The Last House on the Left
Review - Kathryn Ryan for The Mungles on Movies
March film madness is here. The onslaught of movies begins. With spring break right around the corner, teenagers and college kids will be flooding the theaters to see "something scary". Last House on the Left is a horror film, but might not make the cut with all these other powerhouse films. Of course, we must give the underdog a chance.
When Mari (Sara Paxton) leaves with her family to their lake house for the summer, she decides to go spend time with her long time friend Paige. Through a series of poor choices on the girls' part, they end up in a motel room where three murderers are on the run. In fear that the girls will rat them out to the police, they are taken out to the forest and left for dead. The killers' car gets totaled and they must find shelter for the night before heading out again. A nice couple takes them in and allows them to stay in their guest house. What the killers don't know, is that the house belongs to Mari's parents. The parents have no idea who these people are until they find their daughter has made her way back to their house. With the family car gone, the parents cannot wait until the morning to treat their daughter. Fearing they may be attacked themselves along with overwhelming anger, the parents set out to extract revenge on the unsuspecting killers.
This film is pretty intense. Despite not having any sudden jolts around every corner, it does a nice job of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. It captures you and doesn't want to let go. The acting is very convincing. With some of the scenes in the movie, you can't cut it with just some actress or actor. When the killers change from being the cats to the mice, you don't know whether or not to cheer or feel bad about what is coming their way. Whoever did the casting gets my props. With that said, there are definitely some problems. Yes, yes, this is a film based on irony, let me just say that up front. The entire situation that they get in is ironic. It doesn't give the film the liberty of repeating it over and over again, in case we didn't catch it. This film also has the whole moral of the story vibe. The bottom line of this movie is to not do drugs. If the girls were smart enough not to do drugs, they would never had been put in that situation. It is almost like saying that drugs will lead to you being kidnapped and murdered by killers on the loose.
The Last House on the Left is rated R for sadistic brutal violence including a rape and disturbing images, language, nudity and some drug use. This movie has a lot of blood and cursing. The scene that really pushes it over the edge though is the rape scene. It is quite disturbing and hard to watch. A teen might want to go see this movie, but think twice before just letting them go to it.
I give Last House on the Left 2 and a half out of 5 fishing boat keys. If you are with a big group and need a horror flick fix, this might be the ticket, outside of that, this is not a fun movie to see by yourself. Keep in mind what you are going into.
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