Seeing as how The Last House on the Left (originally released in 1972) was Wes Craven's first film, its many faults are excusable. There's no real character development, the storyline is full of holes, and most of the acting is just awful.

The story itself is totally twisted and exciting, though. A group of completely psychotic criminals escape from prison and wind up in a small town where they befriend, molest, and ultimately kill two young women. On their way out of town, in the middle of nowhere, their car breaks down, forcing them to take shelter at the nearest house—a house that just happens to belong to the parents of one of the girls they just killed.

After a few clues tip Mom and Pops off to what has happened, they exact vengeance against their daughters' killers. The best part about the original, despite all its flaws, is the happy-go-lucky early-'70s pop music that plays throughout—the dichotomy it creates is freakish.

In this age of remake overload, The Last House on the Left is one film that deserves another chance to be as terrifying and exciting as it should've been the first time around. Thankfully, in the 2009 version, most of the problems in the original are corrected.

The rape scene is absolutely brutal (the similar scene in the original was more awkward than terrifying), and now, unlike before, the movie really is scary. In the original, when the father was booby-trapping the house so the killers couldn't escape, he sprayed shaving cream all over the hallway floor. Because that's what you do when a man rapes and kills your daughter—you make him fall on his butt. But this time, the attack scenes involve garbage disposals, boobies, and, yes, microwaves. They're a little (okay, a lot) over the top, but much more entertaining than the blink-and-you'll-miss-it attacks in the first attempt.

The only thing I missed from the original was the fantastically inappropriate '70s music. They never should've fucked with the soundtrack.