Review: The Last House On The Left (18) (From Asian Image)

Review: The Last House On The Left (18)

3:10pm Friday 12th June 2009

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Running time: 110 mins. Starring: Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Sara Paxton, Garret Dillahunt, Aaron Paul, Riki Lindhome, Spencer Treat Clark, Martha MacIsaac. Director: Dennis Iliadis.

In 1972, writer-director Wes Craven — unknown at the time — shocked audiences with his grisly rape revenge thriller, The Last House On The Left.

Very much a product of its era, the film tackled controversial subject matter on a miniscule budget and reflected the prevailing anti-authoritarian mood in a country bitterly divided over Vietnam.

If audiences were stunned by Craven’s vision, censors were horrified, banning the film in the UK for many years — it finally became available on video in its uncut form in March 2008.

For the film-maker, this incendiary debut sparked a glorious and highly-lucrative career, awash with seminal moments such as The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream and their sequels.

The 21st-century remake of Craven’s notorious vision, directed by Dennis Iliadis, trails wearily in the footsteps of updated versions of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Friday The 13th.

It is a pointless revisit to a landmark in modern cinema, spruced up with impressive make-up and special effects as two parents declare war on the thugs who brutalise their daughter.

Fake blood runs over in Iliadis’s re-imagining of The Last House On The Left, including a very gory moment with a sink waste-disposal system, which is where, arguably, the film belongs as well.

The rape sequence is especially harrowing, justifying the 18 certificate for its brutality.

It is possibly the only point in the film where the director and his screenwriters, Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth, exercise restraint.

They lose the flimsy plot entirely for the final showdown.

Performances run the gamut of pain, fear and rage without any tangible depth.

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