Remaking Last House on the Left seemed like a dubious proposition at best...yet somehow the new HOUSE works better than expected.
The Last House on the Left (2009)
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Reviews Counted:135
Fresh:56
Rotten:79
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Excessive and gory, this remake lacks the intellectual punch of the 1972 original.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sadistic brutal violence including a rape and disturbing images, language, nudity and some drug use.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Mar 13, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $32,721,635
Synopsis: Based on Wes Craven's landmark 1972 exploitation flick of the same name, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is a brutal movie that exposes the darkest recesses of human depravity. The simple plot follows four... Based on Wes Craven's landmark 1972 exploitation flick of the same name, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is a brutal movie that exposes the darkest recesses of human depravity. The simple plot follows four criminals on the lam who encounter a pair of nubile female teens in a small mountain town. After murdering one and brutally raping the other and leaving her for dead, the cons seek refuge at a nearby summer house. The twist is that it's the very home inhabited by the parents of one of the victims. Upon learning that their house guests raped and tortured their 17-year-old daughter, the couple exact a revenge that arguably exceeds the excesses of the sociopathic gang. When originally released in 1972, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was a shock to the system. Never before had a film shown such images of human wickedness. Grainy and low budget, the original film played like a maniacal cackle from the seedy underbelly of an America nursing a brutal post-Aquarian hangover. Things play out a little differently, though, in 2009. For starters, the movie actually looks quite beautiful, and the story’s idyllic mountain setting is milked for all it's worth. The performances are noteworthy as well, with Garret Dillahunt more than convincing as Krug, the gang's swaggering leader; and Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn portraying the distressed parents with an effective mix of panic, courage, and blind instinct. In an age marked by both increasingly ghastly films and a public discourse that actually debates the merits of institutional torture, a film like LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT really shouldn’t shock anyone. But in both the original and the remake, there’s a latent nihilism that permeates the world. The idea of a sense of lawlessness that cannot be understood or prevented, but only reacted against, is truly disquieting and makes this story unique in the annals of horror. [More]
Starring: Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Sara Paxton, Garret Dillahunt
Starring: Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Sara Paxton, Garret Dillahunt, Martha MacIsaac, Riki Lindhome
Director: Dennis Iliadis
Director: Dennis Iliadis
Screenwriter: Carl Ellsworth
Producer: Wes Craven, Marianne Maddalena, Sean Cunningham
Composer: John Murphy
Studio: Rogue Pictures
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Reviews for The Last House on the Left
... superior [to the original] in that it makes clear the conflicting justification and degradation of the retaliation, establishing a grayer level of morality.
What's most disappointing about the 2009 version is that it strips all the moral ambiguity from the 1972 original of the same name.
Unlike the Craven film, there's little of the audience implication that made these visions of violated innocence and draining retribution so troubling.
Not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. The original was downright awful.
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.
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.
in its way [the film] out-Hanekes Haneke (without feeling like a lecture), by confronting us in the end with what we expected (and possibly also desired) all along from this kind of movie.
A grimly effective new version of the notorious Last House On The Left.
Dennis Iliadis’s remake retains its ferocious power and provocative themes, and thanks to a focused script that unfolds in real time, it ratchets up the suspense and sucks us into a remorseless cycle of violence and revenge.
This year's model, lacking any meaningful context of its own, is reactionary, conservative - existing purely as a slick commercial venture, more grisly grist to the multiplex mill.
A dismal reminder of just how starved Hollywood studios are for good ideas.
The narrative structure is ingenious and sexual assault is at least shown as having dramatic and human consequences of some sort, if only in the context of revenge. Wasn't the original movie enough?
This clanging cover version believes in nothing, not even its own nihilism, and the horrors it portrays leave us colder, but not wiser.
Its biggest shock is that there's much to praise, with a couple of stellar performances complementing the mounting tension and intriguingly twisting narrative.
Director Iliadis succeeds by building tension and putting everyone at unease rather than grinding out cheap shocks.
This is not a horror, it’s a thriller and as a thriller it’s moderately effective but as it a film it won’t leave you feeling entertained or thrilled, just a bit uncomfortable.
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