Review: The Last House on the Left (2009)
Wes Craven 1972 Classic Remade with Same Bloody Intensity
At the time of its release, Wes Craven's original 1972 film was deemed unacceptable in many markets, given it's graphic display of violent acts, against a seemingly innocent family, at their lakeside summer home. Though this remake by director Dennis Iliadis isn't even remotely as gory and shocking as its predecessor, it still manages to engage the viewer in successfully cheering for a good vengeful bit of violence.
The Last House on the Left Synopsis
Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) is your typical athletic teen, whose love of swimming takes up every free minute of her summer spare time. Having lost her twin brother a short while back, she tries to cope with the loss, while her parents John and Emma (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter) try to do the same.
When the trio decides to spend a few days at their summer home in a quiet remote area, Mari asks for the family car, to go visit her best friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac) in town.
While there, Mari and Paige encounter a quiet, reserved teen boy (Spencer Treat Clark), who offers to hang out with them, and enjoy some "quality weed".
As the teens party in the local motel room, they end up face to face with their new friend's dad (Garret Dillahunt, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) who just escaped police custody, with the help of his brother and girlfriend (Aaron Paul, Riki Lindhome). Having now been witnesses to their flight from justice, both girls are taken by the criminals, lest they manage to alert the cops to their whereabouts.
As they make their way to the highway, Mari manages to get them to drive close to her family's home, under pretext that it is a shortcut to the highway. Through a series of (unlikely) events, their vehicle crashes, leaving them stranded in the woods. This angers the baddies, and they proceed to exact some revenge on the two teens, slowly killing Paige and leaving Mari for dead, as she gets shot while trying to swim to safety.
The juicy aspect of the film comes when a sudden storm strands the criminals in the local vicinity, and they seek shelter at the nearest house: Mari's parents' cottage (please say you saw that one coming, folks...). Though they are helpful yet apprehensive of this ragtag group at first, John and Emma soon start piecing the clues together, and then take matters into their own hands (when the thought-dead Mari turns up with near fatal injuries). And so, the film switches to revenge mode, as the couple seek retribution on those who abused their daughter.
In a nutshell, The Last House on the Left embraces their poster's catchy tagline, "If bad people hurt someone you love, how far would you go to hurt them back?"
The Last House on the Left Overall Analysis
In this age of countless (and often useless) remakes, it's quite refreshing to see an adaptation of an already memorable (whether famous or infamous) earlier film, which still manages to provide new thrills. Unlike the myriad reworkings out there (Friday the 13th comes to mind), it is the work that still manages to tap into the primal, almost biblical instinct for revenge, that brings viewers back in droves, though the essential story has already been told.
Though the cast of this latest version of the Wes Craven original doesn't necessarily shine, the storyitself still stands out more than most. The tagline for this film's poster brings it home, when it sums up what probably started as the original salespitch to the studio heads back in 1972.
What will make this film a limited success (in the sense that the graphic nature of the violent acts in the film don't exactly make for wholesome family viewing), will be in successfully conveying that urge to root for the vengeful parents, asking us to put ourselves in their shoes. Once the audience is in for the ride, it allows for a more ambivalent license of morality, for the rest of the film.
All the elements of a good thriller/horror story are here: (disposable) bad guys, a remote location, sharp weapons, and almost no way out. Short of a tall towering killer with a hockey mask, this film has the ingredients for a great suspenseful night at the movies, as well as a treat for fans of the original.
5/10 for being a fun, bloody, graphic horror film filled with vengeful killing, but also for being....a bloody, graphic horror film, filled with vengeful killing --- split vote.
Last House on the Left Movie Poster
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