The Last House on the Left (remake)

In this climate where just about every horror film of the last century is up for a remake, one I wasn't expecting was Wes Craven's notorious shocker The Last House on the Left. Craven's debut feature is a gruelling watch and still unavailable in its uncut form in the UK.
 
The remake was Craven's idea and he and Sean Cunningham (who worked with him on the original) produced Dennis Iliadis' film.
 
The plot is fairly simple and follows the basic template of a rape-revenge movie: the girl is raped, beaten and left for dead. The perpetrators unwittingly seek refuge from a storm with her parents, who gradually figure out who their guests are and what they have done. Filled with hatred, they wreak bloody revenge on the gang.
 

This isn't a shot for shot remake of the original and there are some changes to the plot - one actually makes more sense, as the parents in this version don't know that their daughter is missing when they invite the bedraggled strangers into their home. There are substantial changes to Krug's gang, with his girlfriend no longer a Manson-esque force of nature, his brother a fairly dull character and his son a sympathetic loner, rather than a strung-out heroin addict.
 
The daughter, Mari, is a resilient girl, who remains composed through her ordeal and has the wherewithal and inner strength to get away and survive, making her way back to her parents. This is a major problem as the original used the 'eye for an eye' maxim to help you empathise with Mari's parents, but here the brutality is gratuitous and not contextualised. Craven claimed that his film drew on Vietnam for the violence and it's possible that Iliadis is responding to more recent conflicts.
 
This is a very polished film, well scored and shot, but one that fails to engage due to the poor characterisation and hateful ending.


The Disc
 
Extra Features
A paltry selection of bonus material with a handful of deleted scenes and A Look Inside which, despite the promising title, is a 2 minute EPK piece and basically an extended trailer.
 
The disc contains both the theatrical cut and an unrated version, which is 4 minutes longer though I couldn't tell exactly where the extra material was inserted.
 
The Picture
For the most part, the high definition picture is superb, beautifully showing the idyllic surroundings, but it does break down in the darker scenes, with a surprising amount of noise and loss of definition.
 
The special effects makeup and prosthetics are very good, so the bloodshed is suitably jarring, though the final shot is far from convincing.
 
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio track is very clear and the surrounds are used well to present the score, atmospherics and immerse you in the attacks so even closing your eyes won't separate you from the events on-screen.
 
Final Thoughts
The Last House on the Left is an extremely uncomfortable film to watch, especially the rape scene, which seems to revel in the brutality of such an attack. The events develop well but, for those with a knowledge of Wes Craven's 1972 landmark, it disappoints on every level, like so many remakes do.  Only the acting is moderately good, with decent performances by Garret Dillahunt as Krug and Sara Paxton as Mari - the others are pretty forgettable.
 
This is a terrible film and one of the worst of the recent remakes so is to be avoided.