Last House on the Left- Review

v  By Halley Theroux

            If you have a gothic fascination with murder and vengeance then you will be enveloped in the series of predictable plot twists found scattered between scenes of blood and betrayal in, The Last House on the Left.

            The Last House on the Left takes a new twist on an old plot line.  In this cat and mouse game the murderers are the ones being chased.  The victims wielding kitchen knives and pick axes with shaking hands become the hunters instead of the hunted.  This role reversal makes for a slightly more interesting story.

            After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang led by a prison escapee (Dillahunt) unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging to the parents of one of the victims.  The parents soon realize that their new guests are the reason their daughter no longer has her innocence and is within inches of her life. They devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics. 

            The story line is a definite long shot.  While I suppose it is possible, I still don’t find the notion that even a dedicated competitive swimmer could swim 3 miles to rescue after being vehemently beaten and shot in the back to be extremely realistic.  It also seems convenient that the phone lines coincidently go out just as the murders pick up the phone to call a taxi, so they can leave the house that unexpectedly spells their demise.  Of course the phone line that would have been their savior is disconnected because of the sudden onset of an ominous storm.

This amateur murdering spree is one of the first that the audience can cheer for.  Although audiences can easily guess every characters next move, the vindication in Last House on the Left is something everyone can indulge in.  With heads exploding in microwaves and scenery of corpses with common household products split through their head or gaping gun wounds searing through their chest, this film is certainly not for audiences with a weak stomach.