This so-called "remake" of Wes Craven's trend-setting cult movie may have some impact--on those who've never seen the original.
As I sat watching this, I tried to take it on its own terms and avoid comparisons to the 1972 model. I couldn't help myself, howeverpossibly because the old HOUSE had so much more to offer.
Here are the main strengths of the original LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT:
A) The fact that nobody had ever seen anything like it before. It may have "borrowed" its story from Ingmar Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING but the unflinching, "you-are-there-at-a-murder-scene" brutality was unprecedented.
B) The characters, good and bad, were convincing and well-developed, in a short amount of time.
C) The movie kept throwing curves at the audience from one scene to the next.
The new one, on the other hand, features flat characters with little personality. Which, come to think of it, may be appropriate since people in general are shallower and less interesting today than they were in the 1970s.
There is none of the original's scary atmosphere or sense of suspense. This movie is strictly by-the-numbers.
There are some plot deviations from the original, but most of them don't work.
The cast doesn't have a quarter of the screen presence of Fred Lincoln, Lucy Grantham, et al. As ringleader Krug, Garret Dillahunt is nasty, but he gnaws his scenes whereas David Hess gnashed his, and spat them out. In the new HOUSE, Monica Potter and Sara Paxton aren't bad but the best and most intense actor here is Riki Lindhome, who plays Sadie. (Named, I'm sure, after Susan "Sadie" Atkins--talk about intense.) I'm going to look up her other films as soon as I post this review.
Hell, even the generic posters for the 2009 remake are lackluster compared to the 1972 one-sheets of Krug & Company in action.
Knives, a pistol and a fireplace poker come into play here, as they did the first time out. Is there disembowelment, death by chainsaw and another "scene by the lake?" See this flick for yourself and find outI had to!!!!
If you're in the mood for a bloody revenge pot-boiler with the bad guys getting the sort of payback that seldom comes their way in real life, this new HOUSE is worth one look......though I would watch an Unrated version if such a thing is ever issued on DVD.
As I sat watching this, I tried to take it on its own terms and avoid comparisons to the 1972 model. I couldn't help myself, howeverpossibly because the old HOUSE had so much more to offer.
Here are the main strengths of the original LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT:
A) The fact that nobody had ever seen anything like it before. It may have "borrowed" its story from Ingmar Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING but the unflinching, "you-are-there-at-a-murder-scene" brutality was unprecedented.
B) The characters, good and bad, were convincing and well-developed, in a short amount of time.
C) The movie kept throwing curves at the audience from one scene to the next.
The new one, on the other hand, features flat characters with little personality. Which, come to think of it, may be appropriate since people in general are shallower and less interesting today than they were in the 1970s.
There is none of the original's scary atmosphere or sense of suspense. This movie is strictly by-the-numbers.
There are some plot deviations from the original, but most of them don't work.
The cast doesn't have a quarter of the screen presence of Fred Lincoln, Lucy Grantham, et al. As ringleader Krug, Garret Dillahunt is nasty, but he gnaws his scenes whereas David Hess gnashed his, and spat them out. In the new HOUSE, Monica Potter and Sara Paxton aren't bad but the best and most intense actor here is Riki Lindhome, who plays Sadie. (Named, I'm sure, after Susan "Sadie" Atkins--talk about intense.) I'm going to look up her other films as soon as I post this review.
Hell, even the generic posters for the 2009 remake are lackluster compared to the 1972 one-sheets of Krug & Company in action.
Knives, a pistol and a fireplace poker come into play here, as they did the first time out. Is there disembowelment, death by chainsaw and another "scene by the lake?" See this flick for yourself and find outI had to!!!!
If you're in the mood for a bloody revenge pot-boiler with the bad guys getting the sort of payback that seldom comes their way in real life, this new HOUSE is worth one look......though I would watch an Unrated version if such a thing is ever issued on DVD.