Review of The Last House on the Left (2009) by Connorb — 25 Aug 2009

I was rather pleased after seeing this remake for the first time; it was a decent movie with some great performances from a believable cast, a great soundtrack from John Murphy (who also wrote the score for one of my favourite films, 28 Days Later), and it stayed pretty accurate to the source material.

Everybody should already be familiar with the plot of The Last House on the Left. The original is a horror classic, and a must-see, although its sheer explicit nature means it didn't become available uncut in the UK until last year.

The remake is nowhere near as explicit in either the violence or the rape sequence; the latter was extraordinarily disgusting, but I admire the filmmakers for making it so. Too often do we see some pretty dumb girl raped in the woods and somebody in the cinema will shout "dumb bitch had it coming!" Nothing like this happened with The Last House on the Left.

Like I said, a very believable cast managed to make the audience connect with the characters in a sympathetic way. As for the plot, yes, some things have changed (apart from the names, I mean.) Some characters that live died in the original, and vice versa.

Give the new director some creative license, people! This is HIS movie, not Wes Craven's. Give the director a chance to experiment with what is his to make. Additionally, a comment to Golder, who walked out of the cinema once the rape scene commenced: if you were so excited to see this because it was "Wes Cracen producing (or shadowing) what was his original creation back in the 1970's", then you should have already been aware that Wes Craven's original 1972 Last House on the Left contained an even more explicit rape scene, and that the classification information for the film warns that there is a scene of rape.

If it's something that offends you so much, look it up first. A decent film, strong acting, good direction... I give it a 7.