The Last House on the Left

Rogue Pictures closed the deal to remake the 1972 film in August 2006, with Wes Craven producing; the project became the first for his new company, Midnight Pictures. Craven partly agreed for the money: in 1972 the budget forced him to cut scenes from his own script. Dennis Iliadis got the job on the strength of his 2004 film Hardcore. Adam Alleca’s first script had supernatural elements, so the studio rejected it and brought in Carl Ellsworth. The biggest change is that Mari survives, which Ellsworth defends on suspense grounds: the parents now have a clock running to get her to hospital. Though set in an unnamed American town, the film shot in Cape Town and the Helderberg Nature Reserve from March 2008. Sara Paxton took swimming lessons every morning to pass as a competitive swimmer. The MPAA demanded cuts for an R rating: the rape scene ran at least a minute longer in the first assembly. What surprised Craven was the board calling this a special film that did not need the extra length. A good fit if you want revenge played as sour rather than satisfying, with the attackers sheltering in their victim’s house pushed all the way. Not for anyone who cannot sit through the sexual assault; trimmed at the board’s insistence, it still anchors the film.