Universal Pictures
www.thelasthouseontheleft.com
If anyone has seen the original Wes Craven, cult slasher they will probably accept that as great as the original is, a remake isn’t the worst idea. ‘The Last House on The Left‘ is an up-dated Hollywood version, all modern, glossy and ready to push a whole different selection of buttons than it’s seventies counterpart. However, what with all the beautification that comes with remaking something “cult” (‘Wicker Man’ for example), you feel all you’re left with is a well shot, well scored, but disappointing skeleton. All the character and quirkiness polished into uneasy tension and unclear moral obligations.
The close-knit family; Mum, Dad and beloved daughter (without recently deceased son) are off to their holiday cabin in the woods for a break. After an hour or so the teenage daughter obviously loses interest in her surroundings and wants to meet up with her chatty, confident friend, who works in the local town. Their curiosity and boredom leads them unwittingly in to the hands of a family of sadists.
While the original film was tainted with a post-Manson paranoia, the remake has been up-dated to convey a more modern concern – trust. Actually, it’s probably not about trust, but everyone’s super paranoid about “who’s who” these days, that it sort of works.
‘Last House’ is much slicker and easier to watch, not because the scenes where the young girls get hacked to pieces aren’t horrific and heavy, but because we’re made to feel that it’s acceptable to watch the family turn on the baddies mutilating them with the garbage disposals, and making their brains pop with a microwave. It’s taking family values to the next level. And it seems like the thing that pushes them over the edge is the fact the daughter is raped (a major point in both films). The scene is far too long and intense, we get it, it’s rape and it’s bad, we don’t need to watch 5 minutes of it to make us feel uncomfortable and troubled.
‘Last House on The Left’ is a reasonable modern horror film, it makes us feel uncomfortable and uneasy instead of disgusting us with blood and guts, like the old slashers did. The plot is a fairly predictable revenge thriller, with a couple of tense moments, however it doesn’t hold a candle to the original’s eerie psychedelia or paranoia which would have been so much more refreshing.. Ah well, maybe next time.
Emily Paget