Sawney Bean: Real Terror Behind ‘The Hills Have Eyes’

You know, somebody knocked at our dory yesterday. I just knocked on it and I was like, I looked out, there's nobody there. Well, there's your ghost right there. Welcome to Scary Mystery Surprise, where we talk about scary things that surprised us around the Internet. I'm Edwin and I'm Michelle. So we're settling in for a little film history. In the late nineteen seventies, Wes Craven who you know? Correct, No, Wes Craven is the horror filmmaker. You know. His first horror classic was The Last House on the Left, and he realized he had a talent for scaring people. Also, he could only get funding four scary movies, which I think is funny. But he also became one of the most well known, best known horror filmmakers of all time. Wow, he's responsible for a lot of movies, but today we're going to talk about one in particular, which the title scares me. So. Forty years ago he produced another film on a very tight budget called The Hills Have Eyes. I didn't know that, Like, what's his name, It's names Craven. See, how come I don't know about this? That just shows you that shows everyone how little I know about movies like that. But Yeah, is the scariest one. I've never seen it. I'll never see it because of the title. It's like human Centipede. I don't need to see that. Yeah, don't nobody, nobody, nobody needs to see that. You just get it from the title. It's good SEO. But that's how I feel about The Hills Have Eyes. Which is funny because like when I was a teen, at nighttime, we'd hike down to different beaches, and we were hiking down to this one beach and there was a massive hill and this kid that we were with was just like, the hills have eyes, and we sprinted back up that hill. He just had to say, the hills have eyes. And then your brain just fills in what that is. It doesn't even matter, and so we sprinted back up to the car. But in case you've never seen it, here's a small synopsis of The Hills Have Eyes, because it's pretty brutal even by today's standards. Bob Carter and his wife Ethel, and five other family members decide to take their camper vans and drive towards San Diego. An accident occurs, then the group gets stranded in the desert. Two of the men decide to go for help and the rest of the group decides to stay put and wait. But what they don't know is where they're stranded was where a new test site had occurred decades earlier, and it mutated a group of people who now developed the taste for human flesh. Yeah, I can visualize all of these I remember that scene. The accident wasn't an accident, it was they try to stop you in the I don't want to ruin the movie, but it's no thank you. The fact that I don't even I've never seen it, and someone just has to say the hills have eyes. And while I'm looking at it still it's an awesome title. Honestly, it's yeah, descriptive, But did you know the scary thing is the movie is actually based on a story, a true story of Alexander Sonny Bean. The man known as Alexander Sonny Bean was born in the late fifteen hundreds near Edinburgh, Scotland. Very little is known about his early days. Sonny Bean's father was a ditch digger and a hedge trimmer, and it was said that Sonny tried to work within his father's trade, but he wasn't into it, and so he left to make his own way in the world. He wasn't into that. I mean, come on, you mean he didn't want to dig ditches for the rest of his wife. Geez, what anngrateful bastard. After Sonny Bean met the woman he would marry, a woman known as Black Agnes Douglas. Why was she known as that, I don't know, but her day was black Agnes. I'm assuming because she had dark hair or she was black, We don't know. It's just like brown Edwin Coruez. Well and I'm translucent white Michelle. So okay. Anyway, Black Agnes Douglas also didn't want to live a life of labor, so she was kind of against the system as well. So it's kind of like a marriage made in heaven pretty much. So the couple decided to remove themselves from society and go live in a sea cave called Brennan Cave off the coast. Okay, I don't know why a cave sounded appealing, but you know, like I think of like homesteaders or whatever, you know, early off gritters sounds cool. Like as a kid, I always wanted to do that. I think I told you I wanted to do a cave and just live in it, or find a cool natural spot and live in it. I don't know, right, I mean, it makes sense, you know. Sonny Bean, in order to support his wife, he started ambushing and robbing people who were traveling on the roads connecting the villages in the region. Such a good husband. To prevent being caught by the authorities, he started murdering his victims. But then he was like, what am I going to do with these bodies? Oh no, And so of course Sonny Bean took up cannibalism. This act not only got rid of the bodies, but it stopped the couple from having to make unnecessary trips back to town for provisions. Because the high protein diet seemed to really have a positive effect on Missus Bean, and she began to produce little baby beans fourteen little baby beans in total, what each with a very unhealthy appetite for human flesh. Okay, they just got real. Yeah. And then as the babies grew up and in turn, through incest, produced their own baby beans, the cooking pots increased in a dramatic size. Over two decades, generations of the beanie babies grew up in that cave, the Brennan Cave, refining their skills of murder and cannibal cuisine, including the now lost art of salting and pickling the flesh, which I was a funny quote like, Yeah, I guess it's a lost art. People don't know how to pickle and salt their human flesh anymore. Bummer. The family of forty five, so that's forty five fucking people sick would then murder the victims, eat until full, and then pickle the remains in large barrels so the leftovers could be taken care of. They would then discard body parts like a foot here or a hand there, and local waterways to make it look like animals were responsible for all the missing travelers, Which isn't that just poisoning waterways? I mean, isn't that. I mean, I'm sure people are doing things now that are poisoning us in every way possible, but you're not. Yeah, you're not wrong. Even with all their precautions, people were starting to notice, and the locals started making efforts to try and find out who the perpetrators were and bring them to justice. But the problem was the cave that the Bean family lived in was so well hit, and the mouth of the cave was actually during high tide, it would fill with water so you couldn't even see there was a cave entrance there. So like twice a day it would the mouth of the cave would be covered by water, so they would have to like swim out. No, they just wouldn't leave the cave when high tide was happening. Oh. Also, what was even stranger is that because of the tide situation, the beans only hunted at night, so they stayed in their cave in the daytime. And this is real Well we'll get to that, but anyway, the townspeople were at a loss and they didn't know what to do. They didn't even know that the beans existed. It was just that these people were disappearing on the road. No one knew what was going on. Cut to Edwin, you and your beloved wife Shakira are returning from the fair. She's like, hey, it's been a great day, but you stayed past sunset. Luckily the horses know the way home and it's a beautiful night. Suddenly you hear true, I'm gonna try and do Scottish Okay, get the Jesse bull bag sounds really good. Thank you, thank you, and Jesse means weak man. You are a weak man. Suddenly you're surrounded by large men with distorted features, large eyes and teeth that have been shaved into points. There is a red stain around our lips. You're hit with the smell of unwashed bodies and stale blood. Before you even have time to draw your pistol, they have pulled your wife down from her horse and disemboweled her. They are coming for you, and you know you need to fight. You charge at them with your horse, swinging your sword. Have a sword, you have a sword? And then another word. These bumboots weren't expecting a fight. I like it. Other people leaving the fair hear the commotion and run to your aid. You live, but your beautiful wife, Shakira laze in a pile of her own guts, dead in the grass. The beans escape, but now their existence is known. And after this event, the group, including you Edwin, traveled to Glasgow to report the attack and the murder to the local magistrate, and they brought this news to King James the sixth, who at the time sat on the throne of the King of Scotland. King James was also so shocked by what he was hearing he decided to take action himself. He, along with four hundred men with bloodhounds, went to the site of the slaughter. The hounds quickly picked up the scent and found the hidden sea cave. The beans surrendered without fight. When people entered the cave system, they were shocked by what they found. Inside. The cave was complete filth body parts hung from the walls to dry, while others were stored in jars and barrels to be pickled. The possessions of all the lost people were just dumped in piles around the cave. The family was placed in chains and then brought to the old toll Booth jail at Edinburgh. It was decided that the family didn't deserve a trial due to their actions. They immediately decided to cut off the men's hands and feet in genitalia and let them bleed to death, and then they did that in front of the women so the women could watch. And then after the men died, they burnt all the women at the stake. That's brutal, I know, but also imagine walking into that cave system and seeing like, I mean, they were doing this for twenty years. I don't know why I'm sympathizing here, but like, if you grow up in that environment and then you do that, is it really your fault? I mean, look, I hate I hate understand that argument. I get it, but I don't think there was any rehabilitation happening. I don't know how I feel about that, but yeah, I get it, I get it. I mean, they did just disembowel your wife, so it's nice of you to have empathy. But anyway, with the women burning at the stake that ended the family's reign of terror. This story has been debated for years. Of course, yes, okay, cool. Some people believe it's completely true, even though there is a lack of documented evidence of the family's existence or even the trial and execution, which is kind of weird. Even though it was like the fifteen hundreds, there would probably be some sort of record of it. And then others think it's a lore that had developed over time, which does raise questions about how like a story of like this would develop. During this time in Scotland and England, the English press regularly portrayed people from Scotland in a negative light or having an evil nature. Experts believe that the story could have been political propaganda, with the goal to make the Scottish appear uncivilized and backwards in comparison to the superior qualities of the British. And there's even speculation that Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, actually wrote the Sanny Bean story. Huh. I don't know. I thought that was kind of cool. It was like that was how in depth the propaganda could have been. I mean it's not impossible. I mean it seems like that kind of story honestly, like the kind of stuff he would write. Yeah, so the Hills of Eyes would be a rip off off of the story. Well here's the thing. So, whether the tale is true or not, the Sonny Bean like story, the family is like now a cottage industry in Edinburgh, so like there's all sorts of stuff. The Sanny Bean attraction in the Edinburgh Jail is like one of the most popular attractions, which they just have a room dedicated to it. So whether it's real or not, But the story caught the attention of Wes Craven, who was inspired by an article he read about Sonny Bean while he was at the New York Library and transformed it into the story we know today. And then also it probably influenced the Texas Chainsaw massacre as well. Yeah, yeah, similar themes. Yeah, and that's the story behind the Hills Have Eyes. I won't watch it. It's just that it could be real, like it could happen. Plus, I used to really like traveling through the desert. Oh and just not necessarily like overland overland, but I used to you know, get on the suburban drive and then just kind of stop wherever rest for a little bit, going like it. It was fun. It was cool. Yeah, And I always thought like, what if I get stuck here? Like literally, I haven't seen a car in like a while. I'm like, huh, I mean I've been driving on that road out to Barstow, between like Apple Valley and Barstow, and it's all those all those houses that just have like a pit bull and then some like eight thousand rusty cars. Uh huh. You can'tnot think about of ice when you're like, yeah, out there, It's like, oh, if my car broke down and I had to go walk to get help, would I ever come back? Probably not. Nobody's gonna hear you scream you're done. That's it. I like the desert, but people move out to the desert to be alone. They do not want to be messed with. I like that. I didn't know any of that. Even the guy who came up with the movie, I had no idea, never looked it up. I can't believe you didn't know Wes Craven. Bizarre, bizarre. I can't think. I think they have a second Hills of Ice movie. I'm not. Yeah, there was a more. There was a rem I remember it was like in theaters when we went down to the beach, And that's why it was even a topic of conversation that it was like in theaters or something like that. So also, that movie is really brutal, like it's very not even gory, because I mean there's gore in it, but it's not like it's like really brutal death. No thanks, no thanks. If anybody's seen it, the shotgun scene is what I have like in my mind, like I can see it. It's be careful if you watch it because it's gonna make you paranoid because it's or you know, you'll just get paranoid. By the title of it, like I did. Oh, I mean, at least it's not like, you know, a hill with eyes on it is that so funny the idea and then like this hill just opens one eye at a time and it's like blue. That's the whole movie, like an hour and a half. Anyway, when what were we going to talk about next week? I don't know that think it'll be a surprise. Scary Mystery. Surprise is hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin Komarubias. This podcast was edited and sound designed by Sarah borhez Wendel, a VW Sound