Details
Movie Description
After THE HILLS HAVE EYES was remade in 2006, another Wes Craven '70s shocker arrives on screen with this film. Mari (Sara Paxton) looks forward to a relaxing vacation at a lake house, the escaped convicts she meets have a different sort of evening in mind. The men brutally attack her, and she barely survives, but she tries to make it back home to her parents (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter). However, the prisoners accidentally arrive at her parents' home, and soon they're the ones who should be frightened., 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.
Industry Reviews
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[The director] does fantastic things with more brutal sequences -- directing tense scenes as others might direct a tightly choreographed fight....THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is a properly horrifying night out."
Box Office - Sara Schieron (03/11/2009)
"[D]irector Iliadis and his cinematographer Sharone Meir do a smooth job of handling space and time to create suspense. The film is an effective representative of its genre, and horror fans will like it..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (03/11/2009)
"A study of operatic vengeance and dueling family values, this stylish renovation by Dennis Iliadis remains mostly true to the original story....The director proves adept at managing mayhem in cramped spaces..."
New York Times - Jeannette Catsoulis (03/13/2009)
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