Last House on the Left (1972)
While we think most great movies shouldn’t be remade, we make exceptions for American versions of great foreign films that bring their themes to a larger audience — and hopefully encourage people to watch the originals.
It’s sounds absurd that Last House on the Left, an ugly and punishing exploitation movie, is based on the 1960 Ingmar Bergman Swedish arthouse classic The Virgin Spring — winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film — but it is. And both are effective in their own way.
Bergman’s film is surgically precise, with stellar filmmaking throughout, while Craven’s American version has a frequently butcher-like quality that makes you feel like you’re watching snuff. Guess which one is scarier?
Last House on the Left is the rare remake that improves on the original… by making it worse.
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