.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

If there is one good thing that comes from a remake (or reimagining as they are now calling them), it's that my homework involves watching the original all over again.

Friday the 13th and My Bloody Valentine are just two good examples of films that I have had to purchase and review in preparation for their 2009 editions. It was great reliving experiences that I had almost all but forgotten. Next up was, The Last House on the Left, which is getting the 'update' treatment for a new century audience.

The original, was Wes Craven's (Nightmare on Elm Street) first directorial effort. Released in 1972, Last House on the Left was the story of two young girls who, while heading to a concert in celebration of one's birthday, are abducted and tortured by a group of psychotic killers.

Now, being 1972, 'torture' is not like what you would see in today's cinemas. There is no Hostel type gore here. But there is terror and some realistic acting by the two scared female leads.

As the original version goes, the two girls end up being disposed and the killers just happen to end up back at the home of one of the young girls where their parents figure out who they are and begin to exact their own kind of justice.

The film shocked audiences upon its release. The ratings board slapped the film with an X-rating and was banned in the UK and Australia until just recently.

Over 35 years later, a remake comes to the screen starring Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) and Monica Potter as John and Emma Collingwood, parents of Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton), one of the girl killed by the gang of thugs.

The updated film's story is pretty much a carbon copy of the original in its outline. There are a few tweaks here and there, but for the most part, the gist is the same. Luckily the tweaks included not having two bumbling cops on the case as the 1972 version played these characters like extras from a Dukes of Hazzard episode. And where a mouth (I really can't go any further) and a shotgun were the weapons of choice by the parents in extracting their revenge, the new Last House on the Left is far more extravagant in its killing ideas.

Being a remake, all the necessary levels of violence are upped or re-imagined for our viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, so are the clichés. There is a cell phone that doesn't have a signal, someone who trips while running from their captors and an ending after the ending that is in no way necessary. The only things missing were a cat jumping out of a closet and malfunctioning flashlight. Add those to the 'to-do list' and you would have all the textbook horror pitfalls crossed checked and balanced.

But that didn't make for a bad film. The acting was fairly descent and the tension was, at times, as good as any horror film of the same ilk.

The real problem I had was with the ending. I knew a scene was still forthcoming due to the trailers revealing the 'money shot' but I was disappointed in how it was executed. It took a three star movie and dropped it back to average (at best) thanks to its ending free fall.