Last House on the Left (2009)

"The storyline was actually believable, surrounding a family willing to do anything to save one another. A horror film turned feel-good.  Olivia Putnal, Premiere Magazine

Editor's Note Based on Wes Craven's landmark 1972 exploitation flick of the same name, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is a brutal movie that exposes the darkest recesses of human depravity. The simple plot follows four criminals on the lam who encounter a pair of nubile female teens in a small mountain town. After murdering one and brutally raping the other and leaving her for dead, the cons seek refuge at a nearby summer house. The twist is that it's the very home inhabited by the parents of one of the victims. Upon learning that their house guests raped and tortured their 17-year-old daughter, the couple exact a revenge that arguably exceeds the excesses of the sociopathic gang. When originally released in 1972, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT was a shock to the system. Never before had a film shown such images of human wickedness. Grainy and low budget, the original film played like a maniacal cackle from the seedy underbelly of an America nursing a brutal post-Aquarian hangover. Things play out a little differently, though, in 2009. For starters, the movie actually looks quite beautiful, and the story?s idyllic mountain setting is milked for all it's worth. The performances are noteworthy as well, with Garret Dillahunt more than convincing as Krug, the gang's swaggering leader; and Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn portraying the distressed parents with an effective mix of panic, courage, and blind instinct. In an age marked by both increasingly ghastly films and a public discourse that actually debates the merits of institutional torture, a film like LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT really shouldn?t shock anyone. But in both the original and the remake, there?s a latent nihilism that permeates the world. The idea of a sense of lawlessness that cannot be understood or prevented, but only reacted against, is truly disquieting and makes this story unique in the annals of horror.

	Tony Goldwyn
	Sara Paxton
	Monica Potter
	Garret Dillahunt
	Riki Lindhome
	Martha MacIsaac
	Sharone Meir - Director of Photography
	John Murphy - Composer
	Marianne Maddalena - Producer
	Jonathan Craven - Co-Producer
	Cody Zweig - Co-Producer
	Carl Ellsworth - Screenwriter
	Sean S. Cunningham - Producer
	Wes Craven - Producer
	Dennis Iliadis - Director

Box Office
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[The director] does fantastic things with more brutal sequences -- directing tense scenes as others might direct a tightly choreographed fight....THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is a properly horrifying night out." 03/11/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
"[D]irector Iliadis and his cinematographer Sharone Meir do a smooth job of handling space and time to create suspense. The film is an effective representative of its genre, and horror fans will like it..." 03/11/2009

New York Times
"A study of operatic vengeance and dueling family values, this stylish renovation by Dennis Iliadis remains mostly true to the original story....The director proves adept at managing mayhem in cramped spaces..." 03/13/2009

Rolling Stone 6 of 10
Ten minutes into this puke-slick remake of Wes Craven's infamous 1972 revenge classic on rape, torture and murder, I knew this crapathon would give Watchmen a run for its money as this weekend's top box-office bell ringer. Such is the debased state of American moviegoing barely three months into the new year, a time when profits soar and taste sinks to sewage levels. Craven, influenced by Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring and the real-life Charles Manson murders, found creative ways to plumb the dark depths of human nature. And he did it with no cash. Remake director Dennis Iliadis, with a studio budget and a galling, glib cynicism, is merely cashing in. So when a fate worse than death befalls young Mari (Sara Paxton) at the hands of creeps, and her parents (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter) predictably seek vengeance, audiences with a brain cell left have only one choice: Look for the first exit on the right. - Peter Travers