Movie: The Last House On The Left
Krishna
Yes, I know that this is a slightly old movie!
This movie is fascinating in many ways and surprising in other ways. It is also fairly brutal to watch as the level of violence is a bit starker.
First the actors. Garret Dillahunt who seems to have had a career mostly on TV plays Krug, a hardened criminal and he does a great job of it. He just reeks evil in the movie, as his character demands. Aaron Paul is his younger brother Francis (yes, from Breaking Bad and mostly of TV fame as well) but except to look wild and act weird, does very little. It is interesting how when given a truly evil sidekick character, he simply keeps repeating the expressions that got him noticed and liked in Breaking Bad. That technique is not very effective here and he is easily overshadowed by almost all the others. The doctor family is cast very well, with the surgeon Dr John Collingwood played by Tony Goldwyn, wife Emma played by Monica Potter and their teenage daughter Mari played by Sara Paxton all doing a good job.
Story, the hardened criminal Krug is rescued from police custody as he is being transported by brother Francis and Krug’s girlfriend Sadie. They kill the cops brutally and take a fairly big chunk of cash. They go to the son and then have to go out somewhere else (to get the story moving)
They have left their son Justin in a rented place in a small city. Meanwhile, John and family go nearby to a cottage. John’s daughter Mari is an expert swimmer (yes it is relevant to the story) and wears a pendant that was given to her by her recently deceased brother (yes, relevant to the story).
While they settle in Mari wants to go visit her (as it turns out harebrained) friend Paige, who works in a store nearby for the summer. When they are at the store they meet Justin who comes in to grab a burger. He pays them with the money stolen from the cops who were murdered earlier (we know it because one of the notes he does not hand over has the blood spatter that we saw earlier – clever). He promises them weed and over objections from Mari, Paige visits his apartment. Meanwhile Mari gets a call from her parents who say that there is a storm coming and Mari gets them to agree that she will stay with Paige for the night.
In the middle of their weed filled fun, they are surprised by the trio returning.
Knowing that their photos are all over the newspaper, Krug knows that now he cannot let the girls go. What follows is a kidnap in the car and Mari fights back using a cigarette lighter in the car to attack the girlfriend and then they are brutally hurt. Paige repeatedly tries to escape, which is good, but insults them all, which is insane. You really wonder how her brain works as she is the one who got them in the jam in the first place. Finally Krug snaps and he and Francis stab Paige to death.
Krug invites Justin ‘to be a man’ and rape Mari but when he refuses, Krug holds her down and does it himself. She is in pain and is hurt. During the rape Krug rips off the chain from Mari and Justin picks it up and keeps it with him.
Taking a huge risk, after her humiliation, Mari manages to escape and jump into the lake and starts swimming. Krug shoots at her and finally gets a bullet in her back and Mari sinks. The storm which was anticipated, descends and the four (the trio and Justin) leave. Their car is wrecked in their adventure and they walk and end up in the doctor’s house. The doctor mends their wounds and gives them food and then puts them in the outhouse.
Justin, already remorseful, realizes that Mari is their daughter and discretely puts the pendant on the coffee cup to warn the parents about the trio.
Mari in the meanwhile is alive and manages to swim back to the cottage unknown to the four who are in the outhouse.
What follows is the realization of the doctor family about who their guests really are like, and a brilliantly executed saga of revenge and fightback by the trio.
Enough to say that it keeps the interest till the end. If you are a fan of revenge films, you will enjoy this one. It has some raw violence all the way through but is overall enjoyable if you are not put off by these scenes of violence, brutality and rape.
7/10
– – Krishna (Feb 2020)