The Movie
A new take on the Wes Craven original, this year's Last House on the Left is a disturbing revenge thriller, all the more intense for its brutal depictions of the violence and sexual abuse. An escaped convict and his freakish family kidnap a couple of girls, eventually raping one and killing the other before winding up at the lake home of an unsuspecting doctor and his wife. (This is the only house in the movie, and the only one within a six mile radius we're told, so I assume this is the last one on the left.)
Turns out that, unbeknownst to anyone but the audience, the couple are the parents of the rape victim, and so an uncomfortable tension begins, growing as each little bit of the truth is uncovered. It's not a bad movie; there are some surprising moments, which are rare in this genre; there's just a tiresome sameness to much of it. The Unrated Version runs about four minutes longer than the theatrically-released "R" cut, both of which are included on the disc.
The Picture
Talk about scary: The movie takes place largely at night, with many forest scenes, too, and the trees tend to be noticeably noisy while the frequent shadows do not fare well either, giving way to an unpleasant twitch. Often the entire 1.85:1 image is tainted by a side-to-side, top-to-bottom layer of video noise, and I found myself staring at that rather than the action beyond it. Faces too can be noisy even when they are the focal point of a shot, and they start to get lost in the mushy blacks which threaten to overpower the picture. This is most assuredly not a showoff disc.
The Sound
While better than the video, the audio is still lacking something, with seemingly token amounts of side-to-side directionality and rear-channel usage and bass. A prolonged car crash early on is somewhat effective, and the rumble and crack of the thunderstorm, both in the subwoofer and surrounds, impressively dominates Act II, less so in Act III. Combined with the atmospheric music it can be unsettling, but ultimately this DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track will prove forgettable.
The Extras
Six deleted/alternate/extended scenes total nine minutes, in standard definition. "A Look Inside" is essentially a trailer intercut with creator soundbites, in high-definition, running a little under three minutes. The disc also supports BD-Live online features, while Disc Two--exclusive to the Blu-ray--is a DVD containing a Digital Copy of the Unrated Version of the movie, for iTunes and Windows Media.
Final Thoughts
Fans of such creepy tales will likely not be disappointed by this Last House on the Left remake, I'm just flummoxed by the large quantity of video noise that plagues this Blu-ray.
Where to Buy:
Product Details
- Actors: Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Garret Dillahunt, Sara Paxton, Aaron Paul, Spencer Treat Clark, Riki Lindhome, Martha MacIsaac, Michael Bowen, Josh Cox
- Director: Dennis Iliadis
- Audio Format/Languages: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (English), DTS 5.1 (Spanish, French)
- Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: R/Unrated
- Studio: Universal Studios
- Release Date: August 18, 2009
- Run Time: 110/114 minutes
- List Price: $39.98
- Extras:
- Deleted Scenes
- "A Look Inside"
- D-BOX Motion Code
- BD-Live
- Digital Copy
