Wes Craven is out to prove Thomas Wolfe wrong. The filmmaker, who has become a legend scaring legions of horror fans with The Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes and Scream, has decided to go home and revisit his debut feature -- The Last House on the Left. So, was it worth the trip?
The original 1972 film, which Craven wrote and directed, put him on the map as a taut director, with a knack for concocting scares and putting audiences on edge. And, with such notorious scenes involving a near fatal fellatio and a chainsaw finale, the film’s raw brutality took the genre to new heights. (Or is it depths?). It can be argued that there might never have been a Saw or Hostel series without this first visit to The Last House on the Left.
And therein lies the irony. The envelope has been pushed so much in the thirty-plus years since the original, the remake may seem tame in comparison. The plot doesn’t veer much. Dr. John Collingwood (Tony Goodwyn), his wife Emma (Monica Potter) and 17-year-old daughter Mari (Sara Paxton) are hoping for a little rest and relaxation and some quality family time as they head to their remote vacation home in a wooded lakefront wilderness. How remote? The nearest neighbor is six miles away and cell phone signals can drop at any time. Immediately upon arrival, Mari wants to hook up with her summertime friend Paige (Martha MacIssac). As Mari is a sensible all-American girl, her parents don’t hesitate to toss her the car keys and send her off for the night. And Paige? Not so much. She’s a wisecracking party girl whose idea of a good time involves marijuana. Before you can say, “Uh Oh,” the two girls wind up in a seedy hotel room, toking away on some “killer weed” with Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), a sullen boy they’ve just met.
If you have to ask if this is a bad move, you haven’t seen many horror movies. The party is soon crashed by Justin’s father Klug (Garret Dillahunt), his brother Francis (Aaron Paul) and his girlfriend Sadie (Riki Lindhome). We know how bad they are by the way they sadistically disposed of the two detectives taking Klug to prison in the opening scene. We learn how psychotic they are by what they do to Mari and Paige.
Klug and company confiscate the Collingwood family vehicle and flee with Mari and Paige in tow. Without giving too much of the plot away, the group ends up stranded in a remote (where have I seen that word before) part of the woods. Paige and Mari are brutalized and left for dead. And our gruesome quartet end up seeking refuge at the good doctor’s home. Right on schedule, a menacing storm knocks out the power and phone. As the night grows longer and the storm rages on, the true nature of these houseguests is revealed, leading to a classic confrontation of good and evil.
Craven, who produced, has turned over the directing reins of the latest The Last House on the Left to newbie Dennis Iliadis. (His only other feature is 2004’s Hardcore.) Iliadis proves sufficiently adept at creating tension and the movie plays exactly as it should. You’ll cringe when you’re supposed to, laugh nervously when you need to catch a breath, squirm at some simple but effective imagery (it’s been a while since a broken nose has been so wince-worthy), and, most importantly, cheer appropriately for the bad guys to get what’s coming to them. All the things expected in this type of tale.
Involving basically only eight characters, the screenplay by Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth has a sleek compactness to it. This allows Iliadiss to focus on the primordial face-off without any distractions. The only false note of the film is an unnecessary bit at the end involving a microwave. With the setup suggesting a much more satisfying resolution, the filmmakers opt to go with a cheap gag. It’s as if they felt the need to attempt to “out gross” the competition. It’s too bad. They didn’t need to stoop down to their contemporaries’ level to prove they were better.
If you’re looking for your next injection of cinematic carnage, you might want to hold out for Saw VI. But, if you’re in the mood for a fun little thrill ride, consider spending a night at The Last House on the Left.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The houseguests from hell
