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Yet another 1970s horror movie is remade and this one isn’t half bad. Sort of.

As a fan of the wave of 1970s and early ‘80s grindhouse/drive-in horror films, I still have very mixed feelings about the current trend to remake virtually every single one of those films into slick new versions. Mother’s Day? Really? Anyway, one I was pretty amused with the notion of being remade was Last House on the Left, a sicko “classic” that launched the career of Wes Craven. I’ve never been too fond of the original – as with I Spit on Your Grave, it managed to be the type of uncomfortable that doesn’t lend itself to entertainment. I was even less impressed with the previous “unauthorized” remake Chaos which came out a few years back and stuck to the original script almost note-for-note until the twist ending. So how would a film industry dominated by Michael Bays and the like take to this unpleasant story? Surprisingly well, actually.

The story barely rates as such. A group of psychos come across a couple of girls and spend half the film torturing them before seeking shelter at what turns out to be the home of one of the girl’s parents, who launch a vicious round of revenge when they learn their daughter’s fate.

This new version, directed by Dennis Iliadis and released by Universal, follows the original pretty faithfully, though there are a number of changes made to keep the film relevant in today’s culture (as well as at least one major change that somewhat dilutes the nature of the original, but I won’t spoil it). It’s slick, sure, but nowhere near as slick as many of the modern remakes have been. It retains a lot of that uncomfortable viciousness that made the original a cult favorite, but in this day and age – with the likes of Saw and Hostel around – it’s not quite as shocking as it was in 1972. Hell, even television has numbed us to some of what this film has to offer.

The characters are more well-rounded than in Craven’s version, but not by much. They’re still just there for the sake of the story and are general archetypes. The gore is…well, if you’ve been fed a diet of PG-13 horror films, you may want to stay away.

The DVD version includes the theatrical cut as well as a slightly extended and bloodier unrated version. A few deleted scenes and a making-of doc round out the extras.

I can’t really say “go rent this” – it’s just not the type of film that can have that sort of recommendation. It will make you feel uneasy and make you question the limits of what should be shown on the screen. However, if you are bored with the slew of tamer Jessica Alba-starring horror films these days, or if you’re just a sick **** like me, you may want to give it a shot.

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