The Last House on the Left
The newest version is a remake of the one from back in 1972. Even back then, it broke ground and shocked viewers. Today’s version is no different.
It’s the story of a young girl who’s raped and left for dead. The people who did it, show up at the last house on the left to shelter from the weather. They have no idea at first, that the house belongs to the parents of the girl they left for dead and before the night is through, they find out just how far a father will go to avenge his daughter. And he does it in ways that will give the viewers nightmares for weeks to come. (To this day, I cringe whenever I use my garbage disposal)
I think as parents we all have a little bit of that evil inside us. I know I would do exactly the same or maybe even a little worse if a man did that to my daughter.
But the point of the post I suppose is the not the whole good and evil inside us aspect, but movie ratings.
I know, it seems like a huge jump in my thought process, but the other morning, I had the TV on, mostly for noise and the movie Jumping Jack Flash came on. Remember it?
I love that movie and hadn’t seen it in years. What surprised me, was it’s rated R.
By today’s standards, it would be a stratch for it to get a PG 13 rating, much less an R. Movies have to be pretty violent and hard core to get an R rating today. So what does that mean for movies in another ten years?
It seems producers and writers continually push the boundaries and when we become amune, they push them again. We went from Halloween and Friday the 13th, which back then was hard core but today seems almost lame, to toture and mutalation movies like The Last House on the Left and Saw. And of course we can’t forget the movies like The Hills Have Eyes and the latest upcoming virus flick, The Crazies, which REALLY push the limits and border on grotesque.
Horror movies today are more about shock and awe than fear and suspense. We used to leave the movie a little scared. It got your adrenaline pumping and your heart racing, but in a good way. Today, we just leave the theater grosed out or dumbstruck and disturbed. (which was my case with the very disturbing 30 minute rape scene in The Last House on the Left.)
I often wonder, where do we go next? What’s after torture and rape? What else is there? I shutter to imagine…:(
{{Hugs}}
Trista
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February 26th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Think I will have to watch Last House on the Left. Law Abiding Citizen is like that. His takes his revenge on the men who murdered and raped his wife and little girl. Then he goes after the people in the justice system who cut a deal that let the one who actually did it spend only a few years in jail while the other got death row.
I have five year old little girls and cried when I saw what was going to happen to the little girl in the movie. It scares the hell out of me thinking of anything like that ever happening to my babies.
As to movies of today, they are more gruesome, but they aren’t the slasher flicks of my childhood. I loved Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, etc. when I was younger, now I watch them and I don’t find them all that scary. Movies like Saw don’t just rely on the shock factor and they don’t involve characters that never seem to be able to die. If you want to see a gruesome and disturbing movie watch Hostel.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I saw Hostel, couldn’t finish it…lol. My son told me about Law Abiding Citizen. I have an 8 year old daughter and just can’t bring myself to watch it. I’m like you and it terrifies me to think of something like that happening to her. I think once I took care of the people who did it, I’d have to be committed.