The Hills Have Eyes (1977) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - Sunday, September 4, 1977

Ah, yes. Yet another ad that both fascinated and terrified me, back in the days of my childhood. Although I had no idea who Michael Berryman was at the time, his unique visage glaring out at me from this ad made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

On the lower left hand portion of this ad, you will see a listing for the Coliseum drive-in. This was our family's preferred drive-in, because of its proximity to home. I think we were seeing Star Wars, but this was playing on the neighboring screen and I kept looking over to see if anything scary and forbidden to my ten-year-old eyes might be glimpsed.

I do remember seeing the trailer attack scene and the film's ending, but the context and meaning of those silent scenes were incomprehensible to me, of course.

That would change in 1984, when The Hills Have Eyes was broadcast on one of the English language channels in Hong Kong. I recorded the broadcast and, for the next few years, that version of the film was the one I became familiar with.

Turns out that version had an alternate ending. In the domestic theatrical release the film ends with a shot looking up on the exhausted and exhilarated Doug (Martin Speer), after he has finished violently stabbing Mars (Lance Gordon) to death.

The televised version dissolves from that to a long shot of Bobby (Robert Houston) and Ruby (Janis Blythe) walking together toward a staggering Doug. Bobby is then shown introducing Ruby to Doug, it is here the film fades from this somewhat bucolic image of potential healing and the end credits begin.

I had no idea this was not how The Hills Have Eyes ended until I showed this version to a friend. Seeing it left him slack jawed and flabbergasted.

This alternate ending does help to explain how and why Bobby and Ruby are married in the shoddy misfire that was The Hills Have Eyes Part II.