As a teenager The Last House On The Left (1972) was one of those films that had acquired almost mythic status. Only being three years old when the film was put on the infamous DPP list of video nasties, and then just four when the Video Recordings Act came into force, meant that I had missed out on its first, albeit unregulated, appearance in the UK. Alongside The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) the title remained out of reach and therefore utterly desirable. It was therefore with eager anticipation that I sat down in 2000 with a US tape – the tagline said ‘to avoid fainting keep repeating it’s only a movie’ and it turned out that it was only a movie. Whilst Tobe Hooper’s film was still brutally effective and unsettling, Wes Craven’s own response to Vietnam had become somewhat irrelevant, nasty but almost meaningless.
So what of the remake? Well, unlike the original it is a slick piece of cinema. Written by Carl Ellsworth and Adam Alleca the film makes a touch more sense than the original, the characters are more interesting (and better acted) and things are less dis-jointed. Similarly director Dennis Iliadis delivers plenty of arresting images whilst also demonstrating a knack for building tension. At times the film shares the dreamlike quality of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), a feeling helped by a seemingly floating camera and another fantastic score from John Murphy. Yep, at almost two hours the film is slightly too long (we could easily save meeting Krug & C0 until the girls do and the wildly misplaced final scene should go straight in the cutting bin) but it is a highly effective thriller that does the job if you are looking for a few scares and it will definitely have you looking forward to Iliadis’ next project…
…like Craven’s, however, it is just a movie. Where the original became irrelevant over time the remake is almost instantly empty – it exists solely because the title was famous and films with famous titles make money. One had hoped that following Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997/2007) the filmmakers might have delivered some kind of rebuttal (because surely the final word on home invasion / revenge thrillers can’t be a teacherly telling off) but obviously commerce has no time for such considerations…
I stumbled upon a £3 DVD copy of the original and was surprised at how amateurish it was. The comedy cops juxtaposed against the brutal rape and murder wasn’t the most even way to tell the story.
Still, it certainly leaves an impression on you. And from what you say about the new outing, its status is under no threat at all.
Good blog by the way, sir.