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The episode of WTF Really Happened to This Horror Movie covering The Hills Have Eyes was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

“We’re gonna be French fries! Human French fries!”

We have talked about the loose definition for based on a real story, but what happens when the story the movie is based upon may not be entirely true? This can happen in movies like The possession, which was based off an internet article. Someone fleshed it out into a tale when they thought that the thing they purchased was cool. Sometimes a movie is merely inspired by a real event, even if it’s not credited in the credits. Think A Nightmare On Elm Street. Wes Craven was inspired by articles about people dying in sleep, and being afraid to sleep. He then expanded the story with Freddy Kruger. Wes Craven has been inspired by other things before. The Hills Have Eyes was inspired by the story of a Scottish cannibal named Sawney Bean, and how civilized people can become savages. Just a heads up, while I personally prefer the 2006 remake, we will be discussing the 1977 original as it was the one originally inspired by the famous cannibal whereas the remake blames nuclear testing.Make sure you don’t get lost in the desert as we find out what REALLY happened to

The Hills Have Eyes.Wes Craven got his start with the famous, and infamous,

The Last House on the Left. Wes Craven got his start with the infamous, and famous, The Last House on the Left. Sean S. Cunningham made the movie with him, and they went on to create two of the most endearing horror villains ever with Jason Voorhees. Craven went a few years before making another movie after Last house. When he finally did, he directed an adult film under the name Abe Snake. If we were being honest, it sounds more like an actor in an adult film than a director of an adult movie. Two years later, we got The Hills have Eyes. Peter Locke, a producer on Last House

was interested in making another horror film as it could be profitable and cheap to make. It was made for 700,000, but it would bring in 25 million at box office, and become a certified success. It’s a dog. A dog is having a flashback. Years later, the remake would also get a sequel. Craven wrote and directed the script, which was based on Scottish cannibal Sawney bean. He took his celluloid inspirations from The Grapes Of Wrath as well as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The crew was a well-known one. They filmed the film in the Mojave Desert. The crew was made up of many Roger Corman veterans who knew how to make movies on a budget. The production designer had also worked on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The weather was hot and nobody was happy at the start of the shoot, but Craven got everyone excited and they finally believed in him and his project. Dee Wallace started acting in 1974, and hasn’t slowed down since. She has 274 credits, but genre standouts such as

Critters and The Howling are what make her resume. She was still a young actress, but her fans were already clamoring for her to return to them in future roles. She doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Berryman was already in the Jack Nicholson blockbuster One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but he was thrilled to be in horror movies because he fell for them after watching 1944’s The Mummy’s Curse as well as the old Universal Classics. The first time I saw him, he was in Weird science. He has made it a career to embrace his unique looks and not be embarrassed by them. Kudos to you, sir. He has appeared in many other things, from The Devil’s Rejects up to Star trek 4 and even a voice for a Scooby-Doo animated movie. He is a sweetheart by all accounts and continues to work even today. The rest of the cast did not do much, or at least, not that many genre fans are aware of, but Janus Steadman and Janus Blythe were both recognizable from many genre flicks when they were active. Local authorities and even the Air Force are snooping on Ruby. Ruby wants Fred to take her along with him. When a family stops them on their way to Los Angeles to ask for directions and supplies, they discuss a family that seems different. The family consists of Ethel, Big Bob, Brenda and Bobby, Lynn and Doug, their dogs, and Katy. Bob is a recently retired police officer and Fred warns them not to go deeper into the desert but they ignore them and head off anyway, even when Doug overhears a strange conversation with Ruby and an unnamed man.(FACTOMETER: 25%) Ok, so this will mostly be an exercise in what supposedly happened in 16th century and how it inspired the movie. Craven did not want to make an historically accurate account of Sawney Bean, but he wanted to tell the story of people who went insane in isolation and committed terrible acts. The family at the center of Hills have Eyes

are cannibals that trap people, eat them and steal supplies. Sawney Bean, a ditch digger like his father, married a woman he thought was vicious and some even called a witch. They went away together and found an isolated cave, somewhat like the family in our movie, and built a family together while discovering the apparent joys of cannibalism.

The family continues their drive but is startled by a jet and veers off the main road to become stranded. Bob decides to return to the spot where they stopped to ask for help, and to see if Fred could do anything to help them. Meanwhile, the mysterious mountain family is making traps to capture them. Bobby is chasing Beauty, one of the family’s dogs, who runs off to chase something. Beauty catches up with one of the members of the family, but she is unfortunately killed. Bobby returns to the rest at nightfall. Big Bob returns to Fred’s house to find him hanging from his belt. Fred tells Bob that his family is not safe because there’s something out there. Fred and his wife were living out here at a time when the area was booming, but when they had a second child, a boy, something was wrong with him. He left his sister and burned down the house, but then took a woman from a prostitute to start a family. Fred is killed by his son and Bob flees only to get captured by who we now know as Papa Jupiter.(FACTOMETER: 25%) The movie does allude here to a son running off and marrying a woman of ill repute like the legend goes so I guess that’s something. They also started a family together, which is part of the Sawney Bean tale. The difference is in how deep the relationship went. While both parties fled into a cave, Sawney & Agnes produced an even larger family by incest, with 6 daughters,8 sons,14 granddaughters and 18 grandson. The Bean family, like the cannibals of the movie, would wait until evening to capture victims who wandered too far at night. The Bean family would not only eat their victims, but they would also pickle them in barrels and discard other parts which ended up washing up on beaches. However, nobody could identify these parts. Then they light him on fire in order to distract the family, while the cannibals search for supplies inside the RV. They eat a chicken and their meat before attacking Brenda and taking her baby. Ethel, Lynne and the baby are taken by the cannibals. They fled with the baby in the night, just as Bobby and Doug returned to find their loved one dead. they decide to go after the family as the baby was taken and Beast, the remaining dog, kills one of the cannibals by knocking them off a cliff.(FACTOMETER: 25%) Nothing here really resembles anything from the tale of the Bean family except for them attacking and taking people back to their cave to eat. The family went for years without being discovered as there were no survivors who could tell the authorities what the cave family was like. In the search for justice, townspeople hung innocent people and suspected innkeepers because they were often the last humans to have seen many of the missing travelers. The family was finally stopped by going after a married couple where the husband could fight free and tell someone. To that end it is similar to our story as the cave people finally messed with the wrong family.

Finding out there are survivors still, Papa Jupiter decides its time to kill them once and for all before enjoying their infant meal. Beast returns to the family and they now have a radio to intercept communication between family members. The cannibals discover this and Papa Jupe gives us a cool speech. Doug heads to the cave with Beast while some cannibals go to the RV in order to find Bobby and Brenda. Ruby has a conscience, and she takes baby Katy to run and gives her to Doug. Brenda and Bobby use Ethels’ body as a lure while Beast takes down Pluto. Berryman will make it to the sequel. Bobby and Brenda are able to spring their trap on Papa Jupe and blow him up with the RV before finishing him off with bullets and Doug is able to save Katy and kill off Mars as the movie ends on a quick stop and a red screen.

(FACTOMETER: 25%) The Bean family finally had their deeds catch up with them when they went after a couple on horseback. The Bean family managed to capture and kill their wife, but the husband was well-trained and able escape with the help of many people who heard the commotion and scared them off. The authorities sent a group of people to find the family. They found bodies, or parts of them, hanging from the ceiling, in barrels or scattered on the ground. According to the version of the story, either the family accepted their punishment willingly or they were buried alive by the group who went after them. If they were captured they were executed by having their hands and legs cut off, and letting them bleed for the men, while the women and kids were burned. One rumored tale is that one daughter escaped, like Ruby in the story, and was hanged after it was discovered that she was a part of the group. It is a dark, violent, unrelenting film that is worth watching. All of them are worth watching. If you want to know more about this story, you can read Jack Ketchum’s

The Offseason

, which is based both on the Bean family’s film and Craven’s. Below are a few of the previous episodes from

WTF really happened to this horror movie?

. To check out the other shows we have on the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel, head over to the channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daqNZ-oWwcghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7VwTylFs_4

Entertainment - Media News Watch originally published at Entertainment - Media News Watch