Last House on the Left Latest on List of Remakes

Wes Craven's directorial debut remains one of the roughest movies I have ever seen. While the real movie doesn't take place until the last 10 minutes of the film, Last House on the Left is almost unwatchable in some early parts. It is firmly set in good company - for that fare - including the equally brutal, I Spit on Your Grave. But while you can safely the skip the latter without missing too much (it is famous specifically for its brutality), Last House on the Left is one of those classics all serious horror fans should see.

Who's to say about the remake?

I hate to belabor the point, and remakes have become just a part of cinema, but remakes of horror flicks - classic horror flicks, in particular - have become all the rage. And not a single a one has been worthwhile.

What disheartens me so about this is that they are cannibalizing some of my favorite flicks of all time: Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine, Texas Chainsaw Massacre - now I hear they are even remaking Evil Dead! Part of the allure of all these films is their very crudity and today's slick editing and overproduction robs them of the charm they originally possessed, leaving younger audiences with no interest to see the originals.

The Hitcher was one which a younger acquaintance watched with me a while back and was transfixed by. She kept repeating how the remake was so bad, comparatively, and noted she hadn't wanted to watch it specifically because of that.

Trust me when I recommend these horror classics; dismiss the bad taste their recent remakes have left in your mouth. Go check out My Bloody Valentine, for starters. That is one of the better-made B-raters in the entire genre.

And no matter what you're into, you simply have to check out April Fool's Day - don't think horror, don't think comedy, don't think mystery - just think of it as another one of those holiday-themed slasher flicks from the 80s and enjoy. That movie would have been a real era-classic, were it not for executives, who screw-up everything in Hollywood.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009