Day 139 of the challenge! Someone needs to explain what I'm missing here, because The Hills Have Eyes did not live up to it's cult status. I understand that it's a product of it's time. Anytime I watch an older film (especially those that don't age well), I try to judge it based on it's own merit and not on what I expect from modern movies. Even with that mind set, I found The Hills Have Eyes to be a completely boring and uninteresting slog. There's no sense of atmosphere to be found anywhere in the film, and the pacing is almost unbearable. That's something coming from a guy that loves slow burning films. It's a movie with 3 or 4 set pieces stitched together with about an hour of desert b-roll in between them all.
I get the appeal of exploitation horror films, but I don't like shock value just for the sake of shock value. There has to be some emotional connection to at least some of the characters for me to be fully engaged, and that just didn't happen here. Mutant cannibals from the hills terrorizing unlucky roadtrippers is an interesting premise for sure, but not if it's cheaply put together with an uninteresting plot and characters. If you can enjoy shock value without needing anything else, The Hills Have Eyes is for you.