DVDs in Review

The Last House on the Left

Title: The Last House on the Left (2009)

Release date: October 19 2009

Certificate: 18

Format: Reviewed on DVD, available on Blu-ray

DVD RRP: £19.99

Rating: 3/5

Wes Craven's 1972 exploitation classic 'The Last House on the Left' was brutal. It made you think about that brutality, it made you flinch at ordinary people committing depraved violence, it made you question whose side you were on, and it made a massive impact upon its original release.

In an era of 'torture porn' and countless horror revivals, Dennis Iliadis' version of 'Last House on the Left' naturally loses its impact. It's not as easy to shock modern audiences, but that's not to say he gives up on the first hurdle either.

The now-classic story sees two young women raped and left for dead, sending the group of four criminals looking for a place to lie low for a while. By sheer coincide they end up at one of the victim's parent's house, and these parents find out what their guests have done. Would you let them just walk out of the door?

As in the original, domestic life is shattered by violence

The fact that the central coincidence of the plot is so extreme hardly matters - it allows the filmmakers to explore deeper, darker themes that would've otherwise lost their immediacy. And immediacy itself is the primary catalyst. There isn't a single character in this film with time to spare - it gets the better of them all.

Unfortunately it seems to have gotten the best of the filmmakers as well. At points this feels rushed, going more for shocks than for menace. The visuals are beautiful, more so than the gritty original. But, this actually adds to the realism, it feels like these nightmares can go on in paradise, which is a far more haunting proposition.

The brutality of revenge blurs the boundaries of good and evil

This version is a decent, solid film that feels out of time and isolated, much like its protagonists. Something is missing. Perhaps it’s the gloss that detracts from a very powerful film. Hollywood has a tendency to make the most hard hitting of subjects be coated with a shining, trailer-friendly gleam.

'The Last House on the Left' will shock you but it won't jar you in the same way that Wes Craven's will, nor Ingmar Bergman's 'The Virgin Spring' which was cited the original legend behind the plot. What is admirable is that the central themes have remained intact - that we should question violence, not just watch it.