Last House On The Left

2/5 stars
Film review by Kevin McHugh.
Published 04 June 2009

Summer is fast approaching and so is the slew of next generation horrors also known to the studios as reimaginings and known to the rest of us as rehashing. This month’s instalment is The Last House On The Left. After suffering the loss of her brother, Mari and her parents travel to their vacation home where Mari meets up with her friend Paige and they try to score some pot from local pretty boy Justin, whose family for plot purposes has just broken out of prison. The two teenage girls are then let in on the family’s little secret and then one of them is murdered, while the other is brutally raped and left for dead. Justin’s family then seek refuge at a nearby house which just happens to belong to Mari’s already grieving parents. Last House is just the usual torture porn with pretty actors you neither care about nor like.

Comments (7)

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  • Sad review. Can't even get the characters' names right. Not confidence inspiring that you've paid attention or went in without agenda. I found it to be arthouse horror, marred only by a pandering ending that seemed to be a remnant from an earlier script. For the first time, perhaps ever, I cared about the victims and wanted them to survive. Large reason for that accomplishment falls on the shoulders of a believable villain in Dillahunt. A brutal movie for brutal times. It's not the '70s anymore.

    Posted by Molly | Friday June 2009 @ 16:20

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  • The name's are correct, ya dufus!

    Posted by Das Dave | Friday June 2009 @ 18:30

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  • Hi Molly - thanks for your comment. It's always great to get some debate on the site, not enough of it in my opinion! Obviously we don't want to be making any factual errors though and I've doubled checked, no triple checked, all the character names and I think they're all correct here. If we've missed something do let us know and we'll get it corrected. As for going in with an agenda, I'm pretty sure that Kevin isn't pushing any agenda here. Every writer is going to be coming at a review from a different point of view and influenced by their own unique film interests (whether they're a fan of this brand of horror or not), but that's usually a good thing and makes for exciting film criticism.

    Posted by Gail Tolley | Friday June 2009 @ 21:38

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  • I appreciate the change from "Jason" to "Justin". Thank you. I'm sure it was just an oversight on Kevin's part. And agendas can be unconscious--it doesn't seem out of the question that a busy critic with the best intentions can make assumptions about what he or she is about to see and pay short shrift to a noble effort.

    Posted by Molly | Tuesday June 2009 @ 19:05

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  • Contender for worst movie of the year, oh yes. Worst ending to any horror movie ever puts a mans head in the microwave.
    Not even worth the Itunes 99p rental of the week.

    Posted by Suzylozy | Monday June 2009 @ 04:21

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  • I've avoided this because quite simply there's no way it could ever compete with the savage brutality of the original.

    Posted by Anonymous | Monday June 2009 @ 12:32

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  • 2 stars just and no more. Original is a classic, that you can connect with the leads this is horrible for all the wrong reasons.

    Posted by Horrorhound | Monday June 2009 @ 18:57

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