Written and directed by Alexandre Aja ("High Tension"), the film stars Aaron Stanford (Pyro in "X2" and "X-Men: The Last Stand") as Doug Bukowski, a mild-mannered cell phone salesman who finds himself trapped by cannibalistic mutants when the family trip he's on takes a deadly detour.
Aaron Stanford Doesn’t Judge a Film by its Genre: Stanford’s built up an impressive resume which includes independent films and big studio projects. With “The Hills Have Eyes,” Stanford adds a starring role in a horror film to his list of credits. Asked why he chose to take on this particular genre now, Stanford explained, “You know, I didn’t necessarily think of it as tackling a horror film. It was more just the way I look at projects. I read the script; I don’t think about which genre it is or what it is. If it’s a good story and it interests me, then I’ll do it. I think that’s the best way to do it and most people will tell you the same thing. Actors, we like stories, we like storytelling, we love being a part of the story, and if you give us a story that’s interesting then we’ll want to do it.”
Aaron Stanford on What Set “The Hills Have Eyes” Apart from Other Scripts: “ I love the whole new thing that Alex [Aja, writer/director] brought to it about the mining families and about how it was these mining families that had been moved off their land by government troops to start nuclear weapons testing, and there was this faction of them that refused to go and they hid in the mines. They stayed there for generations and they mutated and became more and more monstrous until they became what we actually see in the film. Just the idea of that was kind of intriguing to me.”
Aaron Stanford on the First “Hills Have Eyes:” “I had never seen the original film but when they offered it to me, I went and took a look at it. I thought it was a classic horror film. Wes Craven is obviously a horror film icon so I was definitely very interested in bringing something back to life that Wes had created.”
Speaking of bringing something back to life, there are those who cringe at the word ‘remake’. Stanford said, “People say, ‘Oh no not another remake,’ and then they all run out and see it (laughing). So, you know, there’s a demand for it. The bottom line is people like seeing these movies so as much as everyone pretends to hate them, these are the movies they’re lining up to go see.”
Horror Movies Equal Box Office Gold – For the Most Part: Stanford’s not sure about why audiences eat up horror movies. “I don’t know the answer to that. I do know that I’ve read somewhere that it’s been statistically proven that in times of war, horror films are much more popular. I don’t know why that is. You’d think it’d be the opposite. You’d think people would want to escape from it. So I don’t know what the real reason is.
People have always liked to be frightened. People love to feel that jolt of adrenaline. People love roller coasters. People love skydiving. These things that really get your heart pumping, and horror films are sort of a safe way to get that rush I guess.”
Aaron Stanford on His Character’s Transformation Over the Course of “The Hills Have Eyes:” Stanford’s character, Doug, begins the film as a meek cell phone salesman but over the course of the film changes dramatically as the situation dictates. “I loved getting into both sides. I loved the fact that he was sort of nebbishy in the beginning and was this real domesticated homebody who loved his family. He loved taking care of the baby almost to the point of emasculation, you know what I mean? I just really got into that. It was really fun and you know the scene where he’s really excited because he found all this stuff in the old abandoned car lot, it’s just really fun playing that. And then of course it’s fun to become this savage primal killer. That’s just innately fun.”
Page 2: Aaron Stanford on Filming in Morocco and Fight Scenes
Page 3: Aaron Stanford on Working with "Hills" Writer/Director Aja and a Little on "X-Men: The Last Stand"
