The Last House On The Left (2009 remake) - Cruel, brutal and disturbingly watchable

I've never seen the original Last House on the Left, but I hear it was pretty shocking in its day. I knew this was a remake, so I didn't set my expectations too high (we all know how good remakes normally are). Now, I don't know if the words `pleasantly surprised' should be used to describe a film so horrible as Last House on the Left, but it was actually quite good (obviously, if you're in the mood for something so nasty).

Yes, it's very violent - horribly so. The violence will certainly turn a lot of viewers off. It's really only for those with a strong stomach who will get anything out of it. It's about a family who take a vacation to a nig house in the middle of an American forest and come a cropper at the hands of a particularly nasty gang of thieves who are on the run from the authorities.

Firstly the teenage daughter and her friends are subjected to some extreme punishment at the hands of the gang, who then leave her for dead and seek refuge in - none other than - the parents' holiday home. Soon the parents realise that they're harbouring the very people who have hurt their daughter and decide to act some revenge of their own.

The first thing to say is that all the cast play their respective parts well. The family are nice, but not squeaky-clean enough to be annoying. And the villains are bad, but not in a pantomime style. That way, you're rooting for the right people when it comes to dishing out a much-needed taste of their own medicine. Also, the characters behave in a logical way. There might be the odd moment where they do stupid things, but with horror films they're normally doing this all the time. Here, the daftness of decision-making is kept to a minimum.

If you're in the mood for some extreme violence (and the Hostel films won't suffice) then give this a go. It's nasty, but one of the better (dare I call it...) `torture p0rn' films.)

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that