The Last House on the Left (2009)
Universal Studios / Rogue PicturesTheatrical Release Date: March 13, 2009
Home Release: August 18, 2009
Director: Dennis Iliadis
Review by James Klein
I have a weird and strange love for the original Last House on the Left. As much as it is dated and sometimes downright silly, I always found it strangely disturbing and yet a fast paced horror film with a great soundtrack done by the film's main villain, David Hess. Known for not only being Wes Craven's first film, it is known for being one of the first exploitation horror films that showed rape and torture in such graphic detail. In today's standards, it may be considered weak. But I love every bit of that movie. So yeah, when I heard of the remake coming out, I slammed my foot down and refused to pay money to see it. When it got semi-decent reviews I became intrigued and decided to wait for DVD. I have been holding off for awhile and finally I broke down and watched the blu ray.
The Last House on the Left remake is the story of a family coping with the death of a son/brother. Being that it is summer, the family decides to go to their cottage in the woods for awhile. The daughter and her carefree friend end up meeting a "family" of escaped convicts who take the gals hostage as the cops are on their tail. When the girls try to escape, the convicts rape and kill them. The convicts take refuge in one of the dead girl's homes and when Mom and Dad find out what has happened to their daughter, they take matters in their own hands.
I will admit, the remake changed a few things in the storyline that now work: the family dealing with the death of a loved one worked well, the girl's necklace is now a gift from her dead brother and not some hippie peace symbol, the father being a doctor is shown more and put to some use, instead of the convicts car breaking down it is run off the road by the girl's trying to escape. One of the attacks in the house was dirty and realistic. Little things like this worked well.
However, there were more problems I had with some of the changes. The villains look too much like movie stars playing bad guys. They are too good looking with either a mustache or bruise to cover up their good looks. There is no David Hess or Fred Lincoln in this film. In the original film, Krug was able to control his junkie son by promising him drugs is now gone. I never got a feeling the family was very close to their daughter and I liked how the original showed the mother and father in love with one another and cared for their daughter. The music was too Hollywood-ish and was just typical suspense/horror movie music with some lame "cool" song tagged on at the end. And this version pusses out in the third act by allowing some characters to live.
The original film is still more brutal, sad, and disturbing than this Hollywood remake. Sure, this one has more blood and special effects but the realism seems to be missing. The villains in the original played and tortured their victims verbally (Krug demands one of the girls to "piss her pants") and physically (Krug carves his name on one of the girl's chest). But yet the villains have a few moments where they were just regular human beings (although very trailer trashy) and not just stone cold killers.
I will say I didn't hate this. Like I said, some changes in the story worked and aside from the third act, I was never bored with the film. It wasn't bad but it just seems like its sole purpose in existence was to make money and jump on the remake bandwagon. And by going down that road, the film leads to nowhere.
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