FAQ

John (Tony Goldwyn) and Emma (Monica Potter) Collingwood are on vacation at their lakeshore house when, by a bizarre twist of fate, they give shelter to the sociopaths who have just assaulted and nearly killed their daughter Mari (Sara Paxton). Upon discovering the truth, they exact a chilling revenge on her attackers.

Yes, this film is a remake of the 1972 Wes Craven-directed movie The Last House on the Left (1972). The original itself was heavily inspired by The Virgin Spring (1960) (1960), a movie with a very similar plot-line but not as graphic as depicted in Craven's film. In 2005, Chaos (2005) was released but due to rights issues it was not labeled as a remake of either Craven's film or Jungfrukällan, but instead self-labeled itself as an original. Chaos was a failure both critically and financially, thus prompting Craven to want to produce a remake of his original movie, which in part was also due to the success of the 2006 The Hills Have Eyes (2006) remake. Rights to the original The Last House on the Left (1972) reverted back to Wes Craven 30-something years after being released, so he was now legally able to go ahead with the project on his own.

The first song is "Sweet Love for Planet Earth" by Fuck Buttons. The second song is "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Taken by Trees. This is a cover of the same name by the band Guns 'n' Roses.

Mise-en-scene - This film takes place in 2009 rather than 1972 or the 14th century, like the original films.

Name Changes - Phyllis is now named Paige. Junior Stillo is now named Justin. Fred/Weasel is named Francis/Frank. Estelle Collingwood is now named Emma.

Setting - The Collingwoods live in the lake house seasonally, instead of year-round like in the original.

Added Storyline - Mari had a brother named Ben who died about a year earlier. Mari is a good swimmer, a dedicated athlete, and she uses her sport to deal with her emotions over her brother's death.

The film opens by showing Krug's escape and murder of the two police officers. In the original, that scene was only mentioned over a radio conversation and never shown.

Plot Devices - Mari's necklace was an engraved pendant from Ben, rather than a charm given to her by her mother for her 17th birthday.

Plot Points - Justin meets the girls at Paige's job, a convenience store. In the original film the girls met Junior while he was outside his apartment.

After he offers them weed, he had no intentions of letting the gang have them. In the original film Junior purposely invited the girls into the apartment so his father could have them, hoping his father would feed his heroin addiction.

The gang takes Mari's car (an SUV) to the woods, rather than taking their own car.

The gang makes it to the Collingwood house late at night and a storm prevents them from calling for a cab since all the power and phone lines are down. In the original film they used the house as a place to stay until morning with no real reason.

Justin finds Mari's picture on the fridge and purposefully leaves the pendant for the parents to find, as he feels bad for Mari. In the original film, Junior discovers a picture of Mari but does not reveal his family's identity to the Collingwood's.

The gang stays in the adjacent guest house instead of in rooms at the end of the hall.

Rape/Torture/Violence - The rape/torture scenes are much more toned down in the remake. There is no "forced peeing scene" or "forced lesbian scene". Also, there is no disembowelment of Paige like there was of Phyllis in the original. The entire tone of these scenes is much less graphic and more tasteful.

The death scenes of all characters are entirely different.

Mari lives and makes it back to the house, where the doctor treats her wounds, saving her life. In the original film she is dead and in the lake. The Collingwood's overhear the gang talking about the murdered girl in the lake, so the Collingwood's go down to the lake and discover Mari's body there.

Justin is stabbed with a fireplace poker by Krug, but is saved by the doctor. In the original film Junior commits suicide.

Dropped storylines - There are no storylines involving the bumbling police officers or the chicken lady, as those scenes were campy and lighter than the tone of the 2009 film wanted to be.

Justin does not suffer from a heroin addiction, where in the original Junior was a heroin addict controlled by Krug who fed the addiction.

Mari and Phyllis went to see a rock concert in the original film. Here, Mari just wanted to say hello to Paige, whom she hadn't seen in a while.

The Collingwood's initially thought Phyllis was a bad influence on Mari. In the 2009 film, they do not as explicitly state a problem with Paige, although she is depicted as the less sensible of the two.

To put it simply, the unrated version that has been released on Blu-ray/DVD, runs approximately 4 minutes longer than the theatrical version. And yes, there are some scenes, that can be labeled "unrated", especially the rape sequence has been prolonged but most of the changes are story extensions that are more or less useful for the movie.