The Last House on the Left

Director: Dennis Iliadis
Script: Adam Alleca & Carl Ellsworth
Cast: Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Garret Dillahunt, Aaron Paul, Spencer Treat Clark, Riki Lindhome, Sara Paxton, Michael Bowen
Running time: 111 minutes
Year: 2009
Certificate: 18

When I finally caught up with Wes Craven’s original version of The Last House on the Left (1972) in its uncut form, during the Nineties, it was on laser disc (remember them?) round at a mate’s house. I seem to recall we double-billed it with the Hong Kong Category III film Run and Kill, directed by Billy Tang. What a delightful easy watching film-night that was! After one viewing of Last House, I figured that I probably would never watch it again, but ended up doing just that at a Cineexcess event a couple of years later and appreciating it more then, although I still wasn’t a fan of the ‘Keystone cops’ and some of the inappropriate music that Craven had used throughout the film.

Fast forward around 25 years and, courtesy of Blueprintreview I find myself watching the remake, made in 2009; a film that I had wanted to see at the cinema, but had missed, for reasons now forgotten. So how do the two movies compare, I hear you ask? Well, if I’m honest, the remake is a smoother ride, is better shot, and therefore, overall, is a more satisfying watch. However, it doesn’t quite have that nasty grindhouse, sleazy feel to it that the original had, and the violence, sexual and otherwise, has been toned down a little for this version, which in some ways is a good thing, but for those who need the occasional extreme cinema fix, they might have to look elsewhere.

Essentially a reimagining of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960), this version sees two young women, being sucked into a violent gang’s orbit when they hook up with the gang leader’s son after he offers to share some grass with them back at the motel he’s staying in. Unfortunately, gang leader, Krug, (played well by Garret Dillahunt), decides that he wants to ‘educate’ his son in the art of being with a woman so tries to force him to have his ‘wicked way’ one of the girls. When his son, Justin, refuses to comply, Krug rapes her instead, taking her virginity. The other girl is brutally stabbed to death, but Mari (Sara Paxton) escapes, making it as far as a nearby lake before being shot while she’s swimming away. Our gang later find themselves stranded in the woods during a storm and, unknowingly, find refuge at a vacation home belonging to the parents of Mari: a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics when they realise what has happened.

The Last House on the Left’s central premise is actually based on a medieval Swedish ballad titled “Töres döttrar i Wänge,” roughly translated to “Töre’s daughters in Vänge.” In the ballad, three girls are killed by robbers on their way to church, and three wells spring up where the girls were murdered. Their father discovers the identity of the killers and exacts his own revenge on two of the three, only to find out that the three brothers were his sons who were sent away to fend for themselves when they were young. In all versions, young girls are subjected to extreme violence, and their parents seek their own violent vengeance against the perpetrators. The ultimate moral of the original ballad might have been lost in the cinematic versions, but, at its heart, the story is a condemnation of violent vengeance.

The acting in this version is uniformly good (although I prefer the original cast, especially David Hess as Krug) and the drama and suspense keeps the viewer hooked and tense throughout most of the running time. The music, by John Murphy, is moodily significant and Iliadis’s direction is excellent.

The film is being distributed through Arrow Video and has a plethora of extras:

Audio Commentary with writers David Flint & Adrian Smith – David Flint (from Rebrobate.com) and Adrian Smith (from Movies & Mania.com) make for a good pairing to discuss the film in detail. They talk about the various actors, the differences between the films, locations (it was shot in South Africa) and about the story’s origins. Both are fans of the new version and are happy to compliment the cinephotography and acting, etc.

A River of Blood (31.27 mins) – Lead actress, Sara Paxton talks about the role and reveals that she’s a big horror fan. Apparently she started acting at the age of six and was modelling for newspaper ads from a young age too. She really enjoyed shooting the film, citing it as being one of the best experiences of her life.

The notorious Krug (27.06 mins) – An interview with actor Garret Dillahunt during which we find out that Garret has a degree in journalism and has written plays and sees acting as a therapeutic exercise. He sees Last House as more of a ‘home invasion’ movie than out and out horror. He prefers supernatural films to slashers. Apparently he spoke to David Hess before filming and got his ‘blessing’, so to speak.

Suspending disbelief – An interview with screenwriter Carl Ellsworth (18.26 mins) – He talks about his career, including writing a spec script for the film Red Eye which Wes Craven made. Plus, he wrote Disturbia, an underrated film, if ever there was one. He hadn’t seen the original film when he was asked to do a re-write on the original script and he was pushing to have someone survive to the end of the film.

Reviving the legend – An interview with producer Jonathan Craven (33 mins) – Jonathan talks about the team wanting to make the film as realistic as possible and about how important the sound design was.

Look Inside featurette (2,41 mins) – A talking heads EPK featuring Wes Craven, Sean Cunningham and director Denis Iliads.

Deleted / Extended Scenes – A variety of extended scenes including more of the daughter leaving home, the shop scene with Justin and a different angle on the exploding head.

Original Trailer (2.25 mins) – This shows too much but makes nice use of the song ‘Sweet Child of Mine’, but not the Guns N’ Roses version.

Stills gallery – 32 images including one behind-the-scenes image

Disc Two

The Last House on the Left – Unrated cut (1.53:35) – Apparently there’s 78.9 seconds of extra material, mostly story stuff. Although, according to my own calculations there’s an extra 2.35 mins of footage. I think the rape scene is longer, and perhaps more powerful, culminating in a longer end ‘look’ between Krug and his Mrs. There also more blood on breasts in the bathroom scene and a shot of a scalpel in flesh, which seems more pronounced, but I could be wrong. The microwave scene is the same.