When the remake of “The Last House on the Left” debuts in theaters opens in theaters Friday, fans of the Wes Craven original version will find some differences between the new and the original version. Director Dennis Iliadis told SciFi wire that while he left the original story in tact, he’s made some changes to the story to add his own personal touch.
If you don’t want to know specifics of what’s been changed, please stop reading now. There are SPOILERS just ahead for both the new and the remake version of “Last House on the Left.”
Both films start with the same premise–a gang of escaped convicts brutalizes two young girls and eventually finds themselves at the mercy of one of the girl’s parents.
The differences begins with the main girl, Mari (Sara Paxton) who is now a high-school swimmerand puts up more of a fight than her counterpart in the original. When the convicts end up at the house of her parents (Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn), their comeuppance is elaborate and comes with the help of modern household appliances and Hollywood special effects.
“I think it’s going for that real-time approach, keeping the characters ambiguous, so that you feel that any given moment if Paige [Martha Maclsaac] had done something different, or if Mari had done something different, or if Sadie [Riki Lindhome] had done something different, things could have turned out differently,” said Iladis. “You’re not playing by the rules, where “these are my bad guys and these are my good guys.”
So I think having this real-time ambiguity and investing on the reality of things, I think that’s what makes it so powerful. I think that’s what will surprise people, because many people think they’ve seen it, and they know what’s happening, but there are some surprises, and we’ve upped the suspense in some areas.” he continued.
The director did have Craven on-board as a producer for the new version, so you can expect that any changes made had to get the horror-master’s approval.
The new version of “Last House on the Left” begins scaring audiences this Friday.
I have no recollection of ever seeing the original, but for aficionados of "death by household appliances" scenes, there are several sequences in the remake that will more than satisfy!!