| Last House on the Left |  | Director: Dennis Iliadis
Actors: Garret Dillahunt, Monica Potter, Tony Goldwyn, Aaron Paul, Spencer Treat Clark
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $1.20
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Seller: megamediaonline
Rating:  105 reviews
Sales Rank: 6,605
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 110 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 025192032387
UPC: 025192032387
EAN: 0025192032387
ASIN: B002DKGWSE
Theatrical Release Date: 2009
Release Date: August 18, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
After attacking two teenage girls, killing one and wounding the other, an ex-convict and his gang find shelter at the home of one of the girls' parent
Amazon.com
A hot-button topic in the horror community from the minute it was announced, the 2009 remake of Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham’s controversial Last House on the Left will undoubtedly leave audiences polarized in regard to both its treatment of the source material and its level of violence. As with the original film, which drew inspiration from Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (and was itself based on 13th century Scandinavian legend), director Dennis Illadis’ film traces the downward spiral of two teenage girls (Sara Paxton and Martha MacIsaac from Superbad) who fall prey to a quartet of degenerates. The perpetrators then seek refuge in a nearby vacation home--which happens to be occupied by Paxton’s parents. Both versions spare no quarter in detailing the torments inflicted on the two girls, as well as the ruthlessly efficient revenge metered out to the killers by the parents; the difference, however, lies with the intent. Craven and Cunningham (who serve as executive producers for the remake) sought to shock Nixon/Vietnam-era audiences by showing the limits to which the "average" citizen could be pushed by violent acts; Illadis, however, is simply content to deliver a glossy, overamped thriller that neither delights in nor condemns the atrocities committed by its characters. The result is a flat, often tedious exercise in nihilism buoyed only by its cast, especially Paxton, Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter as her parents, and Garrett Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men) as the malevolent leader of the depraved foursome. Fans of the original need not bother with this version; newcomers should seek out Craven’s version, which has lost none of its power to overwhelm. --Paul Gaita
Amazon.com
The legendarily scuzzy 1972 shocker Last House on the Left gets all dressed up in this slick remake, which retro-fits the original storyline to an isolated lakeside cabin. This time out, unsuspecting teen Mari (Sara Paxton) makes the crucial mistake of going to buy some weed at a rundown motel room with a stranger (Spencer Treat Clark). It must have sounded like a good idea at the time. Soon Mari and her pal (Martha MacIsaac) are confronted by the stranger's diseased posse, and the real trouble begins. The set-up of the 1972 picture, which director Wes Craven borrowed from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, is a blunt exercise in brutality followed by revenge, the twist being that the revenge is as savage as the initial transgression. This structure remains in the remake, although a few key plot points are changed, with little improvement. Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn play Mari's parents, who at some point will be called upon to put aside their merlot and their civilized constraints and get to it; Garret Dillahunt, coming off his strong work in Deadwood and No Country for Old Men, is far too qualified to be playing the stock role of the creep-in-chief. There is something distinctly strange about watching a film that took much of its original power from its cheapness, an outlaw energy that is completely lost in this dressed-up, professionally made remake. Here the scenes of rape and murder are presented not as pulpy shouts from the subculture but as necessary ingredients in a respectable machinery, which somehow makes them more dispiriting and unpleasant to watch. That this film is a technical advance on the original film on every level--acting, writing, photography--does not make it a better film. --Robert Horton
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 105
 Gloss On The Grit... September 10, 2010
Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein (under the rubble)
I've been a Wes Craven fan for a long time. His THE HILLS HAVE EYES, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS are some of my all-time favorite horror movies. That said, I must admit that I'm not very fond of the original Craven version of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. It is one hell of a cautionary tale though! Now, I just watched the new (unrated), updated remake, and loved every minute of it! Produced by Craven and Sean Cunningham, this "re-imagining" is indeed glossier than the original, but it benefits from its tweeking / polishing. In the first LHOTL I found the criminals to be a gaggle of boobs who were occasionally frightening. In the new one, this bunch is completely cold-blooded, without a hint of slapstick. They're more hardened, stone-killers than murderous bumpkins. The parents are willing to do whatever it takes, especially during the unexpected, explosive finale! If you enjoy revenge / survival horror, then this is heaven-sent...
Effective remake August 29, 2010
James R. Gilligan (Lafayette, IN United States)
Another in the current spate of horror movie remakes, this one is actually quite good and creepy. If you've seen the original, you know the story--two teenage girls are abducted and abused by a group of marauding baddies, who then seek shelter at the home of one of their victims. All sorts of suspense and opportunities for vengeance arise, and the payoff is both gruesome and satisfying. Some subtle plot points have been modified very effectively, so somehow this one manages to be even more graphic and squirm-inducing than the original, which was considered edgy for its time. If gruesome terror is your thing, this is a good one.
 This isn't the best remake. August 15, 2010
JONATHAN P.
Nothing beats an original. This is one of the worst remakes i've seen. The actors are horrible. The only thing cool are the death and how detailed it gets in. But anyways, its a lame remake.
Nothing does beat an original.
"Just keep telling yourslef Its Only A Movie.". I kinda wish it wasnt
The worse movie remake i have ever watched... July 21, 2010
Bruce Joyner
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If i was Wes Craven i would sue the film makers of this putrid film or at least state publicly that i hated this movie..There were no sympathetic characters, everyone acted as if they were the most stupid people on Earth...Let me count the ways...College girl(i will not mention character names because they don't deserve any recognition)who is a city girl..smokes pot with her dumb pal convience store girl in a hotel room that is littered with clothes with a boy they just met.. and they don't question him on any level about who else was occupying the room..and after getting stoned..they hang out instead of leaving..so they end up dead.. ..The hotel is the first place losers go to hide after they murder 2 policemen..yeah, right..and the cops never check those places out either..the rest of the movie is more of the same dumb dialog.Mom and dad are something else...total buffoons..that let nasty scum bags into their house..that is secluded and far from anything..they slowly take their time taking revenge..to the point of being laughable....would you believe the killers were out camping? No, i wouldn't either..i watched hoping something interesting would happen but it never did...and who was the sexual violence for? Not me..not reeled slowly for the sake of showing the brutality of the Killers murdering and raping, why show it? ..for the audience I hope not..."Last House on The Left" is probably the last re-make i will watch..I do not recommend this movie..watch Wes Cravens original..and his other movies too..plus check out "The House by the Cemetary"..Hello Hollywood ..let me make a movie that will scare the hell out of people...i work within budgetary constraints.
 Remake exceeds original by leaps and bounds July 20, 2010
J. Perrotta (New York, NY)
It seems that most of the discrepancy here is between those who saw the original and loved it, those who never saw the original, and those who saw the original and hated it. But if we look at this movie as its own entity without comparing it to the original or any other similar films, we are bound to see what these directors/writers were going for which hits on themes introduced by horror film makers of generations ago. This film gives us a safe look at what it's like to a victim by sparing us nothing in the ways of brutality, human apathy and extreme realistic violence that literally "hits home" in this depiction. Horror film makers have always liked to test the boundaries of safety and comfort zones to show us that we can all become victims at any time through no fault of our own and this film builds on the viewer's fears that what we are watching could actually happen to us. Isn't that, after all, what good horror films do? They make us uneasy while we face our own mortality and wonder what we would do if we were in the character's situation. I don't think anyone could watch this movie without putting themselves in the place of the teenage girls, the overpowered son of the brutal gang leader, and the parents, all at different times during the course of the film. When confronted with what has happened to their child, the parents do not go on a vengeance trip but are in fear of their own and their daughter's life when it becomes apparent that her attackers are in their own home. To say this is a revenge flick is untrue and misses the greater point being made. They will do anything it takes, no matter how gruesome or violent, to protect their beloved child. The film could have ended this way with the parents safely escaping with their daughter, leaving the battered bodies of the killers behind them. But the final scene allows viewers to go away from the film pondering the fine line between justice and vengeance and makes us wonder if we ourselves would be able to tell the difference when someone we love has been victimized. I don't believe the microwave scene was a last ditch effort by the writers for a thrill kill. But instead it turns the tables and makes the killer now a victim and the father now a murderer as those lines between vengeance and justice are blurred.
To follow along the lines of most of the other reviewers and compare it with the original which, I suppose, is inevitable, I think the original failed to make this final point and instead went for the sensational gore of the vengeance genre while missing whole-cloth what this movie hammered home hard and successfully. This film recognizes the original intent of the horror genre and gives lovers of these films hope that good horror films can actually still be made.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 105
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