(May Contain Spoilers)
I had seen this movie advertised on Netflix and at one point it was top 3 in the UK on Netflix and normally horror films aren’t so I thought it must be good. Now this film is the 2009 version, but I found out that this was a remake of the 1972 and wonder how the film would have been then as there were less regulations and ill get into why I’ve made this comment! I do want to pre-warn that this film is graphic and not for the faint-hearted of viewers. I would also say that I have had many debates with filmmakers about whether rape is even worth having in a film, so would love to hear your comments on that subject. I personally think that these filmmakers did a really good job of portraying the rape and I think in this kidnap situation it was realistic and gruesome and made you sick, which I think was the point.
The Last House on the Left begins by following Mari (Sara Paxton) who goes on holiday to a family home by a lake (the last house of the left) with her two parents. Mari goes to visit her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac) where she works and there is this young man, Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), who looks like he is about to steal stuff, so Paige pulls him up for it. He offers the girls some weed and Mari drives Paige back to Justin’s motel room so they can start to smoke. Meanwhile three hooligan bandits bust their friend, Giles (Josh Coxx) out of a police car and then go on the run. Justin is the son of z bandit and when they come back to the motel room they find Justin and the girls having a smoke-a-thon!
From here Giles, Sadie (Riki Lindhome) and Franics (Aaron Paul) – the bandits – takes the girls into the woods to kill them because they have seen to much. It is here where Paige tries to escape and then they manage to catch up with her and stab her. Meanwhile Giles tells his son to become a man by having sex with Mari. After Justin refuses, Giles rapes Mari in front of everyone to prove a point. This isn’t a pull the pants down and cut to black, NO, this is a 3-4 minute scene of Mari crying whilst she is pinned down and raped. She manages to escape after and swim into a lake however is shot and floats about.
As a storm breaks out the bandits retreat to a near by house…oh wait this is the same house as Mari’s parents DUH! They help put them up in the guest house, while Mari comes back to life crawling to safety on their porch. The dad is a doctor (conveniently) and he helps take the bullet wound out but also see that she is raped. The mum puts to and two together and then they turn into these badass parents who go about killing these bandits. Mari and her family, along with Justin escape in a boat to safety and then a weird blackout fades in where the dad had captured Giles and tortures him in his garage.
Yes this film will stay with me because of the horrific scenes of rape and while I think that the filmmakers did a good job to evoke emotion into their audience to make them feel sick, I do think that in this scenario the rape wasn’t necessary as it didn’t add anything to the storyline, however devil’s advocate I think the way these three bandits were they would have raped and killed their victims like this. I felt the film was a little confused on who their protagonist was as it kept changing about, it was Mari, then Giles then the mum. I think it was a good film but not one that I would watch again or recommend if you’re faint hearted. Gruesome, bloody and disturbing.
Stream now on Netflix.
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