Take A Right.. And It's The Last House On The Left.

Despite the title sounding like a set of directions The Last House On The Left has a slight hope. Yes it's a remake which makes every fan in the film world cringe with pain BUT it is a Wes Craven film originally. So it has promise as long as the screenwriters control the urge to dumb it down and make it more graphic to appeal to gore junkies. Well this is half and half... The rape scene near the beginning is a hell of a lot tamer. There's no forced lesbian action or peeing... which is good for most.. But hey, I'm not here to judge... Cept films..

The Events Of This Film, Rape And Murder, Occur Because These Kids Smoked Pot.

Don't Do Drugs Kids

As the film progresses though there is a lot more violence... All of the characters died in different ways to the original but its not that big an issue. The issue I have with this film is everything else. Horror films can be a brilliant chance to express acting skills (John Cuzack, 1408) but then I'm not sure if this a horror... It's certainly is some form of thriller... But anyway it was a brilliant chance for the cast (mainly Tony Goldwyn (John Collingwood) and Monica Potter (Emma Collingwood)) to prove their acting talent... To shift from good Samaritans to vengeful murderers. A slow realisation maybe? Then a plot? Then a loss of human morals? 'Nah skip that' is what the director said. When the Collingwoods realise who their guests are they go crazy. This leads to the assumption that they were already mentally unstable before their daughter was raped... yeah... obvious right?

I think that was really my biggest issue with the film... It focused too much on the plot and action and lost the crucial character details that make a film excellent. It also had one of those reaaaaalllyyy generic soundtracks/score that consisted simply of 'creepy' music.. very disappointing. You can create horror and/or tension through soundtrack without rubbish noises that do nothing but build up catharsis.. badly. Check any Alfred Hitchcock horror/ thriller or 28 Days Later. That's how a score/ soundtrack should be used. Speaking of 28 Days Later, the film that has my favourite cinematography EVER, The Last House On The Left could learn from it. The camera shots weren't bad but they could've been better.

The middle of nowhere had a really bad hoodie culture.

I can't say I enjoyed this film, but then again I can't say I hated it. Detail is one of my favourite things in films and this movie lacked the detail in character depth. The only one who nailed it was young Spencer Treat Clark (Justin.) His character swayed from casual druggie to determined fighter with clear daddy issues. He makes this film half a star better than it would've been otherwise. (That's right I'm using half stars now!)

For a remake it's not actually that bad; compared to the other shit that is produced nowadays. And it may actually be worth a watch, if only to judge it for yourself.

Best Bit? When one of the baddies gets his hands stuck in a food disposal unit... Ouch!

Films on my mind.....er..... today.. but a different today than last time.

Watched.... 3 films today... not bad if I dare say so myself.
What films you ask!
I'd be more than happy to tell you; you lucky dogs.

Well, firstly I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Typical Hitchcock film... very good, very tense, very 50's. But still, more than just enjoyable. Had me shouting at the screen in points; always a good sign if you ask me. The ending frustrated me a little I suppose.. at the time anyway. Now I'm thinking about it again, I think it was actually very clever... But that's Hitchcock for ya. James Stewart was magnificent! Not quite as good as Rear Window, admittedly, but still very good. And it's another film to tick off the 500 greatest of all time :) Best Bit? The crazy dream sequence that looked like it was clean out of Disney's 1951 Alice In Wonderland.

Secondly, the creepy haunted hotel, 1408. Now this one I have my ups and downs with... John Cusack is incredible. He puts up a truly stunning ghost story writer, calm witted at first but goes crazy within the room; this made all the more effective due to the contrast of his original sly character. But what annoys me is the 'ghost' type people who !!!SPOILER!!! walk out the windows and so on. They don't seem like the depressed, suicidal, crazy types they should be portraying... but i suppose that's down to the Director eh. The story and effects are fab, even though there are a couple of depressing scenes involving the protagonist's daughter. Best bit about the film? Samuel L Jackson's line: "It's just an evil fucking room." Brilliant.

And finally, one I've been meaning to watch for a while. The Mummy Returns. I had seen the first and third installments of the series but I had missed the middle one. Good ol' Sky Showcase showing the whole series all day. Brendan Frasier is funny and.. well... pretty gosh darn badass. Which is excellent. Okay the story is a little more wacko, with little tree creatures, a huge fudging scorpion and killer scarabs but hey that's the mummy right? Best Bit? Any bit with the little kid... He's just awesome.
Okay I'm done for now..

Signing Off :)