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New 'House' Not As Horrific

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By JOHN W. ALLMAN

jallman@tampatrib.com

Published: March 12, 2009

Updated:

"The Last House on the Left," a remake of Wes Craven's brutal 1972 debut, doesn't go far enough, or dark enough, to distinguish itself from its source material.

Craven's original was partly an allegory about the brooding menace of the early 1970s, as society shifted far away from the Summer of Love. And then it was partly a snuff film.

Times have changed. We are an angrier nation now. We feel lied to, deceived, taken advantage of. If someone hurt the person we loved most, all hell would break loose.

This "House" lacks that emotional resonance and as a result has to spoon-feed the audience into rooting for the bad guys to get their bloody due.

The redo starts off well as the Collingwoods - dad John (Tony Goldwyn), a doctor, his wife Emma (Monica Potter) and their daughter Mari (Sara Paxton) - head to their summer house nearly a year after losing their son.

Mari goes into town, meets her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac of "Superbad") and they hook up with a young loner, who promises them high-grade marijuana. He neglects to mention that his father Krug (Garret Dillahunt) is an escaped felon wanted for murder.

Krug and his gang, including his brother Francis (Aaron Paul), take the girls hostage. They torture Paige and rape Mari, leaving her for dead in the lake. Then they seek shelter at the nearest house, the last house on the left, which just happens to be the Collingwood home.

The cast is filled with actors you know and like from other movies and TV shows, including Goldwyn ("Ghost"), Potter ("Con Air"), Dillahunt ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles") and Paul ("Breaking Bad").

That helps invest you in what's happening. You're mad for these people. The bad guys are sufficiently evil. So far, so good. Now bring on the carnage.

But where Alexandre Aja's 2006 remake of Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" was like a gut punch, pulling genuine emotion out of gratuitous brutality (including a vicious rape that is 10 times more disturbing), "House" director Dennis Iliadis blinks when it comes time for the Collingwood family to seek revenge.

In the words of Marsellus Wallace, you want Mom and Dad to get medieval. They do, sort of. Their retribution, at least in a packed advance screening, drew applause. But it lacked a crackling intensity or even a spark of surprise.

Iliadis and screenwriters Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth save the best for last with a malicious little twist you don't see coming. But it comes in the final minute, serving to remind you of what could have at least been a far more fun and way gorier oh-no-they-didn't ode to classic B-movie madness.

MOVIE REVIEW

The Last House on the Left **

MOVIE BOARD RATING: R; sadistic brutal violence including rape, profanity, nudity and drug use

STARS: Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Sara Paxton and Garret Dillahunt

DIRECTOR: Dennis Iliadis

LOCATION: See movie times, Page 9, for local showtimes.

PLOT SUMMARY: A family is forced to fight for its life against a prison escapee and his gang.

RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes

ON THE WEB: www.thelast

houseontheleft.com

John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915.

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