Finally … a remake that actually works!

I have a love/hate relationship with the Wes Craven original. It has some brilliant moments of terror but is also filled with a lot of silliness that ultimately deadens the movie’s impact.

That stuff is gone from the remake. “The Last House on the Left” is now a lean, mean revenge thriller machine. There are solid performances. There’s damn fine gore. All-in-all, it’s a much better film than I ever expected it to be.

Plus, “Last House” gets bonus points for having Garret Dillahunt go shirtless through the last quarter of the movie.