The Hills Have Eyes on AllMovie

This horror shocker about a clean-cut American family terrorized by a collection of cannibalistic mutants (based on a true story concerning the cannibalistic Sawney Bean family who terrorized stray travelers in 17th-century Scotland) put horror director Wes Craven on the map. The film begins as the clean-cut Carter family -- Bob (Russ Grieve), a retired cop; his wife Ethel (Virginia Vincent); Lynne (Dee Wallace); her husband Doug (Martin Speer); brother and sister Brenda (Susan Lenier) and Bobby (Robert Houston) -- travel through the barren desert in a mobile home on the way to California. When their mobile home breaks down they discover that they have inadvertently trespassed upon the domain of a family of insane cannibals -- headed by the mutated head of the clan, Jupiter (James Whitworth). His wife (Cordy Clark) was kidnapped by Jupiter and forced to bear him children. Jupiter's sons -- Pluto (Michael Berryman), Mars (Lance Gordon), and Mercury (Arthur King) -- help their Dad keep the interlopers off his land. The daughter (Janus Blythe), in contrast to her brothers, wants no part of the forthcoming fun feast and desires to escape from her horrifying family life. When Jupiter and his progeny discover the Carters, the terror clan begins to rape, pillage, and kill the Carters -- with the survivors of the Carters trying to break free from the hysterical carnage.