Review: The Last House On The Left (2009)

 

Director: Dennis Iliadis

Cast: Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Sara Paxton, Garret Dillahunt, Aaron Paul, Spencer Treat Clarke, Riki Lindhome, Martha MacIssac

Dennis Iliadis’s version of The Last House on the Left is a film that has never left me since I watched it in theaters back in 2009. I wrote a review for it back then for the Augusta, Georgia college paper The Bell Ringer, although since their online site doesn’t archive reviews that far back, there was no way for me to reference it now. Seeing the movie again, it’s safe to say that the film has lost none of its power: It is just as effective now as it was back then. It does, however, leave me wondering who would want to see a movie like this in the first place.

This film marks the fourth iteration of this material. Prior to it, there was the 2005 film Chaos, which was the single most repulsive, diseased, and dishonest movie ever made (the filmmakers there even said it was based on their original idea during the end credits, and it’s amazing they weren’t hit with any lawsuits afterwards). Then, there was the 1972 version, also called The Last House on the Left, directed by Wes Craven, which had moments of real power, but was undermined by a weird and tonally incongruous side story involving two cops that felt like it belonged in a comedy. The start of it, however, was the 1960 Ingmar Bergman masterpiece The Virgin Spring, which was set in 14^th century Sweden and ended with a prayer for forgiveness to God and the promise to build a church (I’ve read somewhere that said church was actually built and is actually still standing in Kräkla today).

Iliadis’s film is nowhere as thoughtful or as ambitious as the Bergman movie. It is pretty much just a revenge fantasy, and the final scene felt so inconsistent with the film that came before that it felt like the decision to add it was made by a studio executive rather than Iliadis himself (or maybe he did; I really don’t know). As a revenge fantasy, it is a superbly made, crafted, and acted film. It is very easy to remain engaged with it while it plays out, and even those who will despise it (you know who you are) would be hard-pressed to dismiss the skill with which it was put together.

But the question I have to ask now is one I didn’t think to ask back then: What purpose does a movie like this serve? The story involves the Collingwood family – doctor John (Tony Goldwyn), his wife Emma (Monica Potter) and their 17-year old daughter Mari (a haunting Sara Paxton) – taking a vacation together to their mountain home. Mari asks to go into town and spend time with her friend Paige (Martha MacIssac), who works at a local grocery store. While in town, they meet Justin (Spencer Treat Clarke, the young kid from Gladiator and Unbreakable), who overhears them talking about smoking pot and says that he has some grade-A stuff back in his motel room. Justin seems like a decent kid who simply longs for some companionship. His family, however, is a whole other matter.

image from pintrest.com

His father Krug (an exceptionally good Garret Dillahunt) is a convicted murderer who, in the film’s brutal opening scene, escapes custody. Krug’s girlfriend Sadie (Riki Lindhome, so weird seeing her play a character like this after seeing her as Wednesday Addam’s likable psychiatrist in the first season of Netflix’s Wednesday) is an absolute fiend who has no qualms walking around topless around anyone, and his brother Francis (Aaron Paul) is an absolute sadist who seems to get off during moments of violence. Justin didn’t expect his family to return that day, but they do show up, and because Krug’s face is all over the papers, they decide they cannot let the two young women go.

Krug and the gang take the two girls into the woods, near Mari’s home (the film does a good job explaining how they got to that point, so that it feels less contrived than before). Paige is murdered, and Mari is raped and shot when she tries to escape in a nearby lake. With an approaching storm and their vehicle stalled, they take shelter in the Collingwood home. Once Justin figures out whose home they’re taking shelter in, he clues the parents in on what Krug and the others did. From there, all hell breaks loose.

There are some notable changes here from the Craven film that I appreciate, and since the movie is almost 17 years old and the trailer gives away some of those changes, I will discuss them now. In the Craven movie, Mari did not survive her encounter with the thugs, but in this version, she does. This leads to an emotionally draining sequence where John has to tend to his daughter’s injuries, cauterizing her gunshot wound and opening her airways when it becomes difficult for her to breathe (the moment where Mari tells her father “I can’t breathe” is absolutely gut-wrenching).

Goldwyn and Potter are so very good as the parents. In the beginning, there’s the right mix of love and complaining that makes them very believable as a married couple. Once they discover the situation they’re in, it’s impossible not to sympathize with them (Potter is especially devastating when John tells her that their daughter was raped). It’s to the filmmaker’s credit that the first decision made by John and Emma isn’t to enact violent retaliation, but to drive their daughter away on their boat to a nearby house and get her the help she needs. Violence doesn’t really come into play until there’s really no other choice for them.

image from aceshowbiz

The subplot involving the deputies is also absent here, which means the film remains tonally consistent throughout (except for the final scene; more on that in a second). The character Justin is allowed more of a redemption arc than the character of Junior in the 72 film, and the climax doesn’t go so far over-the-top as to have the father wield a chainsaw the way he did in the earlier film. The most dreaded moment here is the scene where Mari is raped. It does happen onscreen (unfortunately), and while an argument could be made that it isn’t anywhere near as graphic as the Craven film, it is still so painful to watch that I had to look away and fight back tears as it was happening.

In terms of pure filmmaking, the movie is fantastic. The cinematography by Sharone Meir is almost shockingly good (the first nighttime shot we see of Mari swimming toward the shore of her parent’s estate after the assault, that has a lit buoy in the foreground of the shot, gave me full-body goosebumps). The editing by Peter McNulty is so razor sharp that it should be studied by those who want to work as a film editor in a horror movie (the cut from the film’s brutal opening kill scene to a placid shot of Mari jumping into a swimming pool is jarring in all the right ways). Iliadis creates moments of nail-biting tension, such as when Justin reveals his intentions to the Collingwoods and offers them Krug’s gun (while Krug and Sadie are asleep mere inches away). There is not a single bad performance in this movie (Dillahunt is particularly effective in how nasty, and yet scarily human, he makes Krug). There isn’t a single line of dialogue that doesn’t sound natural.

For what it is, this is a very strong film. The problem for some might be with what it is. Previously, I asked what purpose does a movie like this serve. With the movie still fresh in my mind, I may have an answer now. It’s a film that could temporarily sate the audience’s need for justice in crimes like this, especially since the justice system sometimes fails victims of rape. There was a case in Stillwater, Oklahoma last year that was such a travesty of justice that it sickened any sane soul who heard about it. Justice is not always guaranteed in this life, and sometimes we turn to stories like this to give us some modicum of satisfaction, even if it is short-lived.

image from garret-dillahunt.com

And I get that. I really do. The thing that causes me to pause in fully endorsing it is that final scene. It involves a microwave that 1) seems to function just fine with its door wide open, and 2) was established as being broken earlier. Prior to this moment, there is a scene of the Collingwoods leaving by boat to get their daughter help. The damage is done, the wounds are deep, and the future is uncertain. While the climax did feature moments of intense and bloody violence, we get the sense with this moment that the filmmakers are not glamorizing the bloodshed. Yes, the good guys win in the end, but with the moment in the boat, we’re left to wonder at what cost.

At least until that scene with the microwave comes. It feels like it was added by someone to sate the audience’s lust for blood. This is the moment the movie fades out on. If it had ended with a particular long shot of the boat zooming across the lake, it would have ended on a better note (come to think of it, it’s the shot prior to the start of the microwave scene). Unfortunately, someone decided to end the film on one more kill scene and it had me questioning the filmmaker’s motives. Again, a part of me feels like this was a case of studio interference. If that is true, then they shot themselves in the foot with that finale.

So, what does that mean for the movie overall? At the start of my reviews, I usually assign a star rating, which would involve giving the movie either an endorsement or a dismissal. I cannot, in good conscience, give this movie either. It is too strong of a film to fully dismiss, and yet a bit too questionable to fully recommend. I don’t feel as though I’ve wasted my time watching or writing about it. There are some online who consider this a terrific movie (which is understandable), and others who consider it vile and inhumane (again, very understandable). The trailer will certainly give you a very good idea about which category you will fall into. It might show you a lot, but it doesn’t lie about what kind of movie it is.

Rated R for sadistic brutal violence including a rape, disturbing images, some drug use, nudity, profanity.



Not the sort of music I would think to add to the trailer, but it works!