching 'The Hills Run Red', Babyface mutilated his own face and stitched the masked to himself like the fictional character to please his father. As Concannon speaks with Tyler, Alexa begins filming her own movie as she tortures Lalo in the barn while Babyface rapes Serina.
Concannon brings Tyler to the barn, where he is enraged to see his daughter making her movie without him. He calls Babyface, who leaves Serina alone. She breaks free from her binds and successfully escapes the room. Alexa stabs Lalo in the chest as she argues with her father, killing him. Angered by their disagreements, Concannon tells his daughter he's the only director of the family and shoots her. Angered by Alexa's apparent death, Babyface turns on his father and fights him. Tyler takes a camera and encourages Babyface as he kills Concannon. Babyface then turns on Tyler, but before he can kill him, Serina stabs Babyface through the back with a long iron staff, killing him. However, Alexa recovers and knocks both Serina and Tyler unconscious, enraged by her son's death. Alexa then ties Tyler up and forces him to watch her cut of 'The Hills Run Red,' thanking him for realizing her potential as a director independent from her father. As the film continuously loops, an insane Tyler frees his mouth gag and begins maniacally laughing as he bleeds out.
In a mid-credits scene, Serina, still Alexa's prisoner, is several months pregnant with Babyface's child and brings Babyface's mask as a gift for her future grandchild. Alexa sings a lullaby to Serina's unborn baby as Serina screams.
Cast
Production
'The Hills Run Red', written by John Carchietta and John Dombrow, first began development under Fever Dream Films. In 2006, director Dave Parker and producer Robert Meyer Burnett signed onto the film after turning down an offer to take on the studio's 'Wicked Lake'. Unsatisfied with the screenplay from Carchietta and Dombrow, the team brought in David J. Schow to rework the script. Burnett claimed the duo's script was too "reflective" and "just seemed too much like 'Scream"'. Parker, who had been on hiatus since directing 'The Dead Hate the Living!', and Burnett flew out to Hollywood, California and shot a teaser trailer for the film which drew the attention of Bryan Singer and Gil Adler. Singer would reach out to Diane Nelson, head of Warner Premiere at the time, who would agree to produce the film along with Dark Castle Home Entertainment; giving the greenlight in April 2008. Burnett and Parker initially intended to make the film for $350,000 with Fever Dream Films prior to involvement of Nelson.
In June 2008, the film was officially announced with Sophie Monk, Tad Hilgenbrink, Janet Montgomery, and William Sadler apart of the cast. Monk passed on a role in 'The Hangover' in order to star in the film. Sadler, who already had a working relationship with the film's executive producer Joel Silver, was Parker's first choice for the role of Wilson.
Filming began in Sofia, Bulgaria in June 2008 and wrapped the following month. In an interview in 2019, Monk herself admitted to not learning her lines.
Release
'The Hills Run Red' was first screened at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 12, 2009.
Home media
The film was released on DVD on September 29, 2009 by Warner Home Video. In April 2020, Shout Factory announced they would release the film on blu-ray for the first time, setting a release date for June 16, 2020.Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 'The Hills Run Red' received an approval rating of 57% based on 7 reviews, and an average rating of 5.4/10.
J. R. McNamara from 'Digital Retribution.com' praised the film calling it "the best 80s styled slasher [films]" "[With] perfect sized doses (all lethal) of beatings, brutalizations, babes and breasts all make for a great film".
Daryl Loomis from 'DVD Verdict' gave the film a positive review stating "'The Hills Run Red' is an above average little horror movie that is a love affair with horror for its director. He got to make his movie, but also got to travel back in time to make a film from what he feels is the golden age for the genre. It's a good idea that is pulled off reasonably well. For horror fans, this is definitely worth a rental".
Gareth Jones from 'Dread Central' awarded the film a score of 4/5 stating "If youre a fan of slasher flicks, or even just truly inventive and twisted horror, you owe it to yourself to pick it up". Felix Vasquez from 'Cinema Crazed'called it "[a] maniacal, gory, and smart slasher", commending the film's anarchic tone, quick pacing, themes, and villain.
Tyler Foster from 'DVD Talk' awarded the film 3/5 stars, stating that the film was above average in terms of the horror films released during that time, while also stating that the film was "not that great in the bigger picture". Will Brownridge from 'The Film Reel' commended the film's villain as being "creepy", characters, and gore. However, Brownridge criticized the film's storyline, and plot twist, which he felt was "stupid". Ian Jane from 'Rock! Shock! Pop!' stated that the film was "not particularly original, and at times, its border line dumb".
References
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