Horrormeister Wes Craven has looked to French director Alexandra Aja to bring a bit of Gallic flair to his remake of the thirty-year-old original.

The result is that Aja, who made the blood-drenched Switchblade Romance, has basically taken Craven's 1977 template and stylishly ladled on the gore.

Atomic testing by the US government in the deserts of New Mexico in the 1950s has resulted in the descendants of local miners mutating into cannabalistic freaks.

Picking off unwary travellers, they fence their victims' possessions (earring with ear still attached anyone?) through an all-too-willing gas station owner.

The latest suckers to venture off the beaten track are ex-cop "Big Bob" Carter (Levine) and his family on the way to San Diego in a Gulfstream camper.

While Bob is a gun-toting Republican, son-in-law Doug (Aaron Stanford) is a damp-eyed Democrat with a pregnant wife, Lynn (Vinessa Shaw), and a baby in tow.

Bob's kids, the nerdy Bobby (Byrd) and sex kitten Brenda (Lost's de Ravin), bicker and fight under the despairing eye of the ex-hippie chick mom.

When Big Bob's tyres are shredded by a "stinger" strung across the road all hell is soon breaking lose as the irradiated weirdoes toy with their prospective lunch.

Make no mistake, this is thoroughly nasty stuff. There's crucified unfortunates burning to death, some unsavoury sexual degradation and more heads split that you can shake a pick-axe at.

Yet it's handled with style by Aja who doesn't veer far from Craven's original except to flesh out the characters and elaborate about the nuclear testing that deformed the townsfolk.

In fact, this gives visual effects supremo Jamison Goei the opportunity to create the atomic test village, an ultra-creepy collection of retro houses containing singed mannequins.

As one of the recent wave of horror remakes coming out of Hollywood, this is - how can we put it - well up to snuff.

For a night of guaranteed spine-shredding, look no further than The Hills Have Eyes.

Tim Evans