I've been a fan of Dave Parker since I first saw his zombie flick The Dead Hate the Living way back in 1999 (which seems like a lifetime ago at this point). A lot of people didn't enjoy TDHtL as much as I did, but if you were horror literate enough to pick up all the little homages and in-jokes, it was a lot of fun-and Parker was certainly comfortable behind the camera.

In the intervening decade, the filmmaker has worked on a lot of behind-the-scenes horror stuff-and I was starting to wonder if we'd ever see another feature length film with Parker's name attached as director. So I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was when a little film called The Hills Run Red started generating buzz and I learned that Parker was the guy sitting in the director's chair. Now that I've finally seen the film, I still think Parker has the potential to be one of the genre's shining lights, but The Hills Run Red isn't as good as I'd hoped it would be.

The shame of the film's failings (which is probably a harsher term than necessary) is that everything was lining up in this particular movie like it was made specifically for me. A director I admire helming a film about a lost movie that so disturbed audiences that it was subsequently destroyed and the quest to find the filmmaker. I love stories about movies that were so messed up that they had to be eradicated for the public good. I adore Carpenter's Cigarette Burns for that very reason. I suspected we'd be getting something along those same lines in THRR, and in the beginning, we did. Unfortunately, about halfway through it shifts into something a lot less interesting and satisfying: your typical teens in the woods slasher flick.

Tad Hilgenbrink stars as Tyler, a film student who's become obsessed with a horror flick titled The Hills Run Red. The movie, which was directed by a guy named William Wyler Concannon (William Sadler) was so disturbing that it was shown only once then destroyed. Concannon disappeared soon after and all that's left of his masterwork are a few interviews and a trailer. Tyler wants to make a documentary about his quest to find a copy of the film, and when he finally locates the only living member of the cast (Sophie Monk-playing the director's daughter), he drags her, his girlfriend, and his best friend into the woods in search of the filming locations. If you guess that the film's babydoll-masked killer is still stalking the countryside, you've clearly seen a few slasher flicks.

What disappointed me most about The Hills Run Red was the story. One of the founding fathers of the splatterpunk literary movement, David J. Schow, worked on the script-which led me to expect something truly amazing (Schow's fiction has always been excellent and his previous film work hasn't been bad either).I had high hopes early on, but what starts out promising starts to sputter out once the four leads head to the woods.

The Hills Run Red tries to defy expectations in odd ways, but they often feel more like they were designed than organic components of the narrative. When one character starts prattling on about how it's always dangerous to go to the woods and shows off the gun he's brought for protection I wasn't sure how to react. What's presented as a "deconstructionist" approach to the clichés of slasher cinema has itself become cliché with the release of Wes Craven's Scream over thirteen years ago. The second half of the movie is filled with moments like these and they kill the overall vibe. Add in some plot twists that are painfully telegraphed early on and it's hard to figure out what sort of reaction THRR is aiming for. Is it a serious slasher flick or is poking fun at the conventions of the genre? No matter which answer you eventually choose, the fact of the matter is that it's not particularly successful at either thing.

Yet for its various narrative shortcomings, The Hills Run Red still manages to provide some fun for those who enjoy masked killers chasing people through isolated forests. Babyface, the film's killer, has an interesting backstory and creepy mask. The film features a decent amount of gore, presented in a campy way that's probably more fun than it ought to be and the climactic shots evoke memories of Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. The shame is that they didn't wrap the film with that particular sequence, but instead went back to the well one last time and included a silly twist ending shot that was completely unnecessary. Things like this are why The Hills Run Red often feels frustrating. Parker doesn't seem to have enough faith in the things he's doing well-and as such he tends to go for that one last shot or scene that ruins everything because it's overreaching and trying too hard.

Ultimately, The Hills Run Red is a passable direct-to-DVD slasher flick. It's unfortunate that it garnered so much buzz from the horror community prior to release because it's not nearly as good as the hyped up reviews would lead you to believe. Had I seen it cold, without having heard the buzz, I still wouldn't think it was anything better than average-but I might have felt at least somewhat less letdown by it. I still think Dave Parker is a filmmaker worth watching, but I hope he chooses his next project with a little keener eye toward the quality of the screenplay. There's absolutely nothing wrong with making an average slasher film-unless you have the talent to do something better. Parker has that talent. Here's to hoping he blows us all away with it in his next project.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day