In this, the era of the remake (and its twin siblings, the reboot and the reinvention), it seemed almost inevitable that 1972’s The Last House on the Left, which established writer-director Wes Craven in the horror genre long before the conception of the Scream franchise, would fall upon a studio executive’s desk as a prime candidate to be dusted off and given the twenty-first century treatment.
Not that the property isn’t used to rejuvenation: Craven’s original, based on Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning The Virgin Spring, which was in turn inspired by medieval Swedish folklore, was already (unofficially) remade in the form of 2005’s uninspired Chaos.
The Last House on the Left 
Directed by Dennis Iliadis |
Enter director Dennis Iliadis (Craven is producing this time around), and a smartly put together cast of character actors. In 2009, The Last House on the Left is still the story of two young girls, Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) and her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac), are brutalized, raped, and left for dead by an escaped convict and his posse (comprising his girlfriend, his brother, and his reluctant son, Justin); it still follows Krug (Garret Dillahunt) and his malevolent brood as they happen upon Mari’s cottage, where her anxious parents offer them a place to stay; and it still charts the violent aftermath of Mr. and Mrs. Collingwood’s realization that their guests are responsible for what happened to their daughter.
However, in this iteration, the film has been both pared down and filled out. Gone are the bumbling policemen of the original who, through their poorly enacted comic relief, only made the horrifying parts that much worse by comparison. All of the characters are fleshed out and updated, with Mari Collingwood anchoring the film as the victim-protagonist, keeping us on edge over her plight and transitioning nicely from eager party girl to hapless, horrified kidnappee. Garret Dillahunt is excellent as the psychotically villainous Krug, in whom a tempestuous propensity for violence simmers just below a polite exterior, and Spencer Treat Clark plays Justin, the unwilling party, with dazed sincerity. However, the stand-outs are Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn as Mari’s distraught, later vengeful, parents.
Since the acting and film-making are beyond reproach thanks to a well-chosen cast and crew, the real question is whether the film justifies itself as an exploration of humanity unmoored from civilization, of the depraved levels to which we are willing to sink in order to exact revenge.
In a word, the answer is no. The original Last House on the Left, like its brethren on the 1980s U.K. ban list of “video nasties” (in particular its cinematic kindred spirit, I Spit On Your Grave), was grounded in a time and place – Craven himself invokes the daily exposure of television audiences to graphic Vietnam footage – and filmed in a beguilingly low-tech way which somehow took the edge off it while simultaneously making the goings-on even more horrifying.
With today’s crisp, high-contrast cinematography, suave editing, and attendant glossy, manifestly contemporary score, not to mention a cast who for all their panache look as though they just finished filming a season of The O.C., this remake is almost too polished for its subject matter.
Even the graphic bits of violence seem almost as likely to excite laughter as shock, with the film – perhaps purposely – blurring the line between titillation through amusement and titillation through horror. There is a palpable sense of dread through most of the story, but actual fear does not really enter the equation beyond the usual jump-out-of-your-seat shocks. Worst of all, the film ultimately throws away most of its tension and moral ambiguity for one last spasm of vengeance-porn in a scene foolishly given away in trailers.
Last House on the Left is worth a viewing for horror aficionados mostly for its casting, which goes beyond the acting by rote typical of so many slasher and horror films these days, but otherwise it doesn’t bring much of anything new to the table. Purists, fans of the original and its ilk, or people who generally avoid horror films are not likely to find much here to change their minds.