First is 'Last'
Wes Craven’s vision remains true in remake of his ‘Last House on the Left’
By Lisa Miller 03/12/2009
With the remake of his first film, “The Last House on the Left,” writer, director and now producer Wes Craven has come full circle. Best known for the “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream” film series, the 70-year-old Craven owes much of the success of his prodigious career to 1972’s version of this same film, albeit a low-budget model.
In this iteration, Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter play John and Emma Collingwood, typical middle-class parents whose teenage daughter (Sara Paxton) is savagely assaulted and left for dead. The perpetrators, a gang led by Krug (Garret Dillahunt), unexpectedly appear at the Collingwood’s remote lake house, injured and in need of a place to spend the night.
The Collingwoods have already agreed to let the travelers stay in their guest cabin when the two discover the true identity of their visitors. What's a nice family to do? Try exacting revenge in the most brutal manner possible.
Rewind to 1972, when Craven was a financially destitute 34-year-old filmmaker whose previous experience was editing documentaries. Befriended by 27-year-old producer Sean Cunningham, Craven was given the opportunity to write and direct a horror flick produced by Cunningham for Vanguard Studios. In a 1999 interview, Craven said the film’s budget was $50,000. Provided they shot their movie in three weeks and spent no more than $40,000, the pair could pocket the other ten grand, and just like that, Craven’s money problems appeared to be solved.
Unfamiliar with storyboarding, Craven filmed long sequences in continuous takes from two or three angles. He did rewrites, inserted new scenes and had no idea how to mike his actors — subsequently spending nine months editing what he’d shot in just four weeks. Craven and Cunningham went overbudget by $40,000, but believed their little slasher film might actually do well.
After soliciting friends and family for title suggestions, the movie finally opened in three cities under three different names. “The Last House on the Left,” was suggested by an adman and was considered to be a loser by Craven. The other two titles, “Sex Crime of the Century,” and “Krug & Co.,” seemed far more promising.
To Craven’s surprise, on the R-rated film’s opening weekend, “The Last House on the Left” played to capacity audiences while it was virtually ignored under the two titles tried in other towns.
For the remake, set to open Friday, Craven and Cunningham serve as producers, leaving the rewrites to others and placing the film in the capable hands of director Dennis Iliadis. Those who have seen the original may be interested to know that not everyone killed in the first film dies in the remake. Though we can’t be certain, this kinder version may indicate a change in Craven’s strategy. In 1972, the young filmmaker felt shocking viewers was a tactic likely to set his film apart. In 2009, he now has some powerhouse content to make an entertaining slasher.
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