Looking at the cover I just assumed that this was going to be just another slasher in the woods flick. And at first that is pretty much what it is. But then it turns to torture porn as well as throwing in some snuff, so it's actually a bit of a good roller coaster ride. It has a lot of gore, though possibly the most extreme effect, that of having a girl ripped in half, is let down by being CGI. It also has a lot of female topless nudity. Babyface, the masked killer, looks like he could give Jason a run for his money. Difference here is that he can actually talk - in a normal human voice! On the downside there are many plot holes, though with horror movies that often just comes with the territory. Sophie Monk is the healthiest looking junkie that I have ever seen and her sudden detox is nothing short of a miracle! Apparently she is also much older than she looks in the film, but I won't give that away. Good climax, this is no classic but certainly better than average.

I started watching the movie, having no idea what it was about. I was pleasantly surprised. It had a really well written story-line and plot. Easily re-watchable and it'd actually make more sense the second time watching. For a B-grade horror film it certainly delivered. It had gore, suspense, great plot, all the characteristics needed for a great horror film.I was expecting a terrible movie, which sub-par acting, but even for a cast list I had never heard of before (except Sophie Monk) it was a truly great movie.

Back in the 1980s famous great horror aficionado Wilson Wyler Concannon (William Sadler) was renowned for no movies whatsoever apart from one that wasn't even released, as it went missing. That movie is "The Hills Run Red", a story about Baby-Face, a guy who cut off his own face and sewed on a dolls mask to replace it and soon afterwards goes on a horror rampage. Enticed by the story and hoping that it becomes his own claim to fame aspiring director Tyler (Tad Hilgenbrink) decides to track down the long lost picture and its infamous director. This leads him to Concannon's daughter Alexa (the beautiful and oft naked Sophie Monk), now working as a stripper in a biker's pub. After convincing her to partake in his endeavour he takes a camera and two filmmaker friends to retake that which had been forgotten.Dark Castle Entertainment has an unrivaled gift of releasing crappy horror flicks in succession with the odd gem hidden behind a cascade of crappiness. This one unfortunately flows down straight to the gutter together with flicks such as "The Reaping" or "Thirteen Ghosts". The main flaw of all these seems to be exceptionally poor character development and script inadequacies substituted by extreme gore. This time around we actually have a lot of promise in the movie, which runs like a "Friday the Thirteen" ripoff for large parts of its runtime, only to counterpoint this with some "Scream" type movie references. Some scenes hilariously hit the spot, with Baby-Face's out-of-character response to one of the hapless victims a delightful highlight of this otherwise poor movie.Despite some admirable qualities the twist introduced two-thirds into the movie largely fails. In a big part due to the incapability of William Sadler and Sophie Monk to carry their roles. Their bickering about the art of horror films is irritating and badly written, which doesn't help in the plot resolution, as this was the issue that would either carry or drown the movie (especially the poorly scripted debate between old-fashioned slashers and modern gorno).It isn't entirely a waste of time and those fans of over-the-top gore (occasionally going into gorno territory), but given the limited emotional involvement and the sub-par payoff it seems like a wasted opportunity for a decent horror. As it is I would suggest passing and seeking out the Rob Zombie "House of 1000 Corpses".

I was feeling good about the proposition of watching The Hills Run Red, as I only watched it after reading some very positive DVD reviews giving it a boost.The opening scene only ramped up my anticipation too, it set a tone that at least told me this wasn't going to be a PG 13 snoozefest and set a solid standard that I hoped the remainder of the film might aspire to.The bad news – That didn't happen.The good news – The movie wasn't awful at least... but just barely.We open with credits interspersed with "cuts" of a young kid calmly taking the scissors to his own face in fairly graphic and gory detail. As yet we have no idea why but it serves as an effective opening scene which at least tells us this isn't going to be Prom Night 2: Prom Queen's Revenge.The plot that brings Victims A through D into the sphere of Killer A involves aspiring filmmakers and their efforts to track down an infamous but reclusive director who made a particularly gory - and subsequently banned - horror film in the 80s.The film was conveniently call The Hills Run Red, and all that exists is a crappy trailer, we are told this by words on the screen, as explaining events and actions through plot takes valuable time and we need to get to the boobies and gore.The killer in the film was named Babyface, who cut off his own face and sewed a dead eyed expressionless doll's face over the top of what remained.Watching the trailer through the eyes of one of the filmmakers gave no cause for alarm, and definitely no reason as to why the thing was banned, but here we once again obey the convention of if the film says it was too gory, then it was too gory. (This is usually utilised with master criminals, who do nothing that suggests intelligence or genius but we believe they are because we are told so.) A young filmmaking dude named Travis tracks down the daughter of the director, who in a fortunate twist of cinematic convenience is a young blonde hottie who strips for a living. Of course he goes to meet her at "work", so that they might talk shop over a lapdance... No complaints here.The stripper Alexa takes Tyler home and offers herself up to him, Tyler refuses as he recognises that Alexa is a full blown junkie, so rather than hopping aboard he does the right thing and puts her through a 30 second detox montage to sober her up so that she may be of some use later in the film.Meanwhile his flatmate Gabe humps the crap out of Tyler's girlfriend Serina in a variety of positions in Tyler's flat. (Shoulda taken the offer man!) For some reason this is never touched on for the rest of the film. His best mate plowed his girlfriend! They didn't use that info to justify a difficult decision or a uncomfortable reveal later in the film? So after the magical detox capabilities offered by a montage Alexa joins the three others to embark upon a junket to visit all the main sites used in filming the original film, hoping to uncover something that helps lead them to the director I guess.They interview locals who somehow haven't moved in 27 years, some of them looking like they are in their mid 30s, which means they were under 10 when the movie was made and shouldn't have been around anyway.This brief sequence takes them near the deserted homestead where the main sequences were filmed, I say near as they seemed to walk for a long while to find the house, in the dark of course.As they camp for the night it is obvious that they are being watched… and this is always where the alleged fun starts.They are beset by a group of rednecks that they interviewed earlier, keen to do a little filmmaking of their own with Alexa as the unwilling star, only they are rudely interrupted - and killed - by none other than Babyface.Oh come on, that isn't a spoiler. We all knew he was coming.Then we have 20 more minutes of gore, blood, some more inexplicable nudity (again no complaints) and a few twists that might be shocking if you've never seen a movie before.The surprising part of all this is that Sophie Monk (Alexa) - a teen pop star in Australia as a result of those manufactured for a TV show groups - can sorta act, and she isn't averse to taking her gear off a few times too if you disagree.She does need to lay off the Botox though, her lips are so big that she had to start saying her line as the other actor gave her the lead in line, as it took a few seconds to arrive past the Jaggeresque flappers. The other surgery that she has obviously had is hard to fault though... Both of them.After the great first couple minutes it was a little disappointing that the film allowed itself to end up nothing more than a running-around-chased-by-a-freak-with-a-knife screamfest.Another not really interesting fact is that the film was made in Czechoslovakia. Or Bulgaria. Or one of the other 'garias, Hungaria? As the credits rolled I have never seen so many surnames ending with V, (Kabakov, Jankov etc.) Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. After the opening face-peeling scene the only reason to hang around is my fascinating fact involving film crew members whose name ends with "v". If that convinces you to bother with the rest I am sorry.If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com