Sometimes a movie trailer is released that is absolutely riveting. The most recent was for the remake of Wes Craven’s 1972 cult classic The Last House on the Left. With the same title, the film prided itself on boasting that it was both sadistic and cruel. He started the talk about a small-scale horror masterpiece. Directed by Dennis Iliadis, who also directed a lesser-known 2004 Greek film titled Hardcore, for American audiences, it was just another horror remake. If anyone here has had a chance to see Iliadis’s Hardcore, they would agree that the film would be nothing like your typical horror remake. My main concern with the film was that Iliadis might destroy the original content like Marcus Nispel did with his remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Tobe Hooper’s original film (of the same title) was a perfect exercise in raw brutality and sadism. The scene at the dinner table is one of the most chilling to ever hit the big screen. What Nispel ended up doing could be labeled “violating the source.” He not only got rid of some of the pivotal moments from the original, but he even tweaked some of the scenes to make them more palatable for a modern audience. The original was clearly fine as it was if someone felt the need to reinvent it then why bother messing with it? Iliadis took the hint and, unlike Nispel, embraced the source material.
The Last House on the Left centers on a young woman named Mari (Sara Paxton) who is brutally raped and left for dead by a group of maniacal killers, Krug (Garret Dillahunt), Francis (Aaron Paul), Sadie (Riki Lindhome) and Justin (Spencer treats Clark). Although the premise may sound somewhat similar to other horror movies, the execution is unlike anything you’ve seen before. In the opening moments of the film a brutal murder is committed. The scene is slightly haunting and unforgiving in its take on stark realism. The movie grips the viewer and refuses to let go until the final credits. When Mari arrives in a quaint lakeside town with her father John (Tony Goldwyn) and her mother Emma (Monica Potter), the film focuses on the family’s relationship. It is hinted that a deceased son gives the mother reasoning about her great concern for Mari. As the film progresses, no light is shed on any other past events, no subplots are created; the only focus is on the brutality approach.
To say that this movie is not enjoyable is an understatement. This is really a movie that if anyone were to find any sense of enjoyment at all, they would have to have some kind of disease. The characters not only play with the characters in the film, but also with the audience in the theater. The movie elicited some of the most interesting reactions I’ve ever seen in a theater. At the start of the movie, the theater was nearly full, by the end credits, it was barely half full. People were horrified, disturbed, disgusted, excited, intrigued, and ultimately fully invested in the outcome of the film. There was cheering, laughter, crying, shouting, etc. It seemed that the audience had as much to lose as the characters. For a movie to have such an effect on its audience, it more than served its purpose. After the long and unflinching rape scene, the film’s tension only increases. Your nails will dig into the seats as you hold yourself in anticipation of what might happen to the family or the killers.
One subject I found interesting was the morality of man. As the movie’s tagline says: “If bad people hurt someone you love, how far would you go to hurt them?” Much like Gasper Noe’s 2002 New French Extremity film Irreversible, the idea of revenge comes into play. Even though Krug raped Mari, do the mother and father have the right to do whatever they want to her? Should any human being have that right? Like Krug and his friends, the mother and father’s morality slowly fades as they delve into the same depths that the aforementioned reside. The film could be classified a bit as an exhibition of transgressive art. The shock value of the film is sometimes very offensive and extremely disturbing. While most will leave the movie looking terrible because of all the content, hopefully some will answer the questions it raises. One of my friends even claimed to have sympathized with the assassins when they received their own fates. When I asked him why that was, he replied that “it was just a natural reaction. When you see something so horrible done to another human being, you can’t help but feel bad.” Do the murderers even deserve sympathy after the numerous murders and rapes they committed? It’s debatable, but as my friend said, it will all depend on how you react. Some will condemn, some will encourage.
Regardless of the movie’s debatable content and superficial questions, it’s an above average horror movie. It stands as one of the best remakes of the decade and is capable of teasing audiences in ways that only a handful of other movies have (see: Salo or 120 Days of Sodom OR Funny Games). It will easily push the audience into submission and make them beg for mercy. No one gets out unscathed in The Last House on the Left.
Movie rating: 7.5/10