And his day got off to such a promising start. After stopping at a petrol station, a man finds himself propositioned to have a quick bit of nookie in the ladies toilet by a sexy young brunette. RESULT!! Unfortunately, he later discovers she's nicked his wallet and lighter. Oops. Still, on the road again, he sees her turn off and decides to pursue her vehicle... and before long, in circumstances too convoluted to explain, both are forced to team up as they find themselves stranded in the wilderness, being shot at by unseen snipers. Quite a turn-up for the books, eh? Known as 'King Of The Hill' here in the UK (But with no connection to the TV show of the same name) this is a nail biting thriller with a very small cast, but an abundance of tension and realism. The aspect I most enjoyed was the way the participants were fleshed out, as despite being on the run for the most of length we discover a lot about them through their words and actions alone. Even the main 'villains', who we don't meet until late on, and their own unique perspectives. This is crucial to the movie's success as if it was a simple chase between two sets of caricatures with no discernible personalities, it wouldn't be half as absorbing as it clearly is.People get hurt, tired and frustrated. Their very lives are on the line. They never know where the gunmen will crop up next. The terrain they have to trek through is inhospitable too, to say the least. It's all done with miraculous skill by the director, as the stakes are raised with every scene. Make sure you go to the bathroom beforehand... you're not gonna want to tear yourself away for a minute. A great thrill ride, and a smart one as well. 7/10

Maria Valverde make for a sympathetic pairing, wisely the film doesn't stop to long to give them a relationship but they have a certain mild chemistry that makes their bond under adversity a compelling one. For around two thirds or so of its length King of The Hill is rather great, hardly earth shattering in its events or approach but sufficiently well handled that it really stands out, unfortunately it doesn't end the same way. Like most films of its mysterious ilk, there's a "big reveal" here, and it's deeply ill-advised, an attempt at sombre significance that flops hard. A turn in events that would be unlikely and fairly tricky to pull off even if it were a significant part of the film from the start, here the film expects us to just buy the plot turn and then continues in the same uncompromising vein as before. To say much about why it doesn't work would be going into spoiler territory and since other have enjoyed this much more than I and not been troubled by the finale I won't divulge events, but for me it was daft verging on laughable, it not only took all the wind out of the film's sails but also rather tainted what had gone before. A saddening turn of events, as I wanted to dig this one and it came close to being a winner, but I can only go by my final impression, which was one of disappointment. A 5/10 then, even though for a fair amount of the runtime this is more like a high 7.

El Rey de la Montaña (known as King of the Hill amongst English speaking audiences) is set in Spain & starts as a man named Quim (Leonardo Sbaragalia) stops at a petrol station to fill up, there he meets a young girl named Bea (Maria Valverde). While in the toilets they have sex & Bea steals Quim's wallet, back on the open road deep in the Spanish countryside Quim sees Bea's car & decides to go after it but his car is shot at & he himself is shot in the leg by an unknown shooter. With no phone signal Quim cannot call for help, while driving along the shooter steps out in from of his car & Quim runs them down, Quim's car is shot to pieces & continues on foot where he finds Bea stranded with a puncture. They must work together to try & survive the continued onslaught as more shooters come after them, with no transport or food the odds seem stacked against them...Not to be confused or anyway associated with the animated TV series King of the Hill this Spanish thriller was edited, co-written & directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego & feels like a backwoods brutality flick without the brutality. The basic set-up of some crazed killers shooting innocent people in some remote wooded location is fairly unoriginal King of the Hill doesn't strive for the excesses of the genre, the violence is minimal & there's no torture & next to no gore. The script mainly focuses on the survival of Quim & Bea, the script focuses on their struggle to overcome the odds in a harsh & unforgiving landscape while being hunted down like animals. The entire script is minimalist, we never find out either Quim or Bea's last names, what they do for a living, the precise details of why they were driving there in the first place or any significant personal information that might have fleshed them out a bit, I am sure many will like this but as a consequence I found it hard to like or relate to either of them & considered them not much more than cardboard cutouts. However, during these scenes where Quim & Bea are fighting for their lives & being hunted King of the Hill is a fairly effective thriller with a few tense set pieces & an unrelenting pace although it's not perfect, while Quim was handcuffed in the back of the police jeep why didn't the killers shoot him then? Did they not notice his hand & arm cuffed to the grill? Why didn't they shoot Bea when she went out to get the key for the cuffs from the dead cop? Then there's the ending, while some again might like it I found it rather silly. It seems two teenage boys are playing some sort of game, a game where everyone they kill they gets points & the one with the most points is the winner. Other than that there's no great reason behind it, we never know why these kids are playing such a game or who Quim ran down with his car. I quite liked King of the Hill as a tense little backwoods survivalist thriller while the focus was on Quim & Bea but as soon as the shooters are introduced it fell apart from & the obvious computer game references stood out a mile. Is that what King of the Hill is trying to say? That violent computer games turns kids into killers? That was the impression I was left with. Of course films such as King of the Hill are perfectly fine & it doesn't matter that they show young kids shooting people for fun as part of a game...The final fifteen minutes switches the focus from Quim & Bea to the two killers & there are so many shots that replicate first person shooter games it gets silly, the classic one is the first person perspective shot with the gun in the bottom right hand corner of the screen pointed forward, or the reloading shot or the sniper shot seen through the telescope as they cover their backs & wander around like little soldiers. The violence & gore is minimal, a couple of people get shot & that's about it. In fact the body count is rather restrained too. The locations are suitably remote & harsh while the photography is very nice. Although the camera doesn't move that much director López-Gallego frames his shots very well with some striking imagery & makes use of the natural terrain.The film certainly has nice production values & is well made but the locations used help a lot. Filmed in Spanish & subtitled in English the acting seems OK but you can never quite be sure what they are saying or how they are saying it.King of the Hill is alright when it's a straight backwoods survivalist thriller but falls apart when it tries to say something, the computer game parallels may not be obvious to all but anyone who has ever played a first person shooter will notice them immediately. It has it's moments I suppose & is well made but overall I can't say I liked it that much.

The "hunting humans" formula is one of the oldest (ever since the magnificent "The Most Dangerous Game" in 1933) but still most effective formulas in horror/suspense cinema. The creators of "El Rey de la Montaña" clearly were very much aware of that and, additionally, this instant sleeper cult-hit from Spain even feature the atmosphere of a genuine early 70's backwoods survival shocker. This is one of the greatest and most intensely disturbing chillers to have come out in Europe in last ten years or so, and that is saying a lot because Europe is the most flourishing continent for the horror genre at the moment. Although working from a very basic and rudimentary script director Gonzalo López-Gallego keeps his film surprising and totally unpredictable, mainly thanks to some shocking story revelations, very atypical character drawings and a sublime use of the desolate filming locations. On his way to his ex-girlfriend, Quim meets an attractive young girl named Bea and has sex with her in the gas station's toilet. Her love, however, isn't very sincere as she steals Quim's wallet and goes away. He searches for her in the mountainous countryside, but his chase comes to an abrupt end when an invisible shooter (or shooters) fires at his car. Now he and Bea will have to work together in order to stay alive and, on top of everything, deal with distrustful policemen and survive the robust landscape. "King of the Hill" is a uniquely versatile film. The camera alternately follows the preys as well as the hunters, the latter from first-person-shooter perspective like often used in video games, and I don't think you are supposed to feel connected with any of them. There simply aren't any heroes in this story. Quim is a stalker and a coward, Bea is a thief and a tramp, and just wait until you see who the marksmen are and what their motivations to hunt people down are exactly. The film contains relatively few graphic violence or raw images. The shock-impact merely relies on the unexpected plot twists and the truly astounding locations. Not since "Deliverance" has there been another movie that managed to make nature look so menacing! I'm not entirely sure if the movie was intended as criticism towards the increasing amount of violence featuring in video games and how far this negatively influences our children, but it's first and foremost a nail-biting thriller that also messes with you head. At the end of the film, you don't know who to root for anymore and so many questions remain unanswered, but presumably that's part of the power of this perplexing tense thriller. Watch this guaranteed future cult classic as soon as you can, but – please – be careful not to read too many reviews, news articles or interviews with cast and crew before you do, as a lot of these reveal essential plot twists.