Chaos (2005)

Hmm, that poster looks awfuly simular to Craven's ''Last House on the Left''. And there's absolutely no coincidence involved. David Defalco's ''Chaos'' can be seen as an unofficial remake for Craven's disturbing rape & revenge classic.

It starts off with a violent act by 3 of the bad guys. Then we're introduced to two girls while they're discussing their plans for the rave party later on that day. Bladiebla we meet the parrents and after some typical 'i'm worried so be home soon and call me' talk, it's time to hit the parteehhhh! Since young folks can't have fun without taking drugs, they approach this guy and ask him for some 'E'(cstasy). Coincidentaly; he has some! But not on him, nooo...they have to come with him to some cabin further into the woods to get some at his 'friends'. So why not be ignorant and follow the fat drug-selling bastard deeper into the woods, great plan.

And we all know how this is gonna unfold. It follows the exact same path as Craven did (well, he kinda took it from some Bergman film) so there will be no suprises whatsoever. Thank god i wasn't looking for that. I just wanted to see some nicely directed and brutal stuff. And that's exactly what you get from Defalco's work. It's nowhere as gritty and filthy as... you know what movie, but it makes up for it by extending the level of torture. I don't think everyone will appreciate that aspect in particular, but that's not any of my business right now.

It has to be believable, and although it's a little blown up from time to time, it manages to grab you by the balls (and maybe stab a knive in them) and make you believe it. It has some fine acting, great gore and effective cinematography. What i missed though, was an impressive soundtrack. It's one of the things that make this 'remake' way inferior to Craven's masterpiece. It's also very predictable and that takes off some of the tension. It seems that i have enough to complain about, yet i really enjoyed it.

Kevin Gage did an amazing job being the leader (named 'chaos') and Sage Stallone (yes, the son of...) wasn't too bad either. The two women in distress were genuinly good screamers. It's never an easy roll to play, i've seen plenty of rape scenes gone bad by numb acting. But this was convincing, so my compliments to the cast. I just didn't like the black mom, she's way to neurotic and just annoyingly stupid. Thank god for the ending. Which you can pretty much spell out if you've seen....

Quick conclusion: it has enough things going for it, yet it's always inferior to it's source. WAY better than the smooth 2009 remake (oh god, that was awful). A must watch if you're into these rape & revenge flicks, honestly.

Score: 82/100