The Boatyard, a micro-budget horror film set on the Isle of Mull, has been panned by critics as a pointless and witless rip-off of The Hills Have Eyes. The film follows a group of wealthy young people who find themselves at the mercy of cannibalistic boatyard workers after their yacht runs out of fuel.
The cast includes Susan Lanier, who appeared in the original 1977 The Hills Have Eyes, playing Martha, a barmaid with a taste for human flesh. However, unlike its predecessor, The Boatyard offers no backstory for its cannibals, presenting their behaviour as an arbitrary hazard of boating life.
The victims are a quintet of mostly unlikeable characters: Chad (Zachary Roosa), his bikini-clad girlfriend Dana (Meghan Carrasquillo), friend Franklin (Jamal R Averett), and lesbian couple Brandy (Amy Byrd) and Jess (Caitlin Rose). The film spends much of its runtime on drug use, drinking, and make-out sessions before the horror begins.
Critics have described the film as less gory than the Hills franchise but more dispiriting due to its lack of wit, empathy, or basic film-making skill. The acting has been called atrocious, making the film difficult to endure.
