History Film / TheHillsHaveEyes2006

* DaylightHorror: Even more than in the original. Only a couple of scenes take place at night, while most of the action takes place in the middle of a sunlit desert. Special mention goes to Doug venturing into the hideout of the mutants, an abandoned town for nuclear testing with houses populated by some UncannyValley mannequins posed to act as if they're engaged in various mundane activities.

* AdaptationalUgliness: While not "attractive" in the traditional sense of the word (and Pluto being outright deformed by inbreeding), the mutants in the original film are nowhere near as disfigured or hideous as their remake counterparts.

* KillEmAll: This was the mutants' plan in the original. [[spoiler: In here, it becomes Doug's]].

* TheEndOrIsIt: [[spoiler:As the surviving members of the Carter family embrace after killing off their assaulters, an unknown mutant watches them through binoculars. The hills ''STILL'' have eyes.]]

* PsychopathicManchild: He was certainly childish in the original film, but Pluto's immature mindset is taken UpToEleven here, to the point where he barely speaks and appears to be at least borderline mentally handicapped.

* CrucifiedHeroShot: Literally, in both. And on a Joshua tree, no less.

* TheEndOrIsIt: [[spoiler:As the surviving members of the Carter family embrace after killing off their assaulters, an unknown mutant watches them through binoculars.]]

* TheEndOrIsIt: [[As the surviving members of the Carter family embrace after killing off their assaulters, an unknown mutant watches them through binoculars.]]

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler:Lynn was on the cover]], the UnWittingInstigatorOfDoom and the first to notice something in the hills. [[spoiler:She died second of the human Carters]].

%%* GiantMook: Pluto.

* SoundtrackDissonance: During the opening titles sequence, we hear Webb Piercer's ''More and More'' as we're shown footage of nuclear weapon testings that are intercut with sudden photos of grotesquely deformed babies and people. The pictures, accompanied by screeching noises each time they flash by, hammer the contrast between the romantic melody and the horrific imagery.

* TheTeaser: The film opens with hazmat suit-clad scientist exploring the radioactive site and stumbling into a panicking, blood-soaked man, before he and the explorers get murdered by Pluto, who proceeds to use their van to drag their bodies away.

* TheDogBitesBack: Literally, in this case. Doug's family had two German Shepards, Beauty and Beast. The mutants killed Beauty offscreen. Beast goes on to [[spoiler:personally kill Goggle, and later Big Brain. The latter had, moments before, been smirking after ordering Lizard to kill the kidnapped baby out of spite. His death was neither graceful nor quick.]]

* DaylightHorror: Even more than in the original. Only a couple of scenes take place at night, while most of the action takes place in middle of a sunlit desert. Special mention goes to Doug venturing into the hideout of the mutants, an abandoned town for nuclear testing with houses populated by some UncannyValley mannequins posed to act as if they're engaged in various mundane activities.

* {{Gorn}}: All is the deaths are brutal and gory. Not a surprise, considering who directed it.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Brenda refuses to look for Bobby's jacket on the saying it stinks, but she later puts up her dusty bare feet in their table and their mom has to call her on it.

* ItRunsInTheFamily: Granted, because of the fallout there's no choice in the matter.
* KillEmAll: This was the mutants' plan in the original, [[spoiler: in here, it becomes Doug's]].

** Big Brain suffers a more subtle one after [[spoiler:the death of Pluto, and orders Lizard to kill Catherine. He recovers his composure for a few seconds...only to hear Beast's snarling. He dies. Badly.]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Doug (And his baby, for that matter)]] in the comic tie-in/prequel. Not perfectly fitting of this trope, but they may as well have killed him off in the opening panels. It's made all the more frustrating to witness when considering the fact that [[spoiler: the last time we saw him, he was practically a death machine who could probably vaporize all of them by simply dropping his pants.]]

A typical American family is on vacation. They are soon stranded in the middle of desert when [[DeadlyRoadTrip their RV breaks down thanks to sabotage]] and end up being terrorized by a family who are mutated from nuclear fallout by government testing in the area.

* {{Flanderization}}: The mutants, though particularly Pluto, are now more monstrous-looking.

** In the original film, Doug's last name was Wood. In here, it's Bukowski, which is a Polish name which literally means "of the beech [tree]". Thus in a way he is still called "Wood".

** Mercury is called “Goggle”.

* AdaptationNameChange: In the original film, Doug's last name was Wood. In here, it's Bukowski, which is a Polish name which literally means "of the beech [tree]". Thus in a way he is still called "Wood".

* SuddenlyVoiced: Pluto never utters a word throughout the movie until Brenda wakes up and sees him, at which point he screams a slurred "NOW!" into his walkie-talkie.

** Big Brain suffers a more subtle one after [[spoiler:the death of Pluto, and orders Lizard to kill Catherine.]]