Famous Paintings in Film - Reel 3

Exorcist II: The Heretic

The Agony in the Garden (left) and The Crucifixion (right) - Andrea Mantegna

London Boulevard

Study for Portrait II (left) and Study for Portrait VII (right) - Francis Bacon

Isle of the Dead (1945)

Self-Portrait (left) and Isle of the Dead - third version (right) - Arnold Böcklin

Red Dragon

William Blake dominates the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991). 

And God Blessed the Seventh Day and Sanctified It (left) and The Ancient of Days (right)

The Body of Abel Found by Adam and Eve (left) and The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (right)

The Ringmaster aka Finale

Women Gladiators - Jusepe de Ribera

Christian Dirce - Henryk Siemiradzki

The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer (left) and Pollice Verso (right) - Jean-Léon Gérôme

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

When Will You Marry? - Paul Gauguin

At the Moulin Rouge - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son - Claude Monet

Dance at Bougival - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Sunflowers (fourth version) - Vincent van Gogh

Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies

Time to feast on the genius of Caravaggio.

Judith Beheading Holofernes (left) and Medusa (right)

L-R: Saint Jerome Writing (detail), Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (London) and The Crowning with Thorns

Miscellany

A Good Year
Road with Cypress and Star - Vincent van Gogh

C.H.U.D.
Garden at Sainte-Adresse - Claude Monet

Halloween (1978)
Self-Portrait with Feathered Hat - James Ensor

Hellhouse LLC
Nighthawks - Edward Hopper

Home
Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh

Canary Black
Portrait of Dr. Gachet - Vincent van Gogh

Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Day and Night - M. C. Escher

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Feat of Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Austerlitz - Bogdan Pavlovich Villevalde

Humongous
Van Gogh's Chair - Vincent van Gogh

Jaws 2
Washington Crossing the Delaware (detail) - Emanuel Leutze

Kes
Virgin of the Rocks (detail) - Leonardo da Vinci

Cleaner
The Death of Sardanapalus - Eugène Delacroix

Home Alone
The Broken String - Charles Burton Barber

Innocence (2013)
The Lamia - Herbert James Draper

Dahmer
Bond of Union - M. C. Escher

Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dog Fighting a Heron - Abraham Hondius

Headhunters
The Hunt of Meleager and Atalanta - Peter Paul Rubens

High-Rise
Witches' Sabbath - Francisco Goya

Hellraiser: Bloodline
The Old Temple - Hubert Robert

Honeymoon (2015)
The Reader - Jean-Honoré Fragonard

In the Line of Fire
Venus on the Waves - François Boucher

Interview with a Vampire
Venus in the Clouds - François Boucher

Never Back Down: Revolt
The Nightmare (1781 version) - Henry Fuseli

Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher
Massacre of the Innocents - Cornelius van Haarlem

Until next time.

The Legacy of The Hills Have Eyes

While subject matter wasn't as controversial as 1972 directorial debut The Last House on the Left (which was remade in 2009 and famously referenced by Jigsaw in Saw II), franchise deserves its own place in history.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

The similarities to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) were intentional, as Wes Craven was a huge fan of Tobe Hooper's seminal work.

Film itself was based on the legend of Sawney Bean, who apparently lived in the Scottish highlands near Edinburgh in the 16th century.

Before being caught by a search party on the order of King James VI, inbred cannibal family ate over a thousand people (depending on what you believe).  Deemed insane, they were gruesomely tortured and executed without trial.  This inspired how the Carter family became as brutal as their attackers when seeking revenge.

Story inspired two films:

Hillside Cannibals¹ (2006)

Lord of Darkness² (2012)

¹The Asylum's mockbuster of The Hills Have Eyes remake.

²Modern day re-telling was released in the UK as Sawney: Flesh of Man.  

The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning (2007)

One-shot comic serves as a prequel to 2006 remake, leads into and bridges the gap between its sequel, The Hills Have Eyes 2.

A documentary on Craven's own infamous 1985 sequel (which he later disowned) was released in 2019, entitled Blood, Sand and Fire: The Making of 'The Hills Have Eyes Part II'.

Original character Mrs Karen Sawney Bean was created specifically for comic.

Before succumbing to radioactive poisoning years later, she gives birth to Hades.

Handsome chap grew into a big strong boy.

Presenting live-action equivalent. 

Michael Bailey Smith (who played Pluto in 2006 remake), is back as Papa Hades in sequel.

Rip offs

Wrong Turn series (2003-2014)

Mike P. Nelson's 2021 reboot (simply called Wrong Turn), ditched the cannibal and incest-related themes synonymous with its predecessors.

Blood Tracks (1985)

Ironically, this was produced by Smart Egg Pictures, the same studio behind A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
Brad Parker's directorial debut (co-written and produced by Oren "Paranormal Activity" Peli), features humanoid mutants.

Sam Raimi

Rivalry began with a torn promo poster of Jaws (1975).

Raimi saw this as a message: "I took it to mean that Wes Craven was saying that Jaws was just pop horror. What I have here is real horror."

The Evil Dead (1981)
As a jovial response, a ripped poster of The Hills Have Eyes can be seen when Ash and Scott investigate the cellar and find the Naturom Demonto.  

Not to be outdone, Craven had Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) watch The Evil Dead on TV in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Ash vs Evil Dead
Home Again - S2 E9 (December 2016)
Poster is displayed outside Elk Grove's local cinema.

Tributes

Camper van

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)

Call of Duty: Ghosts, Onslaught DLC³ (2014)

³Aside from Ring (1998) and Hellbound; Hellraiser II (1988), Fog map also references The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II (1987), Evil Dead (2013) and Scream (1996).

Poster

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Scream 4 (2011)

One more.

Frightmare (1983)

Tagline

The lucky ones died first...

Beyond iconic.

The Lucky One (2012) and The Lucky Ones (2007) are unrelated films.

Check out the following.

The Divide (2011)
The lucky ones died in the blast

Muck⁴ (2015)
The lucky ones are already dead

⁴Slasher legend Kane Hodder, dubbed 'The world's most prolific cinematic killer', is Grawesome Crutal.

Cold Ground (2017)
The lucky ones freeze to death

The Curse of the Blind Dead (2020)
The lucky one's⁵ are already gone

⁵Obviously should be ones.

The Haunting of Woodland Hills (2016)
The hills have eyes...

Wow. That is some lazy shit.

Anaconda (2025)

Local guide and snake handler Santiago (Selton Mello) says: "Only the unlucky ones survive."

If intentional, pretty cool.

Miscellany

Mind Ripper (1995)

This was released in Germany as The Hills Have Eyes III: Mindripper, but aside from desert setting, its only connection is Craven (producer), and his son Jonathan (writer).

Lance Henriksen stars as Dr. Jim Stockton, and as a fun quirk, was cast as John Milton in Scream 3 (2000), the final time he'd work with the great man.

Us (2019)

Pluto, Jason's evil doppelgänger, may be a nod to Michael Berryman's villain.

Big Bob is crucified on a Joshua tree and burned alive by Papa Jupiter.

Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Officer Mario Fernández Castaño is already on fire when we reach the town square.

Similar principle, right?

In the 2023 remake, event is played out in full.

Join me next time as I take an in-depth look at remake.