The Hills Run Red (2009 film)

Tyler is obsessed with the horror film The Hills Run Red, considered the scariest movie ever made, with the deranged serial killer Babyface in the lead role. However, the film's director, Wilson Wyler Concannon, disappeared years ago and there is no known copy of the film. Tyler's obsession with the film leads him to neglect his girlfriend Serina. When Tyler discovers that Concannon's daughter Alexa works in a night club as a stripper, he decides to meet her and ask about the lost film. He visits Alexa and asks her about the project. As she gives him a nude lap dance, the audience sees Serina cheating on Tyler with their best friend Lalo. Alexa informs Tyler that the movie might be in her father's home in the woods.

Tyler drives out to Concannon's home, accompanied by Serina, Lalo, and Alexa. On the way, they are bound and attacked by rednecks, who threaten to rape Alexa and Serina. Babyface appears and kills the assaulters before chasing the teens into the woods, and then disappears. Tyler breaks into the house and finds a red room that contains many film reels hanging from the ceiling. When Tyler hears pain-filled screams, he finds Alexa tied to a bed and releases her. The two leave the house and find Serina, but Babyface breaks through the door, brutally throws Tyler into a wall and injures Serina. Alexa is slammed against the wall by Babyface and says "fetch," telling him to run after Serina and revealing she is in league with Babyface all along. Tyler drops unconscious as Alexa approaches him, smiling. Serina hides under the car parked in front of the house. Babyface enters a barn as Serina quietly moves to an adjacent building. Serina is shocked to find bloodied bodies in the room, which turns out to be a smoke house. When Babyface goes inside the smoke house, he doesn't find her and leaves. Serina emerges from a drum that was used to store blood and changes clothes. However, when she leaves the smoke house, Babyface jumps down at her from the roof.

Tyler wakes and finds himself tied to a wheelchair. On the shelves behind him are many film reels, all titled The Hills Run Red. Tyler is shocked when Concannon finally appears. Concannon tells him the secret behind the scares in his film, and plays a video of twenty years before, when the film was in shooting. Concannon was dissatisfied with the actor portraying Babyface, and angrily explains to him how to properly make a scene feel scary. He takes Babyface's costume and axe, and violently axes the actor to death. It is then that the reason why screenings were canceled and all actors vanished is revealed: the film was considered too violent, and all the death scenes in it were real. He also reveals to Tyler that Babyface is his son, a product of incest between him and Alexa; after his wife died, he lusted after his daughter and raped her when she was thirteen, producing Babyface. Growing up watching The Hills Run Red, Babyface mutilated his own face and stitched the masked to himself like the fictional character to please his father. As Concannon speaks with Tyler, Alexa begins filming her own movie as she tortures Lalo in the barn, while Babyface rapes Serina.

Concannon brings Tyler to the barn where he is enraged to see his daughter making her own movie without him. He calls Babyface, who leaves Serina alone. She breaks free from her binds and successfully escapes the room. As she argues with her father, Alexa stabs Lalo in the chest, killing him. Angered by their disagreements, Concannon tells his daughter he's the only director of the family and shoots her. Babyface, angered by Alexa's apparent death, turns on his father and fights him. Tyler takes a camera and encourages Babyface as he kills Concannon. Babyface then turns on Tyler but before he can kill him, Serina stabs Babyface through the back with a long iron staff, killing him. However, Alexa recovers and, enraged by her son's death, knocks both Serina and Tyler unconscious. Alexa then ties Tyler up and forces him to watch her cut of The Hills Run Red, thanking him for realizing her potential as a director independent from her father. As the film continuously loops, an insane Tyler frees his mouth gag and begins laughing maniacally as he bleeds out.

In a mid-credits scene, Serina, still Alexa's prisoner, is several months pregnant with Babyface's child and brings Babyface's mask as a gift for her future grandchild. Alexa sings a lullaby to Serina's unborn baby as Serina screams.

The Hills Run Red was first screened at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 12, 2009.[4]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Hills Run Red received an approval rating of 57% based on 7 reviews, and an average rating of 5.4/10.[6]

J. R. McNamara from Digital Retribution.com praised the film calling it "the best 80s styled slasher [films]" "[With] perfect sized doses (all lethal) of beatings, brutalizations, babes and breasts all make for a great film".[7] Daryl Loomis from DVD Verdict gave the film a positive review stating "The Hills Run Red is an above average little horror movie that is a love affair with horror for its director. He got to make his movie, but also got to travel back in time to make a film from what he feels is the golden age for the genre. It's a good idea that is pulled off reasonably well. For horror fans, this is definitely worth a rental".[8]

Gareth Jones from Dread Central awarded the film a score of 4/5 stating "If you’re a fan of slasher flicks, or even just truly inventive and twisted horror, you owe it to yourself to pick it up".[9] Felix Vasquez from Cinema Crazedcalled it "[a] maniacal, gory, and smart slasher", commending the film's anarchic tone, quick pacing, themes, and villain.[10]

Tyler Foster from DVD Talk awarded the film 3/5 stars, stating that the film was above average in terms of the horror films released during that time, while also stating that the film was "not that great in the bigger picture".[11] Will Brownridge from The Film Reel commended the film's villain as being "creepy", characters, and gore. However, Brownridge criticized the film's storyline, and plot twist, which he felt was "stupid".[12] Ian Jane from Rock! Shock! Pop! stated that the film was "not particularly original, and at times, it’s border line dumb".[13]

• The Hills Run Red at AllMovie
• The Hills Run Red at IMDb
• The Hills Run Red at Rotten Tomatoes