THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009) Tries To Bring New Life To The Remake Genre!

Having not been a big fan of the original Wes Craven film I had mixed expectations about this modern day remake The Last House On The Left (2009). The original film written and directed by Craven is a cult classic more because of the taboos it broke when originally released especially in terms of the rape and murder brought upon to the main characters. It is a film more remembered for its exploitation aspects and the fact that it is Craven’s first major motion picture then it is for actually being a good film.

The new film written by Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth and directed by Dennis Iliadis couldn’t rely on breaking cinematic taboos or violent carnage because its all been seen and done before (just take a look at what the French have been releasing over the last few years with Inside, High Tension, and Frontiers). The new film expands on the original story while also relying mostly on mood, suspense, and very good performances by the entire cast.

Craven, who produces the remake, has made it a career with polished horror films for the main stream audience from the Scream franchise to the more recent Red Eye and The Hills Have Eyes remake (and its sequel) and that same aesthetic is on display here. This film has none of the low budget trappings of Craven’s earlier films but is refined and has a few name actors with Monica Potter (of Along Came A Spider and television’s Boston Legal) and Tony Goldwyn (of Ghost, Kuffs, and for you horror film-fans Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives), to name a few.

I could go into detail about the plot of the film but when it comes to remakes the plot never really changes from the original and I don’t like to sound like a broken record but I will say that this film, as directed by Iliadis, is more suspenseful and exciting then the Craven original and actually makes for a better cinematic film. Unlike the Craven film (which isn’t really a film for everyone), this newer version is a film that most audiences can enjoy in the same guilty pleasure as Craven’s more recent Scream franchise or films like Saw, Hostel, or Halloween (2008).

Film Review: HOUSE (2008)

To say that the horror genre has been lacking this year is an understatement as the few that have performed well at the box office or have actually connected with audiences is few and far in between (the few being THE ORPHANAGE, PROM NIGHT, THE STRANGERS, and SAW V, to name a few) while others has simply gone ignored (i.e. THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY, MIRRORS, ONE MISSED CALL, THE EYE, and the list goes on). This new horror hodge-podge HOUSE (2008) is no different as it tries to present the complex ideas of the original Ted Dekker & Frank Peretti novel.

Screenplay by Rob Green, HOUSE is the story of two couples who after an automobile accident find themselves trapped in a nearby home that’s run by a delusion family with nefarious deeds on the mind. The film is filled with a cast of unknowns but is cluttered with B-movie horror starlets from Michael Madsen, Leslie Easterbrook, and Bill Moseley. Even they can’t help this muddled mess of a film. Although the film does a lamentable job of trying to stay in tune with the dying “torture porn” film movement it is too much too late as everything presented feels like it’s been done to death and with a characters that are less then interesting the film is at times a labor to seat through due to the abundance of clichés.

One of the film’s saving graces is Marcin Koszalka’s cinematography which gives the film the perfect horror film ambiance, which is probably why it was given a theatrical release instead of heading straight to the DVD waste bin (as most of this film’s B-movie starlets other films). There are some that will enjoy the “torture porn” aspects of the film but the lack of a coherent story (and characters that drive that story) will ultimately leave audiences empty.