Horror auteur Wes Craven followed his threadbare but horrifically compelling cult classic Last House on the Left with this wonderfully demented morality fable about a bloody war of attrition between two extremely different families. The story opens on the journey of the Carters, a mildly dysfunctional extended family led by patriarch "Big Bob" Carter (Russ Grieve), as they travel across the California desert in search of an inherited silver mine. When a broken axle leaves them stranded in the
middle of a former nuclear testing site, their attempts to find help lead them unwittingly into the territory of a savage family of cave-dwelling cannibals, the apparent progeny of the bearlike Jupiter (James Whitworth) and an abducted prostitute. Jupiter's eldest son Pluto (professional movie weirdo Michael Berryman) leads the first brutal attack on the defenseless Carters who, through necessity, are driven to equally extreme measures in order to survive. Though the film is not overtly bloody, the scenes depicting this confrontation are rendered with an unflinching directness, and the violations visited on the Carters are so brutal as to make the survivors' regression into savagery all the more convincing. No one is spared from the nightmare: Jupiter's boys have even kidnapped the youngest member of the Carter family -- a mere infant -- to serve as fodder for their next barbecue, and the baby becomes the main point of contention between the rival clans. Craven nevertheless refuses to take the easy way out by depicting his "monsters" as soullessly evil; parallels between either family's "values" are clearly drawn as the differences between the two clans begin to blur. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
As disgusting as the movie is, the ride is never dull, but there's no need to take on the film to begin with unless there's something a little off inside your head.
Craven paints an interesting and uniquely bloody study of how 'normal' people will descend to the lowest depths in order to save themselves, but you'll have to suffer through a lot of tedium to get there.
Fans have been waiting for decades for a proper release of Wes Craven's back-*** desert flick. Anchor Bay's generous extras make this release the Thanksgiving turkey.
A cheap rip-off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that is hard to care about, since the villains are disgusting perverts you want to see dead while the main characters act really stupid most of the time. By the end there is no room left for any moral question intended, for a matter of life and death justifies just about
anything.
This movie is exciting for the most part, not very scary, though. The overall story is predictable, but there are a couple of surprises. I didn't like it, but I didn't think it was bad either, it was just too much like other horror movies at the time so it doesn't stand out. It's was pretty good, but it could have
been a lot better.
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