The Last House On The Left

Back when Freddy Krueger was just an evil glint in the eyes of a thousand maniacs, Wes Craven made his debut with a low-budget tale of rape, murder and revenge. It caused a bit of a stir.

Apparently based on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, it was - depending how you look at it - either a savage and savvy reflection of America 's apathy to the war in Vietnam or a cheap piece of exploitative trash.

Either way, The (first) Last House On The Left was refused a certificate by the BBFC in 1974 and later banned as one of the "video nasties" that made the moral majority's blood boil in the 80s. It was only released in its uncut form in March 2008.

Scary stuff, then. Actually, no. Nowadays you could stick it on ITV after the news and no one would bat an eyelid. But in these horror-hungry times, a remake was inevitable.

Increasingly familiar face Dillahunt (No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James…) is Krug, a convicted murderer whose gang – scumbags Sadie and Francis and fearful son Justin (Spencer Treat Clark) - bust him from custody with a bone-jarring smash-and-grab on a police car.

Meanwhile, Mari Collingwood (Paxton) has left her parents Emma and John (Potter and Goldwyn) at their secluded holiday home nearby to go in search of teenage kicks with her townie friend Paige (Martha McIsaac).

They get more than they bargained for when an innocent(ish) encounter with Justin leads to their abduction and an unspeakable ordeal in the woods.

Intending to move on but caught in a storm and carrying injuries (that’s what you get when you play with knives), the mini-Manson clan pitches up at the Collingwood place, which is less the last house on the left than the only one in the area.

Emma and John duly take them in. But natural suspicion, Mari’s absence and Justin’s conscience combine to reveal the awful truth about their guests.

Unlike recent reboots of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday The 13th and Craven's The Hills Have Eyes, this is no wildly swinging hatchet job.

Director Iliadis succeeds by building tension and putting everyone at unease rather than grinding out cheap shocks.

That said, Dr John does have a habit of leaving needles sticking out of eyebrows and there’s some very grisly business involving a waste-disposal unit and a clawhammer. And nothing makes you wince quite like a broken nose being re-broken.

Elliott Noble