In The Last House on the Left, Sadie (Riki Lindhome), Krug (Garret Dillahunt) and Francis (Aaron Paul) find unexpected visitors in their hotel.
Photo: Lacey Terrell/Rogue Pictures Dennis Iliadis' remake of Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left is both predictable, due to its familiar source material, yet unpleasantly novel at the same time. Unlike the modernized Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and even Craven’s reboot of The Hills Have Eyes, there are no masked or disfigured villains on the hunt. House deals with real people doing terrible things.
As in the original, this House features a gang of killers led by Krug (Garret Dillahunt, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).
(Spoiler alert: Plot details follow.)
First, the criminals in this R-rated remake abduct and torture two 16-year-old girls. Believing they have finished off innocent out-of-towner Mari (Sara Paxton) and her pot-smoking friend Paige (Martha McIsaac), the sadists take shelter in Mari’s home where the girl's parents are forced to confront heartbreak and evil head-on.
And here's where The Last House on the Left gets problematic. The father and mother learn that kitchen knives work better than dish towels. It's tense and effective, but in the original, Craven reminded us that savagery is cruel, whether wielded by killer or housewife. Here, the violence plays like cathartic entertainment and entirely misses the point.
Despite the horror that this group spawns, it never really seems quite genuine. Dillahunt’s conversations with Shirley Manson on The Sarah Connor Chronicles, for example, come across as being much more threatening than the brute force displayed here. Likewise, Sadie (Riki Lindhome) keeps bringing up a poor-versus-rich mentality that never quite meshes.
In his previous film, Hardcore, director Iliadis contemplated abused youth whose frustrations lead to an outbreak of violence. Sustaining a similarly tense tone in Last House on the Left, he skillfully weaves in a water motif via swimming pools, showers, rain and blood-filled lakes.
Yet the picture lacks depth. When the original Last House came out in 1972, it was deemed a sign of the times, filled with fearful images associated with the Vietnam War and free-spirited hippies. We now face the Iraq war and a fresh plague of horrors, but none of that warrants the senseless sadism presented in this retread.
The boundaries of good versus evil are clearly marked from the opening scene, setting up a world view far more conservative than its predecessor. The filmmakers serve up a clearcut lesson: Vigilante justice is as American as apple pie.
Wired: Action scenes find new uses for that old microwave.
Tired: Re-imagined reboot lacks imagination.
Rating:
Read Underwire's movie ratings guide.
See also:
