THE HILLS HAVE EYES

The Carter family is traveling on vacation towing a trailer en route to Los Angeles. Parents Bob and Ethel are driving, accompanied by their children Bobby, Brenda, eldest daughter Lynne, Lynne's husband Doug, Lynne and Doug's baby daughter Catherine (Katy), and the family's dogs, Beauty and Beast.

The dogs are on alert, becoming anxious and barking at the hills. Beauty then runs off. Chasing after her, Bobby finds her mutilated body. Frightened, he runs, falls, and knocks himself unconscious.

Bob walks back to Fred's Oasis to get help. As night falls, he finds Fred, who tells him about his son Jupiter. As a child, Jupiter killed the family's livestock and later murdered his sister. Fred attacked Jupiter with a tire iron and left him in the hills to die. However, Jupiter survived and had children with a depraved, alcoholic prostitute known as Mama. Together, they had three sons – Mars, Pluto, and Mercury – and an abused daughter, Ruby. The family led by "Papa Jupiter" survives by cannibalizing travelers and stealing supplies. Papa Jupiter suddenly crashes through a window, kills Fred with a tire iron, takes Bob prisoner, and crucifies him.

Brenda finds Bobby, still shaken up about Beauty, and the two return to the trailer. Bobby does not mention Beauty's death to avoid frightening the rest of the family. Pluto sneaks into the trailer and signals Papa Jupiter to set Bob on fire as a distraction. Brenda stays in the trailer with Katy, while Ethel, Lynne, Doug, and Bobby rush out to save Bob. The Carters eventually extinguish the fire, but Bob dies shortly afterward.

As the Carters extinguish the fire, Pluto and Mars ransack the camper and Pluto rapes Brenda. When Ethel and Lynne return, Mars shoots them both. Pluto abducts Katy and flees with Mars, intending for the family to eat her. Hearing their screams, Doug and Bobby rush back, only to find Lynne dead, Ethel mortally wounded, and Brenda traumatized.

Mars and Pluto return to their home, a cave. Beast pushes Mercury off a hilltop to his death. Mama chains Ruby outside the cave, torments her, and forces her to eat Beauty as punishment for sympathizing with the Carters. The next morning, shortly after Ethel dies, Doug sets out to find Katy, while Papa Jupiter and Pluto set out to kill the remaining family members. Brenda and Bobby ultimately overpower Papa Jupiter with a series of booby traps and fatally shoot him while Pluto is mauled by Beast. With the help of a remorseful Ruby, Doug is able to save Katy and fatally stabs Mars.

The surviving Carters fight back, killing members of the cannibal clan and rescuing baby Katy as violence erupts in the desert.

The ending marks a reversal of roles, with the once-civilized Carters embracing brutal tactics to survive. The film concludes with the family's transformation—stripped of innocence, they mirror the savagery of their attackers, embodying Craven’s bleak vision that civilization is just a thin veneer over primal instincts.