Rachel: This woman is Hispanic, which means she has a huge family! And I don’t want to be here when they coming looking for us.

Director Terrence Williams pretty much has an idea what type of movie he’s making from minute one. His film is an attempt at “Last House on the Left,” meets “I Spit on Your Grave” with a bit of ghetto warfare for good measure. Hell, even the tagline (“The Violation of Kimberly Valencia”) sounds like a great alternate title that nearly every grindhouse flick sports. I just wish he would tighten the credits and rid us of that perfunctory Z at the end of Eye, but hey, this is his vision, so I appreciate what he’s trying. “The Hood Has Eyez” is another of those Grindhouse throwbacks with a movie that’s pretty straight forward (and mercifully short) about three white bread school girls who end up on the wrong side of the tracks. Williams’ film is also as every bit as xenophobic and
inadvertently stereotypical as the movies of that era, so you have to respect what he tries by manifesting every sheltered Caucasian girl’s worst nightmare once they step outside their cul de sac. Kimmy is bored at school with her two friends and takes to snorting coke in the football field.

He takes great pains in exploring the desolation and dread of the setting these women giving a reasonable excuse for setting scenes up in abandoned lots and fields. “The Hood Has Eyez,” for a micro budget thriller, has great production values and acts as a charming homage. The performances sadly vary. The Mexican gangsters that take the women hostage are so cartoonish it hurts. From their accents, to the incessant “ese” they shout, they’re a hard group to take seriously. The girls on the other hand are competent, with Cyd Shulte standing out as the humble and vulnerable Kimmy who becomes a vicious psychopath when she decides to take revenge on the criminals. Williams attempts to confront the apparent fear of inner city violence by enlisting a dedication to Craven’s movie while adding his own fine touches that don’t demonize minorities. Granted, “The Hills Have Eyez” isn’t perfect. The whole trailing bullet sequence was rather a ridiculous effect in an otherwise strong effort, and the montage of Kimmy becoming a warrior woman in only a few hours also inspired a chuckle, but the inevitable trail of violence Kimmy brings to the door step of the gangsters is chaotic. Williams tries to rattle the audience and accomplishes his task with an onscreen abortion and rape with a bottle, all of which are pulled off with very good special effects and the performance by Schulte, who convinces me that the once quiet wannabe is now an outright maniac.

Even though it can be severely flawed, Terrence Williams surprises me with a gruesome and awfully unique take on the revenge thriller. I had no real expectations with “The Hood Has Eyez,” but in the end, it’s an ambitious twist on "Last house on the Left" with its legs firmly planted in Grindhouse arena.

• For more information on "The Hood Has Eyez," visit the MySpace page, the official website, or order it on Amazon.