Last House on the Left (2009) Movie Review 28

This movie is a remake of the 1972 Wes Craven classic which I have reviewed here. It is directed by Dennis Iliadis. It is produced by Wes Craven and Sean S.Cunningham.

I have to say that I saw a trailer for this and I did not think that it would be a patch on the original, but as usual, I wanted to watch it before I gave my opinion on it. So, I sat back and watched it, hoping for something good that would do justice to one of my favourite movies... The film starts with Emma(Monica Potter) and her hubby John(Tony Goldwyn) and their daughter Mari Collingwood(Sara Paxton) who are going for a vacation at their remote house in the middle of nowhere. Mari drives into town to meet her wild friend Paige(Martha MacIsaac) and they meet Justin(Spencer Treat Clark) a young man who looks a bit dodgy! Earlier, we were treated to a scene of a prisoner breaking out of custody and being rescued by his pals. The two girls go to a motel room with Justin to do some drugs(as you do!) and they are surprised when the convicts come into the room. It turns out that one is Krug(Garret Dillahunt) his dad, Francis(Aaron Paul) his uncle and their gal pal Sadie(Riki Lindhome). They are angry to see the girls and they start menacing them immediately. They have to keep the gals with them as they have seen their faces.So, the psychos go into the woods and they kill Paige and rape Mari. Mari manages to escape and she is shot. She floats on the water and they think that she is dead. There is a storm coming and they call to the last house on the left for shelter. Little do they know that the people they have just met are Mari's parents and that they are unaware of her death. The parents find out anyway and they begin to attack the baddies then etc etc. There are some differences from the original- Mari doesn't die in this movie. She survives even though she was shot. That was a big mistake. Justin is this goody two shoes who doesn't participate in the terror and who works against the others which is totally stupid. If you are going to remake something, make it right. This is too nice at the end and it is all sorted out and happy... I did not like this movie at all. It was really bad. If you take it on its own merits, maybe you will like it, but if you compare it to the original, then you will not like it. I am sure that people will disagree with me, but I really thought that it was nowhere near as gory as the original and there was no sense of evil about the baddies, I felt. The baddies in the original were just horrible people and there was no redemption for them, but Justin is a goody and it's all messed up. There were no happy endings and you really felt badly for Mari and her family. In this glossy version, Mari survives and Justin survives and the parents are grand after killing the baddies. It's all a bit too saccharin for me. I would not watch this again and I wanted my money back after watching it once....It's gets a paltry 3/10 and that is just because of the microwave scene at the end.