Passport Cinema: The Last House in the Woods - Page 2

Unfortunately, not everything about The Last House in the Woods is sunshine and lollipops. Though it fits the movie's all-around grungy atmosphere, the low-budget cinematography makes it look a little too cheap and ramshackle for its own good. Gorehounds will be pleased that the red stuff flows like the Rio Grande here, what with all manner of sawed-off limbs and nasty stabbings gracing the screen. Albanesi alternates between grim and tongue-in-cheeck atmospheres for the most part, but it's when things start to wrap up that the party gets a lot less interesting and a lot more depressing. Maybe it's because he focused his efforts away from sending his viewers on a grueling cinematic journey and onto wrapping his story up with some unnecessary message. That's right, this is one of those flicks that tries to justify the motives of its killers, but in this case, I didn't come close to buying what Albanesi was selling. I still give him credit for supplying a heroine who doesn't wait until the last ten minutes to get some gumption, though the boneheaded moves she comes to make are no strangers to the slasher genre.

I'm sorry to see that The Last House in the Woods didn't embrace its grindhouse roots to as much success as the pitch-perfect Inside did. As an all-around film, it never rises above mediocrity (and that's being generous), but in terms of slasher flicks, the slight taste of success is better than none at all.

Article Author: A.J. Hakari

A.J. has been writing reviews online for over ten years. The sites he writes for include ReelTalk Movie Reviews, Classic Movie Guide, Terror Tube, and his own recently-inaugurated website, Passport Cinema.

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