History Film / TheHillsHaveEyes1977

* AnimalAssassin: Ruby uses a rattlesnake to poison [[spoiler:Mars]].
* TheAlcoholic: Mama, Jupiter's wife, is perpetually hammered, and sits out the climax due to being in a drunken stupor.

* EvilDetectingDog: The two German Shepherds that characters have with them.
* TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether: Jupiter's family are thieves, kidnappers, murderers, and cannibals.

* DaylightHorror: The climax takes place entirely in the daytime, and is no less scary than the darkly-lit scenes that precede it.

* EvilIsBigger: Pluto is played by a 6'2 actor, Mars is a muscular behemoth and [[LargeandinCharge the patriarch Jupiter is even more of a size than his sons]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Grandpa Fred makes a few offhand commints about there being "nothing back there but animals." He's telling the truth, but leaving out the animals being cannibals.

[[caption-width-right:230:''They wanted to see something different, but something different saw them first!'']]

-->'''Ethel:''' Testing, testing... Maypole, maypole... This is Mama Bear Carter calling, do any of your bears have your ears up?... Gosh, I can't seem to remember how this works.
-->'''Lynne:''' It's "mayday", mom, not "maypole".

* AnAxeToGrind: Brenda puts a hatchet in [[spoiler:Jupiter]]'s back during the climax. In the original cut of the film, this was a significantly longer and gorier shot then what is seen in the final cut.

* KnifeNut: Pluto starts out with some sort of handmade dagger, which he later ditches for a combat knife. Mars wields a bayonet.

* AbandonedSet: The gas station, which was already made to look dilapidated, now looks even more so since it's in a desert. Though really, this just gives the place more of that horror feel it went for in the movie.

* AbusiveParents: Jupiter and Mama to Ruby, who they chain up and emotionally abuse for daring to run away. Given how afraid Pluto and Mars are of him, it's more than likely that Jupiter has been violent towards them as well--and in any case, raising them to be cannibalistic killers is pretty abusive in and of itself.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Ruby has no physical deformities and is by far the most attractive member of the Clan; she is also its WhiteSheep who [[spoiler: does anything she can to help the traveling family that the other members of her family have victimized]]. Apparently, Wes Cragen recognized this and would demand Janus Blythe put on more dirt to disguise her good looks, and to do so she would roll around in the dirt outside her trailer.

->''"The lucky ones die first."''

* AlternateEnding: There's an alternate cut where Mars' death happens before Jupiter's, and adding an extra scene of the survivors being reunited, and Ruby being apparently welcomed into the family.

* RedRightHand: Papa Jupiter's has a split nose and a scarred face, while Pluto has a disfiguring skin condition. The former was the result of Jupiter's father trying to kill him with a tire iron, the latter is something Pluto was born with, and both act as signifiers of their owners' evil.

* TakeThat: The torn poster for ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' in the background, essentially the film marking its territory as being scarier than that one. Creator/SamRaimi took some offense to this and featured a similarly torn poster for ''Hills'' in ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'', which began a long running feud between the two directors referencing each other's films.

* ThemeNaming: All of the males in the original's cannibal family are named after planets; Ruby, the only female child, is the odd one out [[spoiler:and the one who makes a HeelFaceTurn]].