Villian(s)  Cannibals

Actor(s):  Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, Dee Wallace

Brief Description  The Hills Have Eyes (1977) is an American exploitation-horror cult classic written, directed, and edited by legendary filmmaker Wes Craven. The film follows a suburban family on a road trip who become stranded in the Nevada desert, only to be hunted by a savage clan of deformed cannibals living in the surrounding hills.

Plot:
The Carter family—consisting of parents "Big Bob" and Ethel, their three children, a son-in-law, a baby, and two dogs—is driving an RV across the country to California. Ignoring a local gas station attendant's warning to stay on the main road, they take an ill-advised shortcut and crash their vehicle in an isolated desert wasteland. Unbeknownst to them, the area is the hunting ground of a brutal, feral family led by a patriarch named Papa Jupiter. When night falls, the cannibalistic clan launches a coordinated, violent assault on the RV. After several members of the family are brutally murdered and their baby is stolen, the remaining civilized survivors must shed their societal inhibitions and become just as ruthless as their attackers to exact revenge and survive.

Wes Craven based the movie on the legend of Sawney Bean, a 15th-century Scottish cave-dweller who allegedly led a feral, incestuous family that murdered and cannibalized hundreds of travelers. Craven used this backdrop to explore the thin, blurred line between civilization and savagery. Produced on a very tight shoestring budget, the film grossed over $25 million at the box office and established Craven's early reputation as a master of grueling suspense, years before he created A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. The film spawned a 1984 sequel, a high-profile 2006 remake directed by Alexandre Aja, and a subsequent 2007 sequel.