I’ll be the first to admit that I have never been a fan of Wes Craven’s “Last House on the Left” despite its legacy. I respect it for it becoming a platform for Craven but otherwise it was a fairy dull movie that squanders a good premise. Plus I could never get over the comedic sub-plot involving the pair of deputies. Dennis Illiadis completely remakes “Last House” in to the revenge picture that I was originally hoping for. In doing this he side steps about a quarter of the rape and torture, and amps up the revenge plot involving the pair of parents that are outnumbered but not outwitted.
Mari and her friend look forward to a holiday at the remote Collingwood lake house, but instead an escaped convict (Garret Dillahunt) and his crew kidnap them and later leave them for dead. Mari makes her way back home, where her parents, John (Tony Goldwyn) and Emma (Monica Potter), have unwittingly offered shelter to the thugs. When John and Emma find out what happened to their daughter, they decide to make the strangers rue the day they harmed Mari.
Illiadis’ film is beautifully cast with Sara Paxton and Martha MacIsaac perfectly taking up the roles of Mari and Paige, the more upper crest girls that run afoul a group of drug dealers. A lot of “Last House” does a wonderful job of depicting their seemingly futile fight for survival against the group of deviants and Iliadis manages to stage moments horrific in their own right. Although the movie lacks the grit of the original, the fight for survival is still a source of great tension. The narrative is heightened once the group arrives to Mari’s parent’s house, allowing them to unwittingly enter in to a situation that is just beyond their comprehension.
Every one of the cast members are just top notch, from Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter as the wrath filled parents, to the group of Garret Dillahunt, Aaron Paul, Spencer Treat Clark, and Riki Linhome. The latter in the group are absolutely slimy in their respective roles with Illiadis building up to an explosion of violence and vengeance inflicted by the parents. Once the campaign of revenge kicks off, Illiadis’ remake really emphasizes the cast’s strengths, as they play off of each other beautifully. “Last House” really is the superior remake of the early aughts, and one I’ve seen countless times. It’s a bang up remake that just doesn’t get enough credit for improving the original film two fold.
Disc One, the 4K UHD edition, features the theatrical version of Iliadis’s remake which clocks in at over a hundred minutes. There’s also an introduction from Dennis Iliadis which is available on the Play Film Menu. There’s also a commentary by David Flint and Adrian Smith. There are also a series of interviews such as the thirty one minutes A River of Blood, an interview with star Sara Paxton, the twenty seven minutes The Notorious Krug, an interview with co-star Garret Dillahunt, the eighteen minutes Suspending Disbelief which is an interview with screenwriter Carl Ellsworth.
Reviving the Legend a thirty three minutes interview with producer Jonathan Craven, and finally a vintage 2009 Look Inside Featurette at almost three minutes in length. There are nine minutes of deleted scenes, a two minute original trailer, and finally an HD stills gallery. On Disc Two, the Blu-Ray Edition only features the Unrated Version of “Last House” which clocks in at almost two hours in length. This is the better version with the more extreme brutality for fans. For physical collectors, there’s the usual slip cover and Arrow also provides another an insert booklet with an essay by Zoe Rose Smith and the basic assortment of technical and cast/crew information.