What to read, watch, and listen to if you lovedThe Hills Have Eyes
Alexandre Aja · Film · 2006
If you loved The Hills Have Eyes, start with Into the West (Steven Spielberg, 2005) — a series on the same thread. Below: 4 books, 4 series and 2 podcasts, each matched to The Hills Have Eyes across media.
What hooked you in The Hills Have Eyes was the visceral terror of stranded, vulnerable families fighting for survival against monstrous, predatory threats.
Books on the same thread
Wise Blood
Flannery O'Connor · Book · 2007
Explores: Religious fanaticism, Existential angst, Redemption.
Much like the unsettling encounters in The Hills Have Eyes, this exploration of the American grotesque highlights the fraying edges of humanity when confronted with extreme, fanatical outsiders.
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · Book · 2007
Explores: Parent-child bond, Moral ambiguity, Existential dread.
If the bleak landscape of The Hills Have Eyes captivated you, this brutal story of a father protecting his son in a ruined world offers a similarly intense survivalist experience.
The Stand
Stephen King · Book · 1980
Shares a thread with The Hills Have Eyes: Survival.
The post-apocalyptic desperation that defines The Hills Have Eyes is expanded here into a massive, terrifying struggle for survival against an encroaching, inhuman evil that threatens all of humanity.
The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson · Book · 1987
Explores: isolation, sanity, female hysteria.
While The Hills Have Eyes relies on physical mutants, this classic masters the feeling of being trapped in a hostile, isolated location where the environment itself feels predatory and alive.
Series on the same thread
American Horror Story
Ryan Murphy · Series · 2011
Explores: Trauma, Social Commentary, Identity.
The anthology format mirrors the intense, shifting dangers of The Hills Have Eyes, providing a relentless series of survival scenarios where characters are constantly forced to confront their worst fears.
The Haunting of Hill House
Mike Flanagan · Series · 2018
Explores: Trauma, Family Secrets, Mental Illness.
The Hills Have Eyes centers on a family under threat, and this series similarly explores how deep-seated trauma and domestic fractures are exposed when a family faces supernatural, encroaching horrors.
Into the West
Steven Spielberg · Series · 2005
Explores: Westward Expansion, Clash of Cultures, Manifest Destiny.
The clash of cultures and the dangers inherent in navigating harsh, unfamiliar American territories will resonate with anyone who followed the Carter family into the lethal atomic zone.
Attack on Titan
Series · 2013
Shares 2 threads with The Hills Have Eyes: Survival, Government Conspiracy.
Just as the mutants in The Hills Have Eyes turn humans into prey, this series captures the existential dread of a small, isolated group fighting to survive against overwhelming, man-eating monsters.
Podcasts on the same thread
Old Gods of Appalachia
DeepNerd Media · Podcast · 2026
This podcast taps into the same dread found in The Hills Have Eyes, focusing on the dark, ancient, and hungry things lurking within the forgotten mountains of the American landscape.
Tooth & Claw: True Stories of Animal Attacks
Wes Larson, Jeff Larson, Mike Smith | Daylight Media · Podcast · 2026
Explores: Human-wildlife conflict, Apex predators, Biological survival.
The Hills Have Eyes creates terror through the threat of being hunted, and this series provides that same raw, visceral experience of human-wildlife conflict and the struggle for biological survival.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is The Hills Have Eyes based on a true story?
The Hills Have Eyes is not based on a true story. It is a 2006 film by Alexandre Aja that serves as a suspenseful remake of Wes Craven's 1977 cult classic of the same name.
What is the primary setting of The Hills Have Eyes?
The Hills Have Eyes takes place in a remote government atomic zone. The Carter family becomes stranded in this wasteland, which they discover is the breeding ground for a blood-thirsty mutant family that begins hunting them.
Who are the antagonists in The Hills Have Eyes?
The antagonists in The Hills Have Eyes are a blood-thirsty mutant family. They inhabit the seemingly empty government atomic zone where the Carter family becomes stranded during their road trip.
What happens to the Carter family in The Hills Have Eyes?
In The Hills Have Eyes, the Carter family's road trip goes awry when they become stranded in a government atomic zone. They quickly realize that the area is not uninhabited and that they are being hunted as prey by a group of mutants.