Last House on the Left

A remake made to be even more violent and gruesome than the original, Last House on the Left is surely aimed to please and disgust the audience.

The Collingwood's are a happy family that live in the city, but spend their summer in a small town at their cottage by the lake. The daughter, Mari (Sara Paxton) drives into town shortly after arriving to visit with her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac). The two girls decide to spend the rest of the day together, as soon as Paige procures some chronic. They follow a new found friend, Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), to his family's hotel room where he gives them what they want. The three hang out for a while, talking and laughing, until Justin's family arrives.

His father, Krug (Garret Dillahunt), who is an escaped criminal, now sees a situation that must be dealt with to prevent the girls from telling the police who they saw. Krug, along with his girlfriend, Sadie (Riki Lindhome), his brother, Francis (Aaron Paul) and Justin take the two girls with them for a car ride (in Mari's car) to “dispose” of their problem. After a series of horrific events, Mari decides to make a run for it; running toward the lake so that she can swim back to her cottage. However, she gets shot and is left for dead in the lake.

Krug and his followers must take refuge for the night due to car troubles and a violent storm at the only house in the area. They are invited in and given warm drinks by a very nice couple, Emma (Monica Potter) and John (Tony Goldwyn) Collingwood. The couple promises to give their guests a ride in the morning, once their daughter comes back with their car. After their guests have been settled in the guesthouse, Emma and John hear strange noises coming from the porch.

On investigation they discover Mari, who managed to stay alive and slowly swim home, lying on the porch. Emma and John soon discover that the guests that they have been so kind to are the ones who did this to their daughter. They are faced with a decision, either run now to get Mari medical attention, or stay and inflict some revenge on their houseguests.

Last House on the Left is suspenseful and violent, and kept the audience interested until the very end. Some say that the movie is unnecessarily violent, but I felt that it was at an appropriate level given the situations they were in.

There was only one scene I felt the movie could have done without and you will know it when you see it, think microwave. Some scenes were difficult to watch, not because of the violence alone, more because of what was happening in the plot, but that was the desired response, disgust and anger.

While it was a good movie, it wasn't amazing; there wasn't that feeling of “WOW” when you leave the theatre. Either way, the acting in this movie was awesome, especially by Tony Goldwyn (The Last Samurai) and Monica Potter (Saw).

I recommend this movie to anyone who likes suspenseful films and doesn't mind being disgusted at some points.

Final Words: Saw it. Liked it. “Would that really happen?”