The Last House on the Left 2009, The Remake of the Cult Classic, Stands on its Own
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The Last House on the Left 2009 Stands on it’s own merit, it shows once again the evil lurking in us all.
Horror Queen Says "Bloody Thumbs Up!"
Written by BHM Contributor Horror Queen
March 13, 2009
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Release: March 13, 2009 (U.S.)
Directed by: Dennis Iliadis
Written by: Adam Alleca (screenplay), Carl Ellsworth (screenplay) and Wes Craven - (earlier film)
Starring:
Garret Dillahunt as Krug
Michael Bowen as Morton
Joshua Cox as Giles
Riki Lindhome as Sadie
Aaron Paul as Francis
Sara Paxton as Mari Collingwood
Monica Potter as Emma Collingwood
Tony Goldwyn as John Collingwood
Wes Craven’s 1972 debut horror film The Last House on the Left examines a distinct type of violence, considering the possibilities of what one would do to someone who physically harmed their child. Add to this the disturbing, cruel way in which they were harmed and you have a movie you will not soon forget, even if you see it today.
Dennis Iliadas’ The Last House on the Left 2009 by comparison addresses the same question and is equally chilling. But thirty-seven years later a sophisticated soundtrack and special affects drastically affect the fear factor of any horror film, or at least the “jolt” factor. So the remake is more frightening in one sense, but then again there’s something eerie about the original’s painstakingly slow and deliberate brutality without the�backdrop of loud music, suspense and sudden scares. That being said, The Last House on the Left 2009 like its predecessor reveals
the killer’s innate love of the kill, the victim’s capacity for the same, and certainly stands on its own merit as an excellent horror film.
What happens when you take a middle-class family of three and put them in their vacation home on a desolate lake in the woods, along with a nearby escaped convict and his family? Not good things. First of all, mom and dad didn’t know there was danger in the area when they let 17-year-old daughter Mari wander off to meet her friend Paige for a night out on the town, and secondly that fate would have them end up at the bad guys’ motel room getting stoned. Hint: this is not a film for already overprotective parents.
In fact the girls were innocently led to the motel by the one nice guy in the gang – teenage son Justin. Unfortunately Justin has no say in what the rest of the family does when they happen on the scene, something he probably should have thought of beforehand. Met with the sudden terror of being stripped of their clothes and threatened with knives, Mari and Paige alternate from a state of panic, to attempted escape to rage against their assailants. This is all extremely unsettling and a bit too real even for today’s overexposed-to-sex-and-violence audience. And what happens to the girls in the woods by the lake is almost impossible to watch, even for Horror Queen.
After unclenching our fists and opening our eyes again, we assume the girls are dead.
And here’s the great part. It’s getting dark and the killers find themselves in a rainstorm seeking cover in none other than young Mari’s vacation
home. After hearing they were in a car accident, Mari’s parents Emma and John are pretty darn hospitable to the group, offering them beverages and a warm, dry place to spend the night. John who’s a doctor even tends to one of their broken noses. But let’s face it - it’s pretty hard to act normal when you’re a savage rapist and murderer, and eventually the couple begins to suspect something is amiss with their boarders. Add to this the sudden appearance of nearly dead Mari lying on the porch quivering in the rain, along with a few other clues, and John and Emma begin to put two and two together.
Admittedly The Last House on the Left 2009 portrays what would be a sticky situation for anyone. You have a daughter needing hospital care (although dad’s emergency preparedness and aptitude with a first aid kit and a few makeshift tools are excellent – a little foreshadowing there) and the crazed maniacs that raped and tortured her, leaving her for dead in the lake are steps away in the guesthouse. Oh and you have no car. Things are about to get interesting.
Obviously filled with rage, John and Emma decide to take the law…or rather what would be against the law…into their own hands. All I can say about this is there’s a great scene where the shivering couple are creeping up the stairs toward the sleeping gang, armed with a knife and a fireplace poker – classic. The tables have turned.
Does the couple in The Last House on the Left 2009 succeed in their mission? Are they themselves capable of the same violence as the others? Let’s just say the self-defense plea probably won’t hold up given the surprising tactics John and Emma conjure up to get their revenge in The Last House on the Left 2009.
Horror Queen Says: A Bloody Thumbs Up!
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