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The Last House on the Left (2009)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 146
Fresh: 61 | Rotten: 85

Excessive and gory, this remake lacks the intellectual punch of the 1972 original.

Average Rating: 4.5/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 17

Excessive and gory, this remake lacks the intellectual punch of the 1972 original.

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Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 976,613

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Movie Info

A pair of teenage girls are brutally raped and terrorized by a vicious gang of psychopaths, who subsequently find their cruelty returned tenfold when they seek sanctuary in the home of one of the victim's parents in this contemporary reworking of Wes Craven's controversial 1972 shocker. Shortly after arriving at her family's secluded lake house, Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) and her best friend are abducted by a sadistic prison escapee and his violent crew. Left for dead and nearly in shock

R, 1 hr. 50 min.

Drama, Horror, Mystery & Suspense

Directed By: Dennis Iliadis

Written By: Carl Ellsworth

In Theaters: Mar 13, 2009 Wide

On DVD: Aug 18, 2009

Box Office:$32.7M

Rogue Pictures

Extremely entertaining if you don't mind being morally corrupted at every juncture.

March 16, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Magazine

| Comment (1)

David Edelstein

New York Magazine

Top Critic

It's that first 30 minutes that ruin this movie.

March 16, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies

| Comments (2)

Ben Mankiewicz

At the Movies

Top Critic

Boy, words can not express how much I just loathe and detest this movie.

March 16, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies

| Comments (6)

Ben Lyons

At the Movies

Top Critic

In the end, like virtually every other remake that has been released recently, it's polished and predictable.

March 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Mike Mayo

Washington Post

Top Critic

A shockingly mundane disappointment taken on its own and a deeply misguided refraction of the original.

March 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Mark Olsen

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Do not go to this movie if you simply seek entertainment. If you're a sociologist tracking the decline of civilization over the past four decades, you're in for a night of solid research.

March 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Toronto Star

| Comment

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

Top Critic

the 70s campiness has been stripped away entirely. Now, it just seems like a studio-level snuff film made for no other purpose than to make its audience feel woozy.

March 2, 2011 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures

| Comment

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

The remake deviates from its source material, giving something new for fans of the original to enjoy/moan about, and employ some imagination with a few of the killings.

March 1, 2011 Full Review Source: What Culture

| Comment

Mike Edwards

What Culture Source: What Culture

A great argument for the continuing trend of recycling old films, taking an overblown horribly flawed cult classic and turning it in to an utterly stellar revenge picture...

May 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed

| Comment

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

As remakes go, Last House On The Left is at least a decent addition to the 1972 classic.

April 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Fan The Fire

| Comment

Sam Bathe

Fan The Fire

This version is a capably, confidently, and chillingly effective opportunity to place ourselves in the worst possible shoes for a length of time.

December 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinematical

| Comment

William Goss

Cinematical

Grim, vengeful horror film well made -- but NOT for kids.

December 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment (1)

James Rocchi

Common Sense Media

Remaking Last House on the Left seemed like a dubious proposition at best...yet somehow the new HOUSE works better than expected.

October 22, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinefantastique

| Comment

Steve Biodrowski

Cinefantastique

... during a wave of pointless and heartless retreads of older material, this brings a surprising improvement over the original.

September 16, 2009 Full Review Source: DVD Review

| Comment

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

... superior [to the original] in that it makes clear the conflicting justification and degradation of the retaliation, establishing a grayer level of morality.

September 16, 2009 Full Review Source: DVD Review

| Comment

Felix Gonzalez Jr.

DVD Review

Of the two incarnations of this tale, I've gotta say the remake is a bit more watchable ... but it's definitely not better.

August 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Dread Central

| Comment

Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton

Dread Central

What's most disappointing about the 2009 version is that it strips all the moral ambiguity from the 1972 original of the same name.

August 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington Times

| Comment

Sonny Bunch

Washington Times Source: Washington Times

Unlike the Craven film, there's little of the audience implication that made these visions of violated innocence and draining retribution so troubling.

August 26, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion

| Comment

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Bucolic class warfare, while toying sadistically with the wrongheaded notion that victims likewise harbor inner homicidal maniacs waiting to be set free. But undeniably super-scary, just when you thought that genre had been done to death, no pun.

August 19, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

| Comment

Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

Not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. The original was downright awful.

August 2, 2009 Full Review Source: CNNRadio

| Comment (1)

Paul Chambers

CNNRadio

Given my particular distaste for both remakes and rape-revenge movies, I was as surprised as anyone to find that this is a better horror movie than it probably should be.

June 19, 2009 Full Review Source: CampBlood.org

| Comment

Brian Juergens

CampBlood.org

The new version is tamer than the original but still dwells unpleasantly on the daughter's rape; this made me ill-disposed towards the ensuing scenes of violent payback.

June 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK]

| Comment

Edward Porter

Times [UK]

This isn't scary, just plain exploitative.

June 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Observer [UK]

| Comments (2)

Jason Solomons

Observer [UK]

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Last House on the Left

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I have very peculiar, mixed and sort of concerned feelings about this film. 2009's Friday the 13th was a remake that was worth doing because the original had almost no redeeming features about it. Although a cash in it was surprisingly good for what it was. However I must also applaud it for being greater than this

April 19, 2012

Directors Cat

Super Reviewer

Interesting remake of Wes Craven's 1972 film, The Last House on the Left. I view Craven's original film as an exploitation horror classic that pushed the boundaries of good taste. With that said, this remake is still pretty disturbing and delivers some brutal scenes of revenge mayhem. I much preferred the original film

April 1, 2012

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

The Last House on the Left Quotes

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1. Justin: Dad, look, I was just trying to liquidate some of the..
2. Krug: Liquidate. Wow. Is that my word or yours?
– Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)
1. Paige: You know what Mari? I think Justin here could be kind of cute if he lost his whole like creepy, hooded Unabomber kind of vibe he's got going on. Don't you think?
– Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)

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