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Sometimes, it all comes down to a balancing act between
horrific acts of degradation and exaggerated acts of vengeance.
“The Last House on the Left,” a remake of Wes Craven’s 1972
film, is an engaging thriller, although I’m not sure if
I more appreciated the moments that made me cringe or the
moments that made me smirk with evil satisfaction. ***
An example of the former: We see seventeen-year-old
Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) and her best friend, Paige
(Martha MacIsaac), brutally beaten by an escaped convict
before driven into the forest and beaten again, at which
point Mari is raped. There’s no sense of exaggeration, here--there’s
only disgust and shame. ***
An example of the latter: When Mari’s parents realize
that the people who hurt her are in their house, they use
a shotgun, a knife, a hammer, a garbage disposal, and even
a microwave to get back at them. Here, reality has been
heightened, nearly to the point of dark comedy. ***
Horror movies work best when they shock us, and shock
is exactly what “The Last House on the Left” goes for. The
initial shocks are reserved for genuinely frightening scenes
of Mari and Paige falling victim to a sadistic gang, led
by the ruthless Krug (Garret Dillahunt). It isn’t until
later on, when Krug and his pals find themselves in the
home of Mari’s parents, that we’re shocked at how far they
go to take their revenge. It isn’t quite funny, but it gets
pretty close. ***
Maybe it has something to do with wanting to see these
evil people get what they deserve, which plays into the
film’s subtext of how human nature works. When someone we
love gets hurt, it’s only natural that we want the offender
to be hurt back. But this begs the question: If you do hurt
back, are you really any better than the offender? There
is, after all, a clear difference between self-defense and
pre-determined acts of punishment. ***
At the center of this are Mari’s parents, Emma (Monica
Potter) and John Collingwood (Tony Goldwyn), who drive their
daughter to their summerhouse in an attempt to reconnect.
Even since an unforeseen tragedy some months earlier, the
three have been growing apart. One of the strengths of this
film is that the drama between Emma, John, and Mari doesn’t
feel contrived. Stronger still is the sense that they seem
genuine, both as individuals and as a family. ***
When Mari reunites with Paige in a local grocery store,
they meet a teenager named Justin (Spencer Treat Clark),
who invites them to smoke pot in his motel room. Not long
after they arrive, they learn that Justin isn’t in town
by himself; he’s with his violent uncle, Francis (Aaron
Paul), a vain and impulsive young woman named Sadie (Riki
Lindhome), and his father, Krug. What follows is the aforementioned
rape scene in the middle of the woods, at which point Mari
is left for dead floating in a lake. ***
Krug and his gang, now without a car, seek shelter with
Emma and John, who are suspicious but accommodating nonetheless.
They’re especially suspicious of Justin after he notices
a picture of Mari on the refrigerator and suddenly becomes
ill. After the gang is placed in the guesthouse, a severely
weakened Mari manages to crawl up to the front door and
get her parents’ attention. Needless to say, it doesn’t
take them long to figure out what happened to her and who
was responsible. ***
One of the interesting aspects of “The Last House on
the Left” is the fact that Mari and her parents are brought
back together through tragedy, which is ironic since tragedy
drove them apart in the first place. And isn’t it just a
little disturbing that it had to reach that level in order
for them to reconnect? Emma and John are not bad people,
yet they resort to doing bad things, and there’s no doubt
it was more out of rage than out of a need to protect themselves
and their daughter. ***
I found these ethical ideas fascinating, adding the
kind of complexity you don’t normally associate with horror
films. The only time we don’t see any complexity at all
is during the microwave scene, which is really nothing more
than a cheap gag for the audience to laugh at. ***
Of all the characters in this film, Justin is probably
the most intriguing. Initially, he seems like just an impressionable
kid who goes along with his father because he doesn’t have
any other way to go. But as the story progresses, it’s clear
that he does indeed understand the difference between right
and wrong. Krug treats him like a dog, trying to condition
him to be vicious, berating him whenever he doesn’t do as
he’s told. As Mari is being raped, for example, Krug tries
to get Justin to take part, saying that he’ll finally be
a man; later on in the story, he makes a decision that proves
he’s more of a man than his father ever was. ***
I may be looking too deeply into this film, but I have
a feeling that director Dennis Iliadis and screenwriters
Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth were aiming for something
deeper, as if the film were meant to be a commentary of
sorts. While some points are better made without resorting
to shock tactics, namely getting back at someone by sticking
their head in a microwave, I still feel that “The Last House
on the Left” is a success. ***
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