The film directly influenced the "New French Extremity" movement’s crossover into Hollywood and paved the way for other successful hard-R remakes like The Last House on the Left (2009) and Evil Dead (2013). It also launched the career of actors like Michael Bailey Smith (Pluto) and Dan Byrd (Bobby), who delivered a surprisingly emotional performance as the timid brother who discovers his courage.
If you have avoided because of its reputation for gore, you are missing a genuinely smart, terrifying, and cathartic piece of cinema. It is not a "torture porn" film; it is a survival epic. It is the Straw Dogs of the desert. It takes a premise that could have been exploitation trash and elevates it into a Shakespearean study of revenge. the hills have eyes -2006-
