Podcast Classics Revisited - Episode 66: "The Last House on the Left"

This week, myself and the rest of the Podcast crew are heading out to theaters to catch Jennifer Lawrence's new jam, "The House at the End of the Street". Now, I realize that you're sitting there at your desk now, wondering "Why the hell is Casey telling us this in a post about "The Last House on the Left"; be honest, the reason is stupid at best but here it is:

When "The House at the End of the Street" was first announced? My first thought was to wonder if it was some kind of loose sequel to the "The Last House on the Left" remake. Not knowing any plot details at the time, heck, only knowing that it starred young up and coming starlet Lawrence, it all seemed somewhat logical. Sure, the 2009 film wasn't a huge box office hit, but the title of "The House at the End of the Street" evokes thoughts of "Last House" just the same. Structurally, they're very similar and they bring to mind similar settings;a lonely house in the middle of nowhere. From there, it wasn't hard to jump to the idea of Lawrence playing a young girl in trouble, much like the original flick and there you have it; how I thought for a brief moment that "The House at the End of the Street" might possibly be a sequel to 2009's "The Last House on the Left"!

Let's jump into the way-back machine and head to March 2009. The time was just before St. Patrick's day and the crew was smaller. Back then, the BGH Podcast was myself, Mark, Eric and Schnaars and we'd started to hit our stride as far as structure and flow. In many of our early-early episodes, you could tell that we were diving into this podcast stuff with no clue as to what we were doing; here you can tell that we were on the verge to being a real show. The sound quality was solid, we had full features, the word of the day was in full swing and... Mark was drunk for at least 13 hours straight the day before. This was back in the day when we even had Louis Fowler from Damaged Viewing popping in at the beginning of episodes for "Fowling Up the Podcast" which was completely random and a bit sporadic.

So the verdict back in the day? Myself and Eric were seemingly pretty happy with "The Last House on the Left" where as Schnaars had given the movie a 4/10 in his review. Mark... Mark was too hungover to say for sure whether he liked it or not, but he brought up some fine points throughout. One thing that we all did agree on was that Garret Dillahunt, the actor that portrayed psycho patriarch Krug in the film and such creepy maniacs as Francess Wollcot in "Deadwood" was a fantastic mad man. There's also good discussion on the place for rape revenge movies in current cinema as well as director Dennis Illiadis's choices on how to work with his R rating.

Here's an updated opinion from the crew, looking back from 2012:

Mark - I remember it being decently suspenseful and gritty, and probably the most you could squeeze out of a mainstream theatrical rape revenge film in the 2000's. Certainly better than the original, but not my cup of tea, ever.

Eric - I remember my initial shock that anyone would want to "remake" Last House, let alone give it an oddly glossy treatment like this film. Ultimately, it's actually pretty well executed, but looking back I can hardly remember any of it. I remember the kids smoking weed in the hotel room, and that the main bad guy had a mustache. I still question the reason for a remake. I also can't say I'll ever go back and watch it again. So most likely, I've soured on it since my initial viewing.

Jon - My memory of this film is that they managed to make it both more and less exploitative, tuning down some of the rapier/sexual violence, and tuning up some of the straight violence-violence. It was also glossier, which goes without saying. Until [Casey] asked me, I hadn't thought about this movie since we discussed it!

Casey- Me? I liked this flick back when it first came out. I thought Garret Dillahunt was great. The truth is though, three years later? I still remember it fondly, but I don't feel anything drawing me back to watch the flick again.

If this preview of our Bloody Good Horror Classics has whet your appetite, you can purchase Episode 66 - "Last House on the Left" at Payloadz for a mere $.99. If you had put off the remake thus far or had forgotten about it since the bygone days of 2009, now's a good time to catch up and see if maybe this flick is one you might want to find in the bargain bin the next time you stroll through the electronics department. For further info on "The Last House on the Left", be sure to give Jon's Review a read as well.

And to browse more BGH Classics, head on over to the Podcast page!