The Truth Behind The Hills Have Eyes

Most people have seen at least one of the versions of The Hills Have Eyes. For those who haven’t it’s a film created in the 1970s about a group of cave dwelling humans who eat people and are also trying to repopulate. They live in caves because they were unfortunately exposed to some nuclear testing in WWII and as a result, have been left severely disfigured and cast out from society because of it. Decades go by without any outsiders intruding into their rocky territory, but eventually, some active military personnel become stationed there—and that’s where the trouble begins.
While The Hills Have Eyes was a piece of cinematic gold, is there any truth to the story? Was there actually people damaged by nuclear weapon testing and took to terrorizing and eating anyone who was “normal” that crossed their path? In short—kind of. In this article, we’ll discuss the true story behind the horror masterpiece.

Photo Source: Pixabay

The True Story

While there were actually some casualties as a result of nuclear testing, so far, they have long since died off and do not live in caves living out the rest of their days eating people. Although, in comparison to the real story, this would at least provide some sort of M.O. for our main characters. In order to tell the real tale, we must first allow our minds to paint a mental portrait of Scotland in the 1500s.

His name is Sawney Beane and by the time of his death, he actually had forty eight people in his “clan” of cannibals. Little is known about his upbringing, but from what information we do actually have, it appears he had a pretty normal childhood for the 1500s. His father was a ditch digger as well as a hedge trimmer while his mother was a homemaker. When he became of age, he ended up leaving his homestead and carried out petty thefts in order to sustain a living. Over some time, he married a woman who most describe as evil, and it’s said that she is the one who helped him cross the threshold from minor criminal to full blown murderous cannibal.

Since neither of them had regular incomes, they had to make an enormous cave into their homestead. It was almost completely hidden from civilization. Over time, they had fourteen children as well as thirty two grandchildren. Most historians assume that all of these children and grandchildren were inbred with perhaps the exception of two or three. Many of them were deformed and also incredibly dirty and unkempt in appearance. The predisposition to leading a life of crime came incredibly easy to them, and for sustenance, they practiced cannibalism. The family would remain in their caves during the day, and at night when city dwellers were most vulnerable, carry out their vicious and depraved attacks.

Eventually, people began to take notice that their friends and family were continuously popping up missing, without limbs, or dead. Search parties for the perpetrator(s) were quickly constructed, and sadly, some innocent people ended up getting publicly beaten and executed for the crimes. However, one night, the Sawney Beane clan ended up attacking a couple who was riding a horse. They were able to successfully clobber the wife to death, but the husband ended up getting an opportunity to run away as a group of people began starting down the path they were on. The Bean Clan quickly fled the area, but the husband was able to deliver a hefty description to authorities. The clan’s stint of being completely hidden and anonymous was totally done for.

The King of Scotland ended up catching wind of this and sent out a royal search party. The search party was ordered to look high, low, and especially in places that no one would think to look. The search party had bloodhounds to accompany them on their quest, and it wasn’t more than a few weeks until their gigantic cave was found. The bloodhounds first found a decomposing hand and followed the scent until one of Sawney Beane’s grandchildren was found, feasting on what appeared to be a human leg—and probably the leg of the person who’s arm had been found.

The entire Beane clan of forty-eight senior citizens, adults, and children were quickly captured by a group of about four hundred royal search party assistants. They were shackled and taken to Glasgow prison where they would meet their fate. It had been found that they had murdered and eaten over one thousand people in the local area over a twenty year span, and for punishment, all of the men had their genitalia, hands, and feet chopped off, leaving them to bleed to death. The women and children in the Beane clan were forced to watch this, and promptly after the show was over, they were all burned alive.