Content Warning: The following contains discussions about sexual assault.
Stephen Kinghasa history of raving about horror movies he loves, whether they were popular with audiences or not. If anyone knows horror, it has to be the master of it. One of the scariest horror movies ever made is 1972’sThe Last House on the Left, in what wasWes Craven’s directorial debut.It is a shocking revenge film known for its documentary-like grittinessand heartbreaking first act, but 37 years later, as the remake era was underway, a reimagining of Craven’s first film was released, starring the likes ofSara Paxton,Garret Dillahunt, andAaron Paul. The film may have mostly been dismissed by critics, but King thought it was the best movie of the century that he’d seen up to that point. While that might be a little excessive,2009’sThe Last House on the Leftis the rare remake that finds its own way to be just as uncomfortable as the classic that came before it.
The Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left tells the story of a family that seeks revenge on a group of criminals who terrorized them. The 2009 horror movie is a remake of Wes Craven’s 1972 film of the same name.
The Original ‘The Last House on the Left’ Launched Wes Craven’s Career
These days, rape and revenge films about an abused woman hunting down her male aggressors are much more common. There was the fantastic and simply titledRevengein 2017, butthere’s also an entire franchise built aroundI Spit on Your Grave, about a woman who is gang raped and then murders the men responsible. It’s an entire subgenre now, and is no longer shocking but all about the gory kills.
There was a time though when a film of this nature understandably made an audience uncomfortable. The originalI Spit on Your Grave, released in 1978, did that, but before that,in 1972, there was Wes Craven’sThe Last House on the Left. Based on IngmarBergman’s 1960 Swedish masterpiece,The Virgin Spring, Craven’s first film ismore terrifying thanA Nightmare on Elm Street,Scream, or any other classic he created.The Last House on the Leftis about two teenage girls, Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody) and Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham), who are brutally raped and murdered by a gang of sadistic criminals. The killers then take refuge at a nearby home, the last one on the left at the end of the street, but the tables are turned when it’s discovered that this is where Mari’s parents live. When they discover the grisly details, Mari’s mom and dad don’t wilt and run away, but take out their revenge in the goriest of ways.
In his written review,Roger Ebertsaid thatThe Last House on the Leftwas “four times as good as you’d expect,” as he went on to praise Wes Craven’s direction, which never lets up on the tension and doesn’t glorify the violence. He ended up giving it three-and-a-half out of four stars, and a new horror icon in Wes Craven was born.
Stephen King Praised the Remake of ‘The Last House on the Left’
WhenThe Texas Chainsaw Massacrereboot in 2003 was such a success, suddenly every horror classic was being brought back for a new spin.It wasn’t just the classic slashers likeHalloweenandFriday the 13th, but horror films that didn’t need to be seen again.The Last House on the Leftis a scary movie, but it’s one you only need to watch once. Still, in 2009, it was its turn to be brought back. With Wes Craven andSean S. Cunningamon as producers, it was directorDennis Iliadis, who had earned acclaim with 2004’sHardcore, who was brought in to helm this new vision. It still dealt witha murderous gang led by Garret Dillahunt, and including Aaron Paul,just as hisBreaking Badrun was taking off, withTony GoldwynandMonica Portercast as the vengeful parents. The remake didn’t exactly set the world on fire,getting a mediocre 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, and making a decent$32 million domestically at the box office, but none other than Stephen King absolutely loved it.
In the 2010 version of his bookDanse Macabre, King said he loved the remake better than the original, going as far as to call it “the best horror movie of the new century.“That’s high praise, especially since the century already had horror filmslikeThe Ring,American Psycho,REC,Saw,The Strangers, andThe Devil’s Rejects. King continued his praise for the movie in an article forEntertainment Weekly, when he named it his second favorite movie, regardless of genre, for all of 2009, with onlyThe Hurt Lockerbeing better. King calledThe Last House on the Leftthe best of the remakes, while also shockingly calling Craven’s version “a crapfest.” King added:
“The story makes sense, and, most importantly,Last House‘s moral compass points to true north. We don’t want these creeps back for six or eight sequels; they are monsters, and we want them dead. This film is on par withThe Silence of the Lambs.”
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Murderous spiders with a deeper message.
‘The Last House on the Left’ Remake Tells the Story in a Different Way
Okay, it’s a bit much to say that the remake ofThe Last House on the Leftis just as good asSilence of the Lambs,a movie that won five Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, but King does still have a point.The Last House on the Leftremake works by not trying to tell the same story in the exact same way, but instead coming at it from a different angle to attack our emotions in a way we don’t expect. The biggest change is the inciting incident, which, while still highly unpleasant to watch, switches things up, by having Paige (Martha MacIsaac) die in the attack, but this time letting Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) live. This isn’t done out of a lack of creative bravery, but to add an extra wallop to our senses.We expect both girls to die, so it’s a shock when one makes it, though she’s critically wounded. WriterCarl EllsworthtoldComingsoon.netthat he kept Mari alive to be a ticking clock to get to the hospital. Once the girls in the original film die, the only thing that matters is the revenge, but now we have the added tension of Mari’s survival. We can’t assume she’ll live either, when she dies in that first film, so perhaps she’ll still perish, but at a later time. The viewer is never allowed to relax for a moment with that knowledge. That also makes what happens to the parents matter as well. In the original, they enact their revenge with reckless abandon. With their daughter dead, they don’t have anything to live for except vengeance, and if they die in the process, so be it, but in the remake, with Mari still alive, they must survive.
The Last House on the Leftremake is a more glossy movie than the original,which felt almost like a snuff film, but it’s still raw. It achieved this by keeping its story focused only on the main characters and having everything play out nearly in real time, letting go of Craven’s strictly bad scenes in his movie, all the silly, comedic stuff with the police, which did nothing but pull us out of the tension. There’s no place for comedy in a story like this one, just like howthe tone from the originalTexas Chain Saw Massacreto the reboot went from mildly silly at times to dead serious. In director Dennis Iliadis' version, we’re never allowed to breathe, as the foot stays down on the gas for the entire runtime. This makes up for the realism lost in the Hollywood shine, as if we’re right there in the horror and can’t escape it.
This was the era of torture horror, but that wouldn’t make sense for this movie. The parents need to get revenge quickly, so their violence is quick and final. What the Collingwoods do isn’t for fun but necessity.That’s more realistic than something you’d see inSaworHostel. Craven’s film felt more hopeless, while we were able to connect more with the parents in the remake. We root for them because of who they are, not just because of what they went through, as these are good people destroyed not only by what has happened to them, but by what they now have to do. And it’s all still done with some of the most shocking kills you’ll ever see. If you haven’t seen it, when you do, you’ll never look at a microwave the same way again.
2009’sThe Last House on the Leftis available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
