the_hills_run_redIf you pop The Hills Run Red into your DVD player, you will see that this movie has a certain infectious, morbid, glee.  It feels nearly as giddy as a school girl on prom night.  It knows it is traveling well trod territory, but makes such a mad dash through it you don’t really mind that you can predict the plot.

In the ’80s, Wilson Wyler Concannon made a movie called “The Hills Run Red” which was so sick, twisted, and shocking, it was quickly pulled from theaters and drive-ins and was eventually lost.  Concannon receded from society in his final years and the movie became the stuff of legend

The mystery that is “THRR” more than fascinates Tyler; it’s an obsession for him.  Tyler convinces his girlfriend, Serina, and his best bud, Lalo, to help him make a documentary on their search for the lost film.  Tyler does some investigative work and locates Concannon’s daughter, Alexa (who, as a child, had a role in the movie). 

All grown up, Alexa is a stripper with a drug problem, and, it turns out, is still haunted by her experience of filming “The Hills Run Red”.  Tyler convinces Alexa to help search for the lost movie, but before they can return to the woods where it was filmed, and even to Concannon’s isolated farmhouse, Tyler helps Alexa kick her drug habit.  Mad glee, people, mad glee.


Once their journey begins, however, Tyler and the gang begin to suspect that Concannon may have actually murdered people in making his movie.  The special effects and set pieces were so disturbing because they were real.  It also falls under their suspicion that Concannon pulled his movie from release because he wasn’t finished filming it, and that someone has intentions of finishing it for him.

The plot to The Hills Run Red can be seen from a mile away, but it’s pretty fun despite all that.  It was sent straight to DVD by Warner Brothers, but it is a couple of bars above what you might think.  It has some clever moments, and although the twists aren’t that shocking, it just may say something about us horror fans, about how numb we may have become at all these scenes of torture, violence, and pain.

4 out of 5
the_novacula