La última casa a la izquierda

Evalúo en contexto con Viernes 13, San Valentín sangriento 3D y similares, porque estamos hablando del mismo público objetivo. Y en comparación con esas películas, La última casa a la izquierda es finalmente una película de terror brutal en la que no hay adolescentes molestos dependientes de GPS corriendo, esperando ser mutilados por otro asesino inmortal enmascarado súper genial. O nos compadecemos de las víctimas de las masacres de aquí, o QUEREMOS verlas tiradas en el suelo ensangrentadas. Las emociones funcionan, la actuación es más que suficiente. Si la película fuera más profunda (la cuestión ética del derecho a matar al asesino de tu hijo con tus propias manos) y hubiera contado con un elenco de villanos más interesante, por supuesto podría haber sido algo diferente y más valioso. Pero para eso tenemos a Michael Haneke, no a Wes Craven. Además, la película original tampoco profundizó mucho, simplemente fue una sorpresa de explotación. (15.05.2009)

The creators did the best they could with the original Last House On The Left, i.e. they did away with the wannabe funny and grotesque subplot with the cops, eliminated a lot of holes in logic and got a bigger budget. The violence escalates to a point where you can still bear it without problem, but it’s also sufficiently strong to generate an emotional response. The result is a superb and brilliantly made soft-exploitation film that it’s better than the original in every way. The fans of The Mummy, Transformers and other similar fairytales can complain all they want about this being a boring and gratuitously brutal film, but that’s what you can expect from them. There hasn’t been better horror in Czech cinemas for a few months and the fact that I was alone in the theatre is very sad in its own way. 85% (25.05.2009)

Boring, empty, self-serving. The violence is neither shocking, aesthetic or rousing, just emptily exhibiting and annoyingly stupid. The characters have absolutely no freedom of choice, the creators always push them where they want them to go, and brutality is the only way to get out of an emergency. Another confirmation that Hollywood makes rabbit shit out of pearls. There is a hundred times more real violence, real dilemmas and real suffering in "non-horror" Bergman. This crap belongs in the center of the peloton of mainstream attempts to shock. Who? Maybe only children. (17.05.2009)

Thanks to the hopeless atmosphere, the constant nasty feeling of what has already happened is nothing compared to what is yet to happen, and thanks to the absolute unpredictability of the plot, I have no choice and I have to put The Last House on the Left almost on the level of Peckinpah's Straw Dogs. It's probably the first film that deserves such a comparison. I wasn't really comfortable with the spectacle, but it greatly entertained me. (22.02.2021)

If all remakes of B-movies were of this quality, horror enthusiasts would have an uninterrupted movie feast. The Last House on the Left may be just another in a long line and is as far from the horror hall of fame as Uwe Boll's "red" rated films, but it’s nevertheless one of the significantly better films the Americans have offered in their frenzied horror output of recent years. Those who can endure the lengthy first act and the introduction to the characters, which is ultimately completely unnecessary, can look forward to a fairly detailed study of human suffering, depravity and the desire for revenge, which will eventually sweep every viewer to the side of the heroes. Atmospherically it's rather tone dull and psychologically it's only marginally biting, but when it was over I was overcome with a very pleasant feeling of well done filmmaking and the way our heroes resolved it all. The one year younger I Spit on Your Grave goes more headlong into it and has a much greater effect, but this one also does the job. 70% (22.03.2013)

El concepto de Wes Craven se estiró en dos horas lentas, lo que no ayudó a la película. La primera mitad es aburrida y estúpida, sin pasarse con la violencia. La violación en el bosque tampoco te sacará de tu letargo. En cambio, a partir de la mitad, la historia se convierte en pura explotación gore combinada con una película de venganza, con un giro notable y también algunos juegos con un triturador de basura y un microondas. Y el aficionado al terror por fin obtiene su satisfacción. O cómo una basura de una estrella consiguió ascender a la categoría de espectáculo al menos mediocre en pocos minutos. (27.06.2011)