The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

 "Do you always try to stop trespassers by hanging yourself?"

Wow. This is the first of Wes Craven's films not involving Freddy Krueger that I've ever seen, and it's extraordinary. It's one of the seminal slasher films of the '70s, the decade that truly explored the genre creatively before the following decade dissolved into cliche, but it's more than that. It's the progenitor (as far as I can tell) of the trope of the inbred, cannibalistic family in the wild, very flyover parts of the USA. Although, rather diplomatically, the state in question is not named. There is, perhaps, a debt to Tobe Hooper's Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but this is easily the superior film.

And there's a lot going on here; the father of this twisted family is himself the son of a kindly old man to whom we are introduced at the start. This film articulates a profoundly conservative anxiety, and one particular to those of the World War Two generation towards their baby boomer progeny, with their long hair and drugs and free sex and loud music.

There is hope, though. Ruby may be savage, but she's not completely evil. We younger generations, though depraved, may not be entirely beyond redemption, however smelly we may be.

I'll not be surprised if none of this subtext, which may be entirely from my rather pretentious imagination, was in Wes Craven's mind as he wrote and directed this film, doomed to be underappreciated by the mere fact of its genre.

This is a very human, very real, very likeable and very conservative American family, in love with the twin vices of guns and religion. The characterisation is strong, which really matters in the slasher genre. The direction is superlative. If it wasn't for Nightmare on Elm Street, I'd call this a masterpiece.