A Tribute to Dee Wallace, Our Most Matronly Scream Queen, in The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Note: Today’s issue contains spoilers for The Hills Have Eyes, because there wasn’t really any way to do it justice without getting into the plot a bit. It’s not the sort of film where spoilers should affect your enjoyment, but you have been warned!

Reader, if you’re reading this on schedule, I am currently off the grid! For the past week or so, I have been off the clock while working on a new screenplay. I will not indulge myself by forcing the details of my in-progress screenplay upon you, but I will share a bit about the research I’ve been doing, because that path leads us to today’s film.

When I do a week-long writing retreat such as this one, I like to submerge myself in movies that are similar to the script I’m working on. And right now, I’m working on a hicksploitation* tale that’s centered around a family that finds themselves in the wrong place (Lower Alabama) at the wrong time (basically any time if you’re in the wrongest of places). So I’ve been watching joints like Deliverance, Wrong Turn (2021), House of Wax (2005), Jackson County Jail, Straw Dogs, U-Turn, even made-for-TV fare like Dying Room Only.

And The Hills Have Eyes. Which stars Dee Wallace, one of my favorite actresses (even though the film industry mostly forgot about her when the millennium changed). Along with this film, Dee is mostly known for her work in E.T., The Howling, Cujo, and Critters, which earned her a reputation as a scream queen.

But there’s something about Dee that always stood out to me over the other scream queens of her era, and even since. And while watching this film, I remembered why that is: Because she’s a mother. Or, more accurately, because she plays characters who are mothers. In all but one of those five films,** Dee isn’t just a damsel in distress—she’s a mama bear charged with protecting her cubs.

What’s more is the fact that she plays lots of different archetypal mothers. In E.T., she’s a single mother of three after her cheating husband abandons her. In Cujo, the tables are turned a bit as she’s the adulterous spouse, even though she’s given a redemption arc when a rabid dog tries to eat her son. And Critters might be my favorite shade of motherhood for Dee, where she plays a farm matron of two in rural Kansas who kills alien invaders with a shotgun. (I’m telling you, Dee Wallace rules.)

And then there’s The Hills Have Eyes, which we will finally talk about since it’s the subject of today’s newsletter.

Aside from a few small parts on TV series and a tiny role in The Stepford Wives, Wes Craven’s low-budget sophomore feature is Dee’s film debut. And what does she play right out of the gate? A mother. A new mother to an infant child who winds up stuck in the Nevada desert with her family in an RV after her parents go off the map in an attempt to locate an old silver mine.

Naturally, the family is terrorized by inbred cannibal rednecks to the point where many of them die, including Dee’s character (Lynne).*** But her death is the most significant and the most heartbreaking, because she sacrifices her life in an attempt to protect her baby from the cannibals. Her attempt is unsuccessful, but have no fear, reader—Lynne’s husband, Doug, rescues the baby in the end.

I love this about Dee Wallace. She got a late start to her career—Dee was around 27 when they were shooting The Hills Have Eyes—so she skipped all the high school scream queen roles she might’ve had and went straight to playing young moms who kick ass. And thanks to this film and a handful of others, I will always remember her as a young mom who kicks ass. Happy Mother’s Day, reader.

*I feel as if I’ve used this term and this link before, but here is a great list of hicksploitation films if you’re curious about this most interesting subgenre. (You’ve probably seen at least a few of them!)

**Dee’s character is not a mother in The Howling as far as we know, and I do love that she plays against type in that movie, which is also the second-best werewolf movie. But we’ll talk about that some other issue. (Maybe. I don’t know, I don’t really plan ahead on this stuff.)

***Lynne is a great Boomer mom name. I will forever associated the name Lynne with my AP English teacher, but I’m sure many of you know a great mom or two named Lynne. Please sound off in the comments if your mom’s name is Lynne.

The Hills Have Eyes is available on Shudder, Kanopy, Hoopla, and AMC+, and it’s available to rent elsewhere. If you watch it on Shudder, I would recommend watching Joe Bob Briggs’ presentation on The Last Drive-In for some insightful commentary.