"THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT"
Blu-ray Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: *1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLURAY EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Garret Dillahunt as KRUG Riki Lindhome as SADIE Aaron Paul as FRANCIS Sara Paxton as MARI COLLINGWOOD Monica Potter as EMMA COLLINGWOOD Tony Goldwyn as JOHN COLLINGWOOD Martha MacIsaac as PAIGE Spencer Treat Clark as JUSTIN Rated R and Unrated Studio: Rogue Pictures Directed by: Dennis Iliadis Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The Collingwoods is a loving family that is still mourning the loss of their only son. They go for a family vacation to their house in the woods, and the daughter Mari (Sara Paxton) heads into town to hang out with her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac). Mari and Paige meet a boy named Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), who invites them back to his motel room. While there, the rest of Justin’s family comes home, and things go very wrong. The sadistic family torment Mari and Paige, kidnap them and eventually kill Paige and rape Mari, leaving her for dead. When a storm hits, the sadistic family stumbles across the Collingwoods’ home to seek shelter. However, when the Collingwoods discover what has happened to their daughter, they take revenge.
WHAT I LIKED
There is a visceral feel to “The Last House on the Left” that is effective, albeit a bit overused in today’s horror landscape. The movie hits home on the “it can happen to you” level, with all the video nasty elements played out safely on the television on the other side of your living room.
I would hardly call this movie enjoyable, but it does achieve what it sets out to do: horrify the viewer.
If you can get past the torment murder and rape, you might find a modicum of cathartic exhilaration when Mr. and Mrs. Collingwood finally exact revenge on this Manson-style family.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination. I have never been one to turn my nose up at horror movies simply for the depiction of horrific scenes. However, I have always found “The Last House on the Left” – even in its original form by Sean Cunningham and Wes Craven – to be unnecessary. It is hardly enjoyable to watch because of its brutal nature. In fact, the only fun one can have with the original, in my opinion, is to laugh at its shoddy construction and ridiculous scenes... and to enjoy watching some brutal revenge.
The problem with this new version is that the 70s campiness of the feature has been stripped away entirely. Now, it just seems like a studio-level snuff film made for no other purpose than to make its audience feel woozy.
And the revenge cycle that happens in the third act seems to be toned down a bit, even in the unrated version of the film. There were some clever instances in the original, but they have been sanitized for today’s audience. Apparently, watching a woman bite a man’s penis off to exact revenge for the rape of her daughter is too much for people today... but watching every grueling minute of said rape is A-OK. That just doesn’t make sense.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The Blu-ray comes with the original theatrical cut of the film, along with an extended unrated cut. According to the disc, the unrated version is five minutes longer than the theatrical cut, but the brutal violence all seems to be untouched. And I doubt (or rather, I pray) that there isn’t five extra minutes of rape in the middle. In any case, I’m not sure where those five extra minutes went, but having seen both cuts, I could barely tell the difference.
Additional Blu-ray features include a smattering of deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes featurette (including the pseudo unedited microwave scene from the end of the film).
The disc is also D-Box motion enabled, offers digital copy for your portable device and grants you access to Universal’s BD-Live center.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
People who love violent revenge and don’t mind seeing a little (or a lot) of rape in their movies.
