THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
US, 2009, 110 minutes, Colour.
Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Garrett Dillahunt, Sarah Paxton, Riki Lindhome, Aaron Paul, Spencer Treat Clark, Martha Mac Isaac.
Directed by Denis Iliadis.
The question is 'how much is too much?'.
In 1972, new director, Wes Craven, made a huge impact with the small-budget horror drama, The Last House on the Left. Heavily cut in some countries, it was banned in others, especially because of a graphic rape sequence. Craven had based his screenplay on the Ingmar Bergman classic, The Virgin Spring. Audiences and censors were not used to this kind of overt treatment of violence, especially sexual violence. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was to follow in 1974 and the 1970s and 1980s saw what the Festival of Light and others labelled 'video nasties'. Craven's intention was to portray the violence as repugnant and to set it in a 'realistic' context that audiences could identify with, not as participating in the violence but to empathise with the victim and be repelled by it.
Craven certainly raised an issue that is still with us despite the almost forty years of more open depictions of violence.
It is the case with this modern version of The Last House on the Left which has Craven as one of its producers. The budget is bigger. The cast is better known. The technical craft is far more polished than in the original. Greek director, Dennis Iliadis, has a flair for the dramatic and melodramatic.
The basic plot is the same: a young woman is raped by a ruthless escaped criminal and her parents wreak vengeance on him and his gang. And, the question is still the same, how much is too much? The rape sequence is not entirely unfamiliar from similar films and the same with the vengeance.
It is clear that what one brings to a film is what one gets out of it. Perverse prurience concerning sexuality or violence will be satisfied no matter what. Sensitivity may find the depiction too much. This time the film-makers have offered the violence in a realistic context (except for the final sequence of vengeance which seems too much, almost a bad violence joke or spoof), especially the graphic rape, and most audiences would accept this without liking it or even finding it watchable. This is what would happen in a similar real life situation and this is how people feel and react. However, from the opening with the escape of the criminal from police custody and the brutal slaying of the police, there is the creation of a sadistic atmosphere which carries over to the rest of the film which raises a suspicion that the makers are playing on this sadism unhealthily despite their reasonable intentions about realism. This is a first view reaction to the film. A closer study of it might confirm this or indicate that it was a suspicion that the film does not support. But, who is going to see the film for a second time?
1.The status of Wes Craven’s 1972 film? The comment in its day? Too violent for the times? Censored and cut in many countries? A film about violence in the 70s – a fable about violence or anti-violence?
2.The derivation of the original film from Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring? The parents, the rape of an innocent, vengeance on the perpetrators? Transferred to the United States? Given a reinterpreted modernisation in 2009?
3.The issue of how much violence should be shown? The effect on the audience? Too sadistic or brutal and its effect? Depending on what the audience brings to the film? A relishing of violence or a revulsion towards violence? In the case of this film?
4.The opening sequence setting the tone: the police in the van, telling the sex jokes? Enjoying the jokes? The prisoner in the back? At the level crossing? The sudden crash, the shooting of one policeman, the brutal murdering of the other? Showing him the photo of his children? The prisoner being released, his relationship with his brother, the girl? The newspaper reports – and their being on the run? The tone for the rest of the film?
5.The transition to the family? The mother and her ending her work, going on holidays, packing up? Her husband and his work in the hospital, surgery, his manner? Mari and her getting ready for the holidays? Her swimming, her ambitions, competitiveness, her mother timing her? Telling her to relax? The car ride, Mari telling her mother to relax? The father asleep? The turnoff, the ironic notice of the lake at the end of the road? Going to their house? The story of the brother and their assuming that he trashed the house – but it being clean, the gift of the champagne? Mari asking to stay in the guesthouse? Setting themselves up for the holiday? Mari and her phone call, wanting to visit Paige?
6.The parents and their reaction? The background of the death of their son? Her mother being cautious, wanting phone calls? The father more permissive, giving the money? The phone calls, their having to trust their daughter, age seventeen?
7.Mari, going to visit Paige, their friendship, Paige embarrassed about not communicating about the brother’s death? Justin in the shop, Paige flirting, his asking for cigarettes, offering pot? Paige accepting, Mari going along? At the motel, smoking, talking? Their trying the makeover, the shirt and his hair? The sudden arrival of the trio? Their negative reaction? The irony that Justin was getting rid of the money taken from the dead policeman? Son of the released criminal?
8.The situation in the motel, the menace to the two girls? Paige and her fears, the brutality, trying to escape through the bathroom, her being brought back to the room? Their being taken off in the car, the threats? Mari and her giving advice about the turnoffs? Her using the cigarette lighter to burn the woman? The crashing of the car?
9.In the woods, the brutal actions? The character of Krug, his appearance, no explanation of his crime? Brutality yet suave manner? With Sadie, her ambiguous reactions to people, sexually? Francis and his being Krug’s brother, a leering type? Justin and his sitting aside?
10.The attack on Paige, brutal, her being stabbed? After her trying to escape, the pursuit and her being brought back, her desperation?
11.Mari, sexuality, his father urging Justin? Justin’s refusal? Krug’s brutally raping Mari? How was this scene handled, in brutal realism? Sadistic, prurient or not? The effect on the audience? The aftermath for Mari?
12.Mari and her ingenuity, talking about swimming, her escape, hiding, getting into the water, swimming fast, Krug shooting her? The blood, her floating, going to the buoy? Her crawling back to the house?
13.The gang, the car and its being a wreck? The injuries, Francis and his broken nose? Their looking for a house, finding the Collingwood home? John and his fixing Francis’ nose, the stitches, the power going out, the generator? Emma and her hospitality? The invitation for them to stay? The puzzle about why they were in the woods? Krug and his plausible stories about his father and fishing? Justin going to the bathroom, seeing the photo of Mari, realising what had happened? His decision to put her medal around the mug to be discovered by Emma?
14.The night, the three going over to the guesthouse, Emma settling them in? Their restlessness?
15.The banging, the discovery of Mari? Her father helping her, the bullet, cauterising the wound? The plan to take her to the hospital? Emma discovering the medal and their realisation of the truth?
16.Francis, coming over to the house, coming on to Emma? Her handling the situation, removing the photo? The drink? The knives, the talk? His seeing Mari, realising the truth? Emma’s attack on him, John’s attack? In the sink, losing his finger, the axe? His death?
17.The decision to go by boat, the frantic searching everywhere for the keys? Their going back to the guesthouse? Seeing Justin, his giving John the gun? His helping them? The shooting of Sadie? Her fleeing to the bathroom? The attack, her death?
18.Emma and Justin, their concern about Mari? With her in the boatshed?
19.The confrontation between Krug and John? The cat-and-mouse aspects, the suspense, in the house? Krug tricking John with the window? The fights, falling over the banister? Krug dominating John? Justin coming in, his father spurning him, stabbing him? The attack on Krug, Emma hitting him? His seemingly being dead?
20.The finale, taking Mari to the hospital, taking Justin?
21.The seeming settlement of the situation? Discovering Krug in the boatshed, the incisions and John paralysing him, putting his head in the microwave? The effect of this scene, in itself, for the film? Too much or not?
22.The cumulative effect of the experience? The realism and audiences wondering what they would do in such a situation? Similar behaviour? The visual treatment of the sadism, the rape, the revenge? The final sequence?
