Movie Review: The Last House on the Left

The Last House on the Left ***
Directed by: Dennis Iliadis
Written By: Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth based on the movie written and directed by Wes Craven.
Starring: Sara Paxton (Mari Collingwood), Tony Goldwyn (John Collingwood), Garret Dillahunt (Krug), Monica Potter (Emma Collingwood), Riki Lindhome (Sadie), Aaron Paul (Francis), Martha MacIsaac (Paige), Spencer Treat Clark (Justin).

The new version of The Last House on the Left inarguably achieves what it sets out to do. Watching the movie is like being dragged through hell for 110 minutes. It is a thoroughly unpleasant movie going experience. But can you really fault the moviemakers for that? That after all is their goal. There is a stomach churning rape scene, and other scenes of almost unspeakable violence in the film, but it is not presented for titillation or fun, but rather to simply horrify the audience, which it does. The question is not whether the filmmakers accomplish their goal – the question is whether they even should have even tried.

The story of the movie is familiar, which it should be as this is the fourth time it has been told. Ingmar Bergman did it in 1960, with The Virgin Spring, a deep thoughtful film. Wes Craven remade it in 1972 as The Last House on the Left, removing all that pesky God’s Silence stuff and ended up with a sadistic cult classic. And earlier this decade there was Chaos, which essentially stole the plot of the two movies that came before it, and was disgusting. What essentially happens is this – two teenage girls get caught by gang of murderers and rapists, who unsurprisingly, rape and murder. The killers are then stuck in a storm, and take refuge at the only house they can find. By coincidence, the house belongs to the parents of one of the girls they just raped and murdered, who when they discover who they have in their house, and what they did to their daughter, exact brutal revenge on them. That, in a nutshell, is what happens.

This new version wastes no time in making the audience uneasy. Over the opening credits, John Murphy’s wonderfully evocative, extremely creepy score, plays as the camera slowly tracks through the woods. The audience has seen nothing but trees at this point, and already, we feel uncomfortable (this is what you can achieve with truly great movie music). We then flash to a police car, where two cops are transporting a prisoner, Krug (Garrett Dillahunt) to jail. They stop at a railroad crossing, and then there is loud crash, as a pickup truck smashes into the cop car at top speed. In the car are Krug’s brother Francis (Aaron Paul) and girlfriend Sadie (Rikki Lindhome). The trio promptly finishes off the cops, and hit the road.

We are then introduced to the Collingwood family. They are still reeling for the death of their son the year before. But John and Emma (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter) and their teenage daughter Mari (Sara Paxton) decide to go away to their lake house for a few weeks anyway. Mari decides to go see her friend Paige (Martha MacIssac), and when the duo meet Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), a quiet teenager their age, who invites them back to his hotel room for pot, they nervously accept. Justin seems nice – and he is – but of course he’s Krug’s son, and when his father gets back, the real trouble begins. Through a series of events, these characters end up in the middle of the woods, where Krug encourages his “pussy” of a son to rape one of the girls. When he won’t, Krug rapes Mari himself. Paige is brutally murdered, but Mari runs away, although she they are able to shoot her before she gets too far, leaving her for dead in the water. This is how they end up at the Collingwood’s, where first Justin, and then everyone else, realizes who exactly everyone is, and the violence begins anew.

A word about the rape scene: It is brutal and unrelenting. Although it isn’t graphic in detail, it doesn’t really have to be. Shots of Krug ripping down Mari’s shorts and panties, and Mari’s screams as he thrust into her do more to terrify the audience then anything more graphic would have done. The scene drags on minute after minute, as the audience can only look on in horror. Often, in horror movie audiences, there is a sense of fun, and cheers when the violence happens (this certainly was the case in my experience watching the new Friday the 13th movie), but this scene is a turning point for the audience of this film. All the nervous talking and laughter stopped – and the audience gaped at the screen in stunned disbelief. This wasn’t what they were expecting at all.

After the rape scene, the audience seemed to get on the side of the Collingwood’s in a big way. As they dispatch their own brand of justice, there were some cheers, but not in the typical horror movie sense. There was no laughter, no real happiness in watching this happen – just the realization that it must be done. The filmmakers, to their credit, never truly over the top in the movies violence (at least until the final scene, which breaks the tone of the movie. It doesn’t belong in this film – it belongs in something by Eli Roth). The violence in the movie is real and bloody – unlike many violent movies; you get the feeling that what is happening to the characters hurt. The bad guys aren’t unfeeling bogeymen like Jason or Michael Myers, but real people, who when they get a bottle smashed over the head, or stabbed or shot or their hand shoved in a garbage disposal, it hurts. They fight with all they have until they cannot continue anymore.

So now, I can truthfully say, that I have fittingly warned any potential audience member of this movie what to expect if they go see it. This is not a fun slasher movie, or even a movie to provide you with a cathartic thrill. This is an unremitting gaze into darkness and depravity. As a movie, it works remarkably well, and has goes deeper than most of films of this genre. I was fascinated, for example, by the character of Sadie. She certainly stands by her man Krug, and supports him all the way through, but what does she actually think of him? There is a telling moment after the rape, where she looks at him as a mixture of hurt feelings wash over her face. She didn’t try to stop the rape, but it’s almost as if she’s jealous of Mari – why did her man feel the need to do that? When they shoot Mari and leave her for dead in the lake, she stays looking into the water for a beat longer than anyone else. Perhaps she, as a woman, actually feels a little sympathy for Mari. And Justin is a fascinating character himself. He is too weak to stand up to his dad, or his “step mom” or his uncle, but he certainly doesn’t want to do what they do. He is paralyzed by fear.

The performances by the entire cast are all quite good. Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter make a convincing married couple in distress, and when the gears switch in their head from loving parents to revenge seekers, it doesn’t seem at all out of place – it seems real. Garrett Dillahunt plays one of the most disgusting villains you are likely to see on screen this year, but he somehow makes Krug into a real person, not just a over the top screen bad guy. This is accomplished as well by Aaron Paul (who perhaps sneers too much at the camera) and Rikki Lindhome as well. Spencer Treat Clark brings sadness to Justin that seems genuine. Martha MacIssac (best known as Becca from Superbad) is quite good as “the other girl”. But all of them pale beside Sara Paxton, who delivers a powerful, fearless performance as Mari. This is the type of work that never gets awards notice, but is harder than most of the prestige roles. She makes Mari into a sympathetic person, and not just because what happens to her. Her wide eyes, in the moments before she is raped, look out almost pleading with the people around her to stop the madness. It is a performance I am not soon going to forget (I couldn’t if I wanted to – that scream has now etched itself into my memory).

Director Dennis Iliadis has made a remarkable looking movie. The cinematography is dark and ominous, the sound design superb, the music perfectly suited to the material, and played just the right way. He also makes everything seem real. Most horror movies today look only to provide sadistic thrills to their audience. Either that or they try to create “boo” moments for the audience by reusing ancient techniques of things suddenly appearing off camera or whatever. He doesn’t do that. The Last House on the Left isn’t really a ‘scary’ movie – it’s terrifying in another way. This isn’t a movie where we’re terrified about what’s going to happen next – instead we’re terrified by what is happening now. I give the movie 3 stars, although I could go either higher or lower on the scale depending on what you’re looking for (the star system, really is kind of stupid – I could use this same review for the movie no matter what star ranking I have it). As an example of its genre, and an exercise in style, it works remarkably well. It does what it sets out to do. I do however think that most audience members won’t care that the filmmakers achieve their goals or not – they will justifiably be disgusted by what they see on the screen. So, go at your own peril. You’ve been warned.