A family known as the Collingwood's go on a vacation in a resort by a lake in the woods as their daughter named Mari (Sarah Paxton) can practise her swimming for the olympics and decides to hang out at the corner store with her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac) afterwards.
A shy quiet type of teenager named Justin (Spencer Treat Clark) enters the store to buy some groceries as Paige seems to have an eye for him and flirts with him. He tells her where they an get some good weed so they all go to his Motel as his father Krug (Garrett Dillahunt), girlfriend Sadie (Riki Lindhome) and uncle Francis (Aaron Paul) are out for a while and not expected to be back so they hang out getting high and goofing around but suddenly his family has returned early and are not happy. They are also criminals the police are looking for whom are vicious serial killers and decide to kidnap both Mari and Paige taking them to the wooded area that's near Mari's resort but tries to distract them to escape and end up totalling their vehicle being hit by a tree.
From there they beat and molest the girls and Paige tries to get away only to be caught and slowly stabbed to death and later on Krug brutally rapes Mari.
Mari somehow tries to escape by swmming in the lake only to be shot as they think they killed her and goes to the resort not knowing they are her parents and make out to be wanderers looking for a phone to get transportation and reside there after the power goes out due to a thunderstorm.
Justin spots Mari's picture on a refrigerator door and trips out and later on Mari weakly swims to shore and landing on the back porch of the resort in which the parents are devastated by this incident but her father John (Gordon Currie) is a family doctor so he just saves her life and realises that not only was she shot but raped too.
They also discover that the people residing at their resort were responsible for this and don't know what to do as they have no vehicle and can't find the keys to their boat in order to take Mari to the hospital so they turn the tables on these people with a little help from Justin who is strongly against what his family did to their daughter.
A nice creepy beginning involving Krug with a victim being tortured to death with nice dark camera shots.
There's also many nice takes on Mari Collingwood swimming in a pool practising her strokes.
There's also good camera shot on her running in the forest and then taking off her clothes to jump in a lake to practise her swimming.
We have a nice flirtatious moment with Paige in a corner store towards Justin when he asks for cigarette's and begs to cut him some slack when she acts for some I.D.
A good moment with Mari in her vehicle while Paige tells her she'll be back in a sec with Justin going into their hotel room as it totally leaves you a bone chill thinking she won't come out. We do have a good silent moment with Mari waiting in her vehicle and checking her cell phone along with a good jumping moment on a motel maid tapping on her vehicle window with her jumping startled.
There's a nice silent moment wih Mari, Justin and Paige in a motel room smoking up and horsing around in which you know the silence will break any moment with that boy's demented family coming in and yet they do as Justin looks stunned and a good angered expression on Krug's face towards him along with a good blow in the stomach.
There are nice reactions between Mari and Paige looking uncomfortable and trying to get out with Sadie taking off Mari's sweater and acting sleazy around her.
There's a great moment with Paige trying to run into a bathroom and escape from a window screaming for her life along with Francis knocking her out.
There's good shots on most of the people in a vehicle doing some nasty stuff to both Mari and Paige along with Mari herself burning the side of Sadie's head with a cigarette lighter installed in the vehicle and everyone going wild with good suspenseful shots on the vehicle swerving and hitting a tree with some brutal results on some of the people in the car.
Good shots most of them crawling out of the vehicle along with both Mari and Paige being kicked and hit which looked disturbing enough that you'd feel like shooting these maniacs since it looked well done.
We have a good camera shaking around in the forest along with Paige trying to run away in the forest wondering if she will make it and screaming intensely with good shots on her trying to hide too as it keeps you in your seat hoping that she will survive.
There's a good and intense moment with Krug slowly stabbing Paige to death with her screaming in pain and Mari crying while watching. Many good camera shots on the stabbing.
There's another disturbing moment with Krug stripping Mari down and raping her with a good shot looking sideways while doing this which was the most disturbing moments of all in the story.
A nice shot on Mari slowly picking up a rock and whacking it on Krug's head and then running away.
Lots of good camera shots on Mari diving into a lake and swimming for her life with Krug shooting his gun at her with nice shots on the bullets hitting the water and just missing her with a perfect shot on her being hit and slowly floating up with her eyes slowly closing.
There's good pleasant moments with both John and Emma greeting these maniacs pretending to be normal people looking for help for transportation.
There's a perfect shot on Mari struggling to swim to shore and towards the house in the dark.
A good moment with Emma telling John after she tells him who the people residing really is with nice crying emotions as well as both of them trying to figure something out along with good shots on Mari trying to breathe.
There's a good discussion between Francis with him behaving a little sleazy towards Emma who acts nervous trying to not reveal anything.
There's a perfect shot on Mari lying on the sofa with terrififed expressions towards Francis with a good battle scene that involved both John and Emma using house appliances on him and pushing his head in a sink with water and a disposer. This was done with great energy and nice graphic shots.
We also have a good shot on John and Emma slowly entering a bedroom with a nice shot on Justin sitting next to a bed and handing them a gun with both Krug and Sadie sleeping as we watch carefully while he is loading the gun and about to shoot them while we see if he will succeed without waking them up.
Lots of good suspenseful shots with both Sadie and Krug trying to get away.
There's many good moment between Krug and John with their struggling battles and Krug nearly killing him which was well done and watchable too.
Bottom line is that remakes keep improving more and more and quite frankly I enjoyed this one better than the original flick and it was alot darker but not as disturbing as the first one but at the same time doesn't offer the goofy comedy like it did in the original one with the sherrif and the dipstick deputy. Plus this film became mainstream in which the original never was.
Lots of terrific scenery on the great outdoors too unlike the orignal flick with good performances too and fast paced action.
Of course Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham came on board to produce the film since they became household names for films after creating the original and was glad they did. Plus, the film had a different twist to it and will see what I mean. If you enjoyed the original one you'll love this one for sure as it totally keeps you in suspense on what's going to happen next.
Also the final ending is a total classic unless some of you have strong stomach's but I don't think any of you folks do if you visit here.
The acting was in great shape as Tony Goldwyn (John Collingwood) does well with his serious attitude by playing a doctor and family man showing a niceness to his character too making him a believeable type. He does well quarter way through by trying to keep quiet while setting the gun to try and shoot two people.
Monica Potter (Emma Collingwood) shows a good motherly and caring attitude too as well as having nice crying and rense emotions to the shocking news of what happened to her daughter and the killers residing in their house. Yes she brings her part to life just as well.
Sarah Paxton (Mari Collingwood) however, didn't do much for me but does well by crying on set and shows nice skills on her swimming too. She does well crying in pain while being raped which was the most disturbing performances coming from her.
Garrett Dillahunt (Krug) does his job well as a typical bastard killer and rapist but is not as creepy like David Hess was as the role of Krug but he still shows nice aggressiveness to his part nonetheless and stands out well.
Spencer Treat Clark (Justin) shows a nice laid back weed smoker but yet a good and charming boy next door type of attitude to his part in the film unlike the role portrayed by the original actor who was a messed up type and found this guy to be a better actor too. We have a great reaction on him after spotting a pic of Mari on the fridge and acting sick running into the bathroom.
Aaron Paul (Francis) does well as the skany bastard in the film who shows nice menacing actions and bringing his part across very smoothly and clearly.
Riki Lindhome (Sadie) shows great beauty but looking almost gothic like too (Not exactly gothic but close) and knew how to act like a vicious and evil brat. However, she doesn't have the original actress' nasty charm in the original yet I can tell she's a better actress so hats off to her.
And last but not least I will always remember Martha MacIsaac's (Paige) part in the film having a bubbly and flirtatious charm to her part acting full of life and knowing how to change that once she is kidnapped and terrorised showing terrific intensity and sobbing emotions like she's a whole different person proving herself to be a versatile actress.
Riki Lindhome takes off her top in a motel room to change into another shirt with her breasts exposed.
Sarah Paxton's butt is fully exposed during a rape sequence in the forest.
Lindhome is bare breasted again in bed as well as trying to get away from the murderous parents topless.
Many bloody stabbings.
The odd bloody gunshot.
A broken looking nose being stitched up.
The back side of a hammer stabbed in a guys head along with his hand devoured in a garbage disposer.
A woman's eye is shot.
A man's head explodes in a microwave.
One of the best composing music by John Murphy I've heard in a long time. He shows some nice peaceful classical violin playing during the smooth moments like with the swimming pool scene as well as more adventureous sound of it with echoey playing playing and the odd guitar riffs while the character Mari is running down the forest and then jumping in a lake practising her strokes.
There's plenty of dark sounds too for the terror and madness with the maniac's too.
John Collingwood: Are we there yet?
Mari Collingwood: We are making the turn now.
John Collingwood: It's the last house on the left if case you forgot.
Mari Collingwood: It's the only house for miles, Dad.
Krug: These are two lovely girls, Justin.
Paige: Okay, so can we please just go now?
Krug: I'm sorry ladies. We just can't risk it.
Krug: Do You Want to hear what I did to your daughter?
Krug: Do you want to know how tight your little homecoming queen was?
John Collingwood: No... I want to hear you beg for your life
John Collingwood: We are going to get her to a hospital. Okay, we are going to do this.
Emma Collingwood: They're still here. What if they come over here?
John Collingwood: I know. We run. Which means we gotta be ready for anything. We have to be ready to do anything. Do you hear me?
Emma Collingwood: We don't have a car. I mean the nearest house is six miles from here. How are we...?
John Collingwood: By land. Six miles by land. Okay, we are going to do this. We'll get through it. We are going to do it.
Krug: What is this? I can't move.
John Collingwood: You're paralyzed from the neck down. I didnt have any rope or duct tape. |
