Empire Online talked to The Hills Have Eyes remake producer Wes Craven, director of the 1977 original, who says helmer Alexandre Aja’s version is so intense and gory that the MPAA has given it an NC-17 rating for now.
“It’s a very strong picture and we’re trying to figure out what to do with that, without ruining it,” Craven said, “We have to deliver an R rating.”
Story spoilers ahead! If you’re wondering why, Craven says that the mutants’ attack on the family in the trailer from his film remains in the remake but is considerably amped up.
“It’s intense. Very intense. The attack on the trailer in my film was horrible, but it was over fairly fast,” adds Craven. “This one goes on almost ten full minutes. It’s fairly faithful to the original, but Alex added other things that also make it worse, what’s happening to these people. It’s protracted. It’s a long, slow process rather than being a chaotic, relatively fast process. It’s just too much for people that have to rate it, by a mile.”
While cuts are still being made for the R rating, Craven says you can expect the more intense version on the DVD.
Fox Searchlight Pictures will release the film on March 10. It’s the story of a family road trip that goes terrifyingly awry when the travelers become stranded in a government atomic zone. Miles from nowhere, the Carters soon realize the seemingly uninhabited wasteland is actually the breeding ground of a blood-thirsty mutant family…and they are the prey.
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