Arrow Video: The Last House on the Left (2009) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Arrow Films

Back in 1972, director/producers Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham kicked off their exploitation horror filmmaking careers with the still shocking, raw and controversial rape revenge horror thriller The Last House on the Left.  A loose reworking (or ripoff depending on your point of view) of Ingmar Bergman’s 1960 shocker The Virgin Spring, it told the tale of bandits who rape and murder a young girl only to find themselves inside the home of the girl’s parents who enact bloody vengeance on the unsuspecting killers.  Controversial for its graphic depiction of sexual assault followed by violent vigilante retaliation of equally brutal measure, it was a portrait of ordinary people forced to respond to a monstruous situation and thus become monsters themselves.

 
Craven and Cunningham’s modernist update of Bergman’s medieval period piece forfeits the great Swedish director’s elegance for down-and-dirty regional exploitation filmmaking ala William Grefé or Bill Rebane, serving up the crimson stained goods with grittier Cinéma verité styled docudrama storytelling that felt more realistic.  Establishing Craven early on as a new if not inexperienced voice in exploitation horror cinema, the film was naturally immediately met with controversy for its crude and cruel rape scenes followed by later scenes of castration, disembowelment, electrocution and chainsaw use predating The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by two years.  Despite the angry critical noise and censorship drummed up by the picture, the $90,000 indie accumulated $3 million in ticket sales and established Craven as a young and new horror director to watch for, also further establishing the career of horror heavy David Hess.
 
Fast forward to the 2000s when every independently financed horror film under the sun from the 1970s and 80s began getting newer souped up expensive redux versions including but not limited to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Crazies.  By then with the trend in full force whether horror fans asked for them or not, it was inevitable Wes Craven’s directorial debut which still manages to draw ire for its clumsy handling of comedy interspersed with horror would itself get the big Hollywood remake treatment.  Thus circa 2009, newcoming Greek director Dennis Iliadis and his creative team of screenwriters Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye; Disturbia) sought to update Wes Craven’s grim, filthy vision a new skin and much more nuance and subtlety in areas you wouldn’t expect.  The result is arguably a classier, more well-rounded piece with real actors, special effects teams, a fully furnished original score by 28 Days Later composer John Murphy and much more handsome cinematography by Sharone Meir.

 
Co-produced by Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham, the film slightly tweaks several of the more troubling elements of the original films, including less emphasis on the rape scene, doing away with the bumbling cops running gag while making the parents played by Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter into realistic figures who are terrified the whole time they go into avenger mode.  Also far better characterized this time around is Justin (Spencer Treat Clark from Unbreakable) the young hang around who grows more and more disgusted by the brutal gang led by Krug (Garret Dillahunt), Francis (Aaron Paul) and Sadie (Riki Lindhome).  In the original the character was a bumbling idiot used, again, for awkward comic relief but here he functions as a glimmer of hope for the audience that even bad kids have a shot at redemption.
 
While toning down the sexual assault elements that were rubbed in the viewer’s face in 1972, the new 2009 film amps up the killings doled out by the vengeful parents including but not limited to a hand shoved down a sink erator and a microwave used on a human head with a Gremlins kind of explosive result.  As with the original film however (and germane to many horror remakes around that time), the censors zeroed in scissoring out some of the more outlandish glory kills while also toning down the already significantly toned down rape scene.  Despite these setbacks, the $15 million reboot went on to rake in a startling $46 million including $20 million on unrated DVD and blu-ray sales alone.  Not everyone saw eye to eye on it though, with some praising the enhanced and more fully fleshed out characterizations while others thought in other ways this newer version went further than the original.

 
Whatever the case, years later Arrow Video put together a new limited 4K UHD set of the original theatrical release version alongside a blu-ray release of the unrated version, giving fans of the remake a chance to house it alongside the original for comparison/contrasting sake.  Also included in this new director approved release are several new extras with the cast and crew including screenwriter Carl Ellsworth.  Also included is a reversible sleeve, poster and extensive booklet featuring a new essay by Zoë Rose Smith.  While the original contains an additional patina of realism in its look, rawness and real elements of danger poised to the cast and crew including a real chainsaw, this polished reboot fixes other areas like the poorly timed comedy and the parents’ chillier reaction to their daughter’s attack.  The debate over the value of either film, particularly when compared to Ingmar Bergman’s revered masterpiece of world cinema, rages on to this day but for fans of the exploitation horror film both films still pack quite a hefty punch. 

--Andrew Kotwicki