the last house on the left Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The Last House on the Left
A remake of Wes Craven's 1972 film, starring Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Sara Paxton, and Garret Dillahunt, the film is a harrowing look into how a family reacts to the crimes played out on their daughter. In his review, William Goss said: "for those who willingly subject themselves to the harsher experiences that storytelling has to offer, this version is a capably, confidently, and chillingly effective opportunity to place ourselves in the worst possible shoes for a length of time." Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Hannah Montana: The Movie
Miley Cyrus' Disney icon finally made her way to the big screen. In his review, Nick Schager said: "and the nicest thing one can say about the film is that at least it's not The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: The Movie." I highly doubt anyone who wants the film will be reading this, so I'll just skip to: Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Julia
Tilda Swinton stars as a 40-year-old alcoholic who makes a last effort at full-on sobriety. In his review, Peter Martin said: "To say that Tilda Swinton gives a riveting performance as Julia is almost to damn her with faint praise. It's her character's story, of course, so we expect that she'll dominate the screen time, but even with all that exposure, there's never a hint of artifice or self-conscious primping to make herself look better as an actress." Buy it.

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Also out: Wyvern, The Wedding Bros., Bridge to Nowhere, The Final Destination Collection

It's a rule that big blockbusters with big openings take big hits their second weekend, but Watchmen's 67% drop is more akin to notoriously frontloaded horror films than to tentpole releases. Look for $120 million in North America at the end of the day, which is shy of the $150 million production budget -- though the foreign number, already up to $50 million, should help. Elisabeth has more on the implications of this here.

Race to Witch Mountain won the weekend with $25 million, which is strong but not outstanding: didn't everyone think that the Rock would be a huge superstar draw by now? He didn't open this film; Witch Mountain's success is due to Disney's shrewd (and accurate) marketing of it as breezy family sci-fi -- and the only new family offering since Coraline.

The Last House on the Left opened to $14.6 million and third place, which won't put it in the horror remake pantheon, but probably makes Universal happy -- the film was cheap, and it opened on under 2500 screens (chump change these days). The goofy sex comedy Miss March opened to a meager $2.4 million, squeaking into the top 10. And in its seventh weekend of release, the Liam Neeson actioner Taken continues to groove along, dropping under 10% and passing $125 million.

The full top 10 after the jump.

As a culture, we tend to recycle our stories, and no, not always out of laziness or a need for one big opening weekend (though that plays an increasing part). No, the old and the familiar play out time and time again because their conflicts and themes resonate across generations, and because the scenario at hand might lend itself to more apt commentary as time passes and people change. In terms of genre, rarely does this seem more common than with tragedies, and in turn, horror films in particular have a habit of bringing the boogeymen back to haunt us. That's the reason zombies won't stay dead. That's the reason body snatchers insist on invading. And that might be the reason why a fourth incarnation of The Last House on the Left is now willing -- and able -- to force itself upon our collective conscience.

Who watches the Watchmen? Quite a few people apparently. The R-rated super hero epic was last week's only new release, beating out its nearest contender by about $47 million. Here's the top five:
1. Watchmen: $55.2 million
2. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail: $8.5 million
3. Taken: $7.3 million
4. Slumdog Millionaire: $6.8 million
5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $4.1 million

Three new releases this week:

The Last House on the Left
What's It All About: Remake of Wes Craven's disturbing sleaze-fest from 1972 which borrowed its plot from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring. Two young women are brutally assaulted by a prison escapee and his gang. The criminals take refuge in what turns out to be the home of one of their victims and find themselves on the receiving end of her parents' revenge.
Why It Might Do Well: 2008's home invasion horror flick The Strangers struck me as very similar to Craven's original Last House, so there may be a market for this kind of movie.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The original was a dark and disturbing product of its time. How much will the story have to be de-fanged for a major release today?
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $17 million

It's been nearly three four decades since Wes Craven made his mark on the horror scene with The Last House on the Left, and he's recently grown more adept at merely producing remakes of his own work, such as 2006's take on The Hills Have Eyes -- which I found to be a perfectly nasty piece of work (yes, that's a compliment).

Well, at the risk of sounding completely and utterly immoral, I find myself similarly intrigued by this new trailer (watch below or over on Apple) for this new take on Last House, in which Sara Paxton gets seriously bullied by some local punks, who in turn unwittingly seek refuge with understandably vengeful parents Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn. Scott, our resident horror-hound whose assessment of the original I happen to agree with (overrated, though not without merit), had this much to say after watching the trailer: "Uhh, motel room? She survives? Microwave? Eep. Nice to see Tony Goldwyn getting work, though."

Okay, I'll give him the somewhat silly microwave bit, but other than that, I think this looks like an interesting enough revenge thriller that doesn't totally upend the original. And kudos to Rogue Pictures or whoever they have handle their trailers -- the ones for this, The Strangers, and The Unborn work pretty well, even when the final films*cough*Unborn*cough*don't.

Whoa-whoa-oh, sweet trailer of mine...

When I write up these casting bites, I can't help but wonder who might be tomorrow's next star... Maybe it will be one of these people, all courtesy of Variety:

• Garret Dillahunt seems to be on fire these days. He popped up with solid roles in two of last year's best films -- No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Topping that off, he's been the uber-creepy machine after John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Continuing his good actor fortune, he's going to star in the remake of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left as Krug, the convict who tortures an innocent family. Production begins on that remake next month, in South Africa of all places.
  
• Really, it would be hard to improve on your first feature if its Mexican Werewolf in Texas, but Sara Erikson continues to try. After a lot of brief parts in shows from Boston Legal to Hannah Montana, the actress has nabbed a lead role in Soul Men, the Bernie Mac/Samuel L. Jackson music movie. She will play someone named Chastity, but there's no word on her role. Is she a singer? A hanger-on? A lover? Or, is she just chaste?
• Last, but certainly not least, Mousa Kraish, is continuing to build up his resume. He just wrapped You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and has had gigs in Munich, King of California, and Superbad. Now, he's signed on for the role of Yusef in 20th Century Fox's remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. The remake of the sci-fi flick about alien visitors and giant robots already stars Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly.

In a new interview at comingsoon.net, legendary horror filmmaker Wes Craven discusses The Hills Have Eyes II, which is a sequel to last year's remake of The Hills Have Eyes, but not a remake of Craven's The Hills Have Eyes II, which was a sequel to Craven's The Hills Have Eyes. which was an update of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring and was recently remade without credit to Craven as Chaos. See? Who says there's no original ideas in Hollywood? Craven wrote the new Hills Have Eyes II (They still have eyes!) with his son Jonathan and it releases Friday. From the interview, it also looks like we can expect yet another remake of one of his films, this time of his debut The Last House On The Left, which itself was an update of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring and was recently remade without credit to Craven as Chaos. We first heard rumblings of this way back in August, when it was eyeing an early 2007 start date.

I can still recall watching Last House as a kid, intrigued by Roger Ebert's positive review. That was the day I lost my innocence. I won't be watching it again, and I doubt I'd try to stomach a sure-to-be more extreme remake, but the plot was basically: "Teenage girls get raped, tortured and killed. Parents strike back with excessive force." The original was shot for $90,000 and funded by Boston theater owners, who wanted cheap flicks to round out double features. This remake will likely cost a bit more. In the article, Craven also mentions the rumored remakes of his People Under the Stairs and Shocker (a movie it doesn't seem humanly possible to make any worse, so more power to them). He doesn't confirm them, but he certainly doesn't rule them out either. Craven actually says in the article: "I think the biggest danger is that people just think that any kind of horror film they make will make money or that they don't have to bring the highest standards to it, which sometimes can happen." It sure can, Wes. It sure can.

It's starting to seem like Craven is going to have carbon copies of his entire filmography. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but...isn't this just getting kind of sad?