Review by Peter Syslo
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009) is the remake of the 1972 Wes Craven film. Amazingly, I liked this version of it better than the original (and CHAOS, for that matter). I do like the Craven film, but I always felt that there was something missing from the story. I always took into account that the original was an exploitation picture and the main goal of it was… to exploit certain things (the rape and murder of two teenage girls, a father's bloody revenge). However, I feel that the remake filled in some of the “cracks” in the storyline and it remained faithful to the original. I will go so far as to say – officially, on record – that this was a good remake.
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is directed by Dennis Illiadis and it is wriiten by Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth. It stars Garret Dillahunt (Krug), Joshua Cox (Giles), Riki Lindhome (Sadie), Sara Paxton (Mari Collingwood), Monica Potter (Mrs. Collingwood), Tony Goldwyn (Dr. Collingwood), Martha Maclsaac (Paige), and Spencer Treat Clark (Justin).
The film opens with the Collingwood family driving up to their lake house, for a vacation. They lost their son in an accident, recently, and apparently they are all still grieving. The daughter, Mari, is a normal teen, who also happens to be an accomplished swimmer. When they arrive at their house, she wishes to visit her girlfriend, Paige, who works at a local convenient store. When Mari meets up with Paige, the two are invited to smoke pot, in a motel room, by a nervous teenage boy named Justin. Their party back at the motel is broken up when Justin's criminal father (Krug), his uncle (Giles), and a psychotic woman (Sadie) return. All three have had some trouble with the law, they are basically fugitives, and they decide to kidnap the two girls in order to preserve their freedom. After a car ride and a crash in the woods (near the Collingwood lake house) the situation becomes much more serious. Krug freaks out because Mari caused the crash ; Krug, Giles, and Sadie then proceed to torment, rape, and murder Paige and Mari. Having no vehicle, Krug, Giles, Sadie, and Justin walk to the nearest house – the Collingwood house, which is “the last house on the left”. The second half of the film focuses on the interaction between the Collingwoods and the four psychopaths. Once the parents learn the truth, all bets are off and the deadly game is “on”.
I liked the fact that the film focused about half of its time on the part where the criminals arrive at the Collingwood house. This was only about the last 15 minutes or so of the original film, so it was interesting to see things play out. Following from the original, the mother and father become blind with rage and act out their most violent inclinations towards the group. Also, the criminals are the kind of people that you simply enjoy hating, so it is a pretty easy pill to swallow when the father and mother go ballistic. The film asks that question, as stated in the trailer, “what would you do if the people who killed your daughter were in your house?” It’s an interesting question and it certainly conveys that same message which was in the original. Plus, it asks a further question, which is even more philosophical in nature, “which is worse: the crime itself or the revenge that is enacted upon the criminal?”. The film doesn’t beat you over the head with these provocative questions, but it does give the viewer some food for thought and it is easy to put yourself in that same situation as the Collingwoods.
The only real drawbacks to the film, were the closing scene (neat effect, but it didn’t fit in with the rest of the film) and the stereotypical villains. Since I explained the first, parenthetically, I will talk about the second. One difference from the original is that the three criminals (Krug, Giles, and Sadie) were pretty much your garden-variety type of villains. In the original, David Hess and company had a lot of personality, with that added 1970s quirkiness. These three in the remake didn't quite have that personality and I kind of missed that. It wasn’t necessarily a fault of the actors, but there wasn’t a whole lot of “richness” to the three which made them very interesting or enjoyable to watch. You effectively hated them, but that was about it.
Gnawing through the flesh: THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was a successful remake. There is still the exploitative first half and there is an extension of the original storyline, with the second half of the film. There is a nice “hunter becomes the hunted” dynamic in the second half, where the Doctor and Mrs. Collingwood (in a bumbling way) become the killers and the three killers become the victims. Overall, the film was nicely-shot, with a woodland setting that captured the spirit of the subject matter. The effects are very realistic and you do get a few instances of true gore (hand in a garbage disposal, gunshot wounds). The acting was pretty good, with Goldwyn (Dr. Collingwood) and Clark (Justin) giving the best performances. The negatives were the “ordinary” criminals/ killers, the closing scene, and a slight lack of the 1970s “dirtiness” and personality that gave the original that specific “feel”. But, I was very pleased with the film; I felt that it took the original story to a new, cohesive level. Also, I saw this at our local drive-in and the film made several people sweep up their kids into their cars and drive hastily out of the parking lot. Man, I just love it when unsuspecting people are shocked and offended by a horror film. I give THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT a 7/10.