October 5th - LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (2009)

Ok, I guess it was time to review a contemporary movie huh?

Anyone who knows me, should already know about my weird and strange love for the original Last House on the Left. As much as it is dated and sometimes downright silly, I always found it strangely disturbing and yet a fast paced horror film with a great soundtrack done by the films main villain, David Hess. Known for not only being Wes Craven's first film, it is known for being one of the first exploitation horror films that showed rape and torture in such graphic detail. In today's standards, it may be considered weak. But I love every bit of that movie. So yeah, when I heard of the remake coming out, I slammed my foot down and refused to pay money to see it. When it got semi-decent reviews I became intrigued and decided to wait for DVD. I have been holding off for awhile and finally I broke down.

The Last House on the Left remake is the story of a family coping with the death of a son/brother. It is summer time so the family decides to go to their cottage in the woods for awhile. The daughter and her carefree friend end up meeting a "family" of escaped convicts who take the gals hostage as the cops are on their tail. When the girls try to escape, the convicts rape and kill them. They take refuge in one of the dead girls homes and when the Mom and Dad find out, they take matter sin their own hands.

I will admit, the remake changed a few things in the storyline that now work: the family dealing with the death of a loved one worked well, the girl's neckless is now a gift from her dead brother and not some hippie peace symbol, the father being a doctor is shown more and put to some use, instead of the car breaking down it is run off the road by the girl's trying to escape. One of the attacks in the house was dirty and realistic. Little things like this worked well.

However, there was more problems I had with some of the changes. The villains look too much like movie stars playing bad guys. They are too good looking with either a mustache or bruise to cover up their good looks. There is no David Hess or Fred Lincoln in this film. The fact that Krug was able to control his junkie son by promising him drugs is now gone and Junior is now just afraid of his dad because he's scary and mean. I never got a feeling the family was very close to the daughter and I liked how the original showed the mother and father in love with one another and cared for their daughter. The music was too Hollywood-ish and was just typical suspense/horror movie music with some lame "cool" song tagged on at the end. And this version pusses out in the third act by allowing some characters to live, making the audience say, "What the fuck?" 

The original film is still more brutal, sad, and disturbing than this Hollywood remake. Sure, this one has more blood and special effects but the realism seems to be missing. The villains in the original played and tortured their victims verbally (Krug demands one of the girls to "piss her pants") and physically (Krug carves his name on one of the girl's chest). But yet the villains had a few moments when they were just regular human beings (although very trailer trashy) and not just stone cold killers.

I will say I didn't hate this. Like I said, some changes in the story worked and aside from the third act, I was never bored with the film. It wasn't bad but it just seems like it's sole purpose in existence was to make money and jump on the remake bandwagon. And by going down that road, the film leads to nowhere.

October 4th - BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960)

Sorry this took me so long to post. I couldn't log on to this site for some reason while I was at work to write my review.

I never knew this but Brides of Dracula is actually the sequel to 1958's Horror of Dracula. Horror of Dracula is one of my favorite Dracula films and for me, no one beats Christopher Lee as Dracula. I always believed the second film was Dracula- Prince of Darkness but I was wrong. This is the sequel and what threw me off is that Dracula isn't even in this film!

The bizarre story is about a young student teacher who gets mixed up with an old family curse. Unbeknownst to her, she accidentally frees a young man chained in his room but happens to be a vampire. The town is now attacked by the vampire and it's up to Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, who returns from Horror of Dracula) to stop the vampire. The story centers on the young woman who frees the vampire but then suddenly switches POV once Van Helsing comes into the picture. It's really odd.

The title of the film is also strange to me since there are no brides and there is no Dracula (although a brief reference is made of him) . Minor complaints though because like most Hammer films, the movie is filled with great atmosphere such as bats, castles, and graveyards. Peter Cushing is always good and his charming and kind Van Helsing is always great to watch. The women are beautiful and the direction is decent and shot in a nice wide scope.

If I have any complaints, it would be the thrown together screenplay and the title of the movie. But it's still worth a look. If you have never seen any Hammer films from the 50's, 60's or 70's, you are missing out on some great horror films.