The rights to The Last House on the Left were picked up by Rogue Pictures in 2006, with the remake being the first film produced by Wes Craven’s newly formed studio Midnight Pictures. The director and writer of the original, Craven wanted to see what the movie could look like with a bigger budget.

Eli Roth was the original choice to direct, but Quentin Tarantino gave him the advice to turn it down. Dennis Iliadis was the final choice based on his movie Hardcore.

Writer Adam Alleca moved the story to the West Coast, but his third act had supernatural elements that no one liked. The final version of the story was polished by Carl Ellsworth.

This had to be a pressure-filled movie for everyone. Garret Dillahunt, as Krug, had a lot to live up to. Everyone did, you know?

The movie starts with Emma (Monica Potter) and John Collingwood (Tony Goldwyn) and their daughter Mari (Sara Paxton) on vacation at their lake house. Mari borrows the family car to go see a friend in town, Paige (Martha MacIsaac), and then smoke weed with someone they just met, Justin (Spencer Treat Clark). Justin’s family — Krug, Francis (Aaron Paul) and Sadie (Riki Lindhorne) soon show up and things quickly get brutal. After killing Paige and nearly murdering Mari — yes, this is a spoiler but this tale has been around forever — the family ends up coincidentally at the home of Mari’s parents.

The reviews for this movie seemed to be about how it was in comparison to the first version instead of how good this movie is. It’s quiet in so many ways, even if it goes for the gut later. This isn’t my favorite type of movie, but this is still a strong effort.

The Arrow 4K ultra UHD blu ray of this movie comes with the theatrical and unrated version of the movie, along with a collector’s book, a new filmed introduction by director Dennis Iliadis, new audio commentary by David Flint and Adrian Smith, new interviews with Sara Paxton, Garret Dillahunt, Carl Ellsworth and Jonathan Craven, a trailer and deleted scenes. You can get it from MVD.