The Last House on the Left (2009) Review
There was another movie called The Last House on the Left in 1972 (directed by Wes Craven) and it was seriously messed up (Special Note: There Are Apparently Multiple Versions of the 1972 Film, some which may be even more graphic than what I saw).
How messed up?
-It’s really short but spends almost all its time having ex-cons torture two girls, before the ex-cons themselves end up being viciously murdered by one of the girls’ parents.
-The ex-cons make one of the girls pee herself
-They cut up both the girls with knives
-They graphically rape one of them, onscreen
-Most of the music is upbeat and occasionally outright goofy
-There are two policemen who engage in screwball comedy antics in between the brutal torture
-The parents at the end totally look like regular parents but engage in some messed up revenge violence (I’m talking castration and chainsaw) before SPOILER being caught in the act by the cops END SPOILER
-The movie totally objectifies the lead girl (random naked shower scene) before later having her raped onscreen
Okay.
So that sounds pretty strange right?
Well it was. It was unique in a lot of ways, but incredibly sleazy in others.
The rape scene is there for no good reason other than to be exploited for shock value-it could easily be removed and we’d still be very angry towards the ex-cons and know they are bad people (they had been torturing the girls for nearly an hour by the time the rape occurred).
So anyway…
The Remake
Removes all the super-weird touches of the 1972 movie and replaces them with sober seriousness.
Which is interesting because it’s even sleazier than the 1972 film. The rape scene is longer. SPOILER The parents revenge is not only succesful, it’s condoned and without consequence- the movie absolutely revels in it and encourages you to root along END SPOILER
Also in the original the mom seduced one of the ex-cons, and while performing oral sex on him bit his penis off.
That is not in the remake.
But the rape is longer and viler. Go figure right? Male-dominated society for you.
They also totally objectify the lead girl, which they did in the original, before later having her raped. That’s a very strange thing for a movie to do, and arguably almost punishes the audience for lusting after this girl. Hypocritical and sleazy.
Bottom Line
This movie exploits rape to shock you, to manipulate you into thinking “these guys are really bad” when any number of other evil acts could have done the same thing. It’s going further just for the hell of it, which is a terrible reason to show rape onscreen. If you’re going to shoot a rape scene, it’d better have a damn good reason to be there in the story and that’s not the case here. TV’s The Shield had an oral rape scene one season as a way to explore both power dynamics and the effects of police corruption, that’s what we call a legitimate reason.
The Audience=Society Collapsing
I hated this movie with a passion and felt society crumbling around me as the bloodthirsty audience cheered for villains to have their hands ground up, heads exploded, and so on.
The original at least considered the notion that the revenge, even for a horrible act, could be wrong in a way too, this movie doesn’t even think that’s possible. Maybe if the parents burned the villains alive and ate them the audience might think twice…then again, maybe not.
Please, don’t contribute to movies like this existing and continuing to exist (if enough people buy tickets). Do yourself and the world a favor and don’t go.
-Dan Benamor