 Tagline: If someone hurt someone you love, how far would you go to get revenge? Renowned horror director Wes Craven returns to the scene of the most notorious thrillers of all time in this darkly disturbing reimagining of The Last House on the Left. After kidnapping and ruthlessly assaulting two teen girls, a sadistic killer and his gang unknowingly find shelter from a storm at the home of one of the victim's parents-- two ordinary people who will go to increasingly gruesome extremes to get revenge. Loaded with shocking twists guaranteed to leave you on edge, it's the ominous film critics call, "One of the best horror remakes ever made" (Scott Weinberg, Fearnet.com). Storyline: While being transported by two detectives in a car, the dangerous criminal Krug is rescued by his brother Francis and his girlfriend Sadie, and they brutally kill the detectives. Meanwhile Emma, her husband Dr. John and their seventeen year-old daughter Mari Collingwood head on vacation to their house nearby the lake. Mari borrows the family car to meet her friend Paige that is working in a store in the town. They befriend the teenager Justin in the store and he offers some marijuana to the pothead Paige in the motel where he is lodged. While they are smoking grass in Justin's room, Krug, who is Justin's father, Francis and Sadie arrive and abducts the girls. Krug drives Mari's car and she provokes a crash on a tree. Krug stabs Paige and rapes Mari; however Mari manages to escape, swimming in the lake, but Krug shoots her in the back. They walk through the isolated road in the woods and they reach Collingwood's house telling that they have just had a car accident. Emma and John ... Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on August 6, 2009 -- Few horror films have endured more mass-market controversy and earned more cult clout than Wes Craven's 1972 directorial debut, The Last House on the Left. Rape, murder, genital mutilation, suicide, disembowelment... if a family values advocate could be offended by it, Craven tossed it in. Its now-infamous movie poster even read, "to avoid fainting, keep repeating it's only a movie, it's only a movie, it's only a movie." Yet despite its reputation and (some would say unwarranted) elevation to classic status, the film hasn't aged well at all. Cursed with decidedly low-rent '70s performances, as well as a story designed to disgust rather than unsettle, Last House is little more than an exploitative relic; an early Craven outing that, were it not for the controversy surrounding its release, would have faded from most everyone's memory three decades ago. I've never been a big fan of the film, nor have I understood how it's survived the test of time, but I was slightly intrigued by the prospect of a remake, if for no other reason than to see how a modern filmmaker would approach such seedy material. The result both surpasses and falls short of Craven's classic, offering a more believable narrative with more convincing characters, but failing to duplicate its progenitor's relentless temperament. While it makes several dozen drastic departures from the original, director Dennis Iliadis' The Last House on the Left remains somewhat faithful to Craven's characters and structure. Vacationing at a remote lakehouse near a small mining town, a family of three -- John (Tony Goldwyn) and Emma Collingwood (a slightly miscast Monica Potter), and their teenage daughter Mari (sullen-eyed waif Sara Paxton) -- decide to make the best of their getaway, relishing in the sights and sounds of the forest instead of the hustle and bustle of the city. But when Mari and her fearless BFF Paige (Martha MacIsaac) spend an afternoon with a shy young stranger named Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), the Collingwoods' weekend plans fall apart. It seems Justin's extended family -- his father Krug (Garret Dillahunt), his uncle Francis (Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul), and Krug's girlfriend Sadie (Riki Lindhome) -- is a clan of murderous fugitives who aren't particularly pleased to find two visitors in their hotel room. After kidnapping the girls, stealing their SUV, and smashing into a tree (during a scuffle with Mari), Krug and his brother rape and murder their captives. Seeking shelter from a storm and medical attention for a broken nose, the villainous family comes to -- wouldn't you know it -- the Collingwoods' doorstep. While Emma is suspicious of the ungainly clan, John (a doctor, of course) patches up Francis' wounds and offers the seemingly stranded motorists the use of his guest house. But things change when Mari, having survived her assault and a near-fatal gunshot wound, claws her way home to the loving arms of her frantic parents. It doesn't take much time for John and Emma to put two and two together and, before long, they're skittering about their home gathering weapons and preparing to exact vengeance on their daughter's attackers. Unfortunately for them, Krug and his detestable companions aren't the type of people who go down without a fight. Before the credits roll, John has to face a cold-hearted killer, Emma is forced to contend with a leering rapist, and a young boy is forced to choose between his own father and Krug's innocent victims. Iliadis' remake is remarkable for a variety of reasons. It not only injects a bit of arthouse flavor into Last House on the Left (calling to mind recent horror gems like Martyrs and Haute Tension), it makes Mari's rape an unbearable tragedy in the vein of Gasper Noé's Irréversible (certainly not in severity or intensity, but in tone), her parents' vengeance an act of unwavering love, and her attackers' assaults an ugly assault on the senses. While Craven's treatment of the girls' abuse bordered on exploitation, Iliadis' tastefully treats it as a necessary evil that spurs the true protagonists of the piece, John and Emma, into action. The horror of the act is still in full effect, but it feels less like a twisted joyride and more like a stomach-churning violation. More importantly, Dillahunt and his creepy companions deliver more disquieting performances than their 1972 counterparts. Krug is thoroughly unpredictable and unwieldy -- I almost believed he might let Mari go free until she decided to attack Sadie. The always exceptional Aaron Paul infuses his character with enough pent up rage to make him a true threat, one that barely seems able to control his own desires. And Clark allows Justin to emerge as a moral blank slate; a young boy burdened with the belief that he can't stand up to his father. The remake may have toned down the boundary-pushing content of its predecessor, but its antagonists are more disturbing, more contemptible, and more terrifying as a result. Granted, the film's internal logic (the eternal nemesis of the genre) is put to the test on more than one occasion, and a series of plot devices are concocted for no other reason than to do away with the characters' cell phones, boat keys, and escape routes. It doesn't help that the Collingwoods make plenty of stupid decisions, Mari is initially too cool and collected to register as a realistic teen, and Sadie is an over-the-top caricature whose presence is extraneous at best. More distressingly, Iliadis' camera spends far too much time gliding up and down Paxton's body in the early stages of the film -- presumably to establish the unblemished and untouched nature of her character's skin before she encounters Krug -- but the shots are voyeuristic oddities in an otherwise elegant horror film. Considering Last House boasts striking cinematography, carefully staged assaults (that readily avoid gratuitous nudity), and a mesmerizing musical score that adds a sense of delicate beauty to Iliadis' gory and grisly imagery, I was surprised to see such disconnected Michael-Bay-money-shots make their way into the final product. And don't get me started on Iliadis' last scene; a schlocky, haphazard nod to gorehounds who already got their fill during John and Emma's kitchen kill. Problems aside, The Last House on the Left is a better film than Craven's original, offering more credible characters, sharper performances, and a more plausible screenplay. You won't have to fend off fainting or remind yourself that it's just a movie, but you'll probably find it to be a more satisfying and effective genre pic than its predecessor. It's certainly better than The Unborn, Rob Zombie's Halloween, the new Friday the 13th, The Uninvited, and nearly every other horror flick that's earned a Blu-ray release of late. I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the better horror remakes in recent memory. Give it a shot and see if you agree. Last House on the Left is a tricky film to review. In many ways it's superior to Wes Craven's low-budget original, in others it's an over-polished imitation. As it stands, Dennis Iliadis' flick will continue to divide horror fans into three camps: those who prefer Craven's 1972 version, those who favor this wholly competent remake, and those who can't understand how anyone could enjoy either one. Thankfully, its Blu-ray release is a solid one... regardless of which camp you call home. While the disc's limited special features are a definite disappointment, its faithful video transfer and affecting DTS-HD Master Audio track help soften the blow. Ultimately, fans will find Universal's AV presentation justifies the cost of admission, but newcomers will want to rent the film before committing to a purchase. Cast Notes: Tony Goldwyn (John Collingwood), Monica Potter (Emma Collingwood), Garret Dillahunt (Krug), Aaron Paul (Francis), Spencer Treat Clark (Justin), Riki Lindhome (Sadie), Martha MacIsaac (Paige), Sara Paxton (Mari Collingwood), Michael Bowen (Morton), Joshua Cox (Giles [as Josh Cox]), Usha Khan (Maid). User Comment: *** This review may contain spoilers *** Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois, 22 March 2009 • Let's face it, there are a lot of remakes, there are some good one's: The Thing, The Hills have Eyes, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are some average one's: House of Wax, House on Haunted Hill, and War of the Worlds. Then there are the bad one's: Halloween, The Fog, and Psycho. Last House on the Left, my parents had absolutely held me from the original movie, but when I became an adult I rented the movie and watched it by myself, I was just so curious what they were trying to hold me back from, I wasn't really shocked with the movie, I could see how it was gritty and brutal in the day, but after seeing movies like I spit on your grave, Hostel, Dirty Harry, Casino, etc, it just didn't really effect me. So I was actually looking forward to a remake of this just to see what they would do with the story and I have to say that they not only made it better, it was just a very great horror film that made me want to take 15 showers afterwards. Mari and her family are going on vacation. When they arrive at the house, Mari asks to sleep in the guest house instead of in the main house. Mari's brother, Ben, had died one year earlier, and the family are still trying to adjust to his absence. She finds a necklace he gave her and puts it on. She decides to ride into town to see her friend Paige. Mari's mother, Emma, is cautious, but her father, John, lets her go. Mari meets up with Paige at the store where Paige is employed. A young kid named Justin approaches the counter and asks for a pack of cigarettes, which Paige does not give to him due to his age. Justin says that if they join him at his motel room, he will give them marijuana. Paige agrees and sells him the cigarettes. They drive to Justin's motel room and Justin and Paige enter. Mari waits in the car but notices they are taking too long. She enters the room where she finds Justin and Paige on the bed getting high. She joins them and they decide to give Justin a makeover. They are interrupted by Krug, Sadie, and Francis. Krug explains that it is too risky to let Paige and Mari live. They decide to not only murder but rape the young girls. The gang goes to Mari's house not knowing that's where she's staying with her parents, her parents welcome the gang in thinking they got into a car accident. But Mari somehow survives and comes back home; her parents discover that the people they've been helping are the same people that just tried to murder their daughter and now it's time for justice. This is the movie that you cannot wait to see justice brought to these sleazebags, they were so disgusting, I was just screaming and cheering in the theater. Like the tag line said, if bad people hurt someone you love, how far would you go to hurt them back? If that was my daughter, you wouldn't wanna know the sick things I would've done to these slimy people. The thing that made this movie so horrific was how realistic it was. The rape scene doesn't show much but is one of the most graphic and disturbing in cinema, even my 25 year old boyfriend had to cover his eyes, he said he was just incredibly sick from it because he can't imagine the pain she was going through. The performances are on and the story is great. I would say this is one of the best remakes in years, this is not for the faint of heart though, but if you're curious about the remake, trust me, this was a very respectful movie of the original horror story of murder and revenge. Summary: I haven't said this in a while: THIS IS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL. IMDb Rating (01/15/10): 6.7/10 from 17,315 users IMDb Rating (08/20/09): 6.8/10 from 9,050 users
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