Good old Wes Craven. Sure, he may have mellowed out in recent years with 15-rated romps such as Cursed and Red Eye but, as the 2006 remake of The Hill Have Eyes proved, he doesn’t mind letting a promising young terror auteur loose with one of his early grindhouse hack-’em-ups.

In the case of The Hills Have Eyes it was Haute Tension’s Alexandre Aja calling the shots, but with this redux of The Last House On The Left, it’s the infinitely more talented Dennis Iliadis (from 2004’s Hardcore) looking to tackle a sprightly bout of rape and revenge.

Curiously, despite an action-packed opening sequence that instantly throws familiarity to the wind, the central plot remains largely unchanged – and once again we witness a pack of perverts molest and murder, and eventually take shelter in a homestead owned by one of their victim’s parents.

Naturally, there’s hell to pay, although TLHOTL 2009 takes a couple of unexpected plot turns – including swapping the death-by-blow-jobs and chainsaws for a rather more fantastical, but equally sick, showdown involving a microwave oven. Anyone expecting to see a repeat of the sort of down and dingy degradation that highlighted 1972’s original outing will be sorely disappointed. But don’t write it off, gorehounds: though this is a slightly more politically correct take on Craven’s film, it doesn’t mean the one-time video nasty has been totally castrated of carnage.

Yes, the forced lesbianism, disembowelments and (most notoriously) the piss-your-pants set piece of the first flick have disappeared, but there’s still some seriously nasty shock set-ups and a moment of sexual abuse that positively dares you to keep watching.

Moreover, though Craven’s original was very much a movie of its time – shot in grainy 16mm, echoing the Manson murders and the protests against the Vietnam War – Iliadis takes the tale into contemporary times without missing a beat. Consequently, the new TLHOTL has all the style of your average multiplex-safe schlock offering, but underneath the surface there remains a similar commentary about the dark side of humanity and how far bourgeois pacifists will go when pushed to the brink.

It makes for an unnerving, but often cathartic, viewing experience helped no end by a corking cast led by the utterly despicable Garret Dillahunt as main maniac Krug. Taking the reins of the character from B-movie legend David Hess – arguably the greatest cinematic stalker of all time – the fine thespian does a dastardly job and when he gets his explosive come-uppance you’ll be standing on your seat cheering. Mission accomplished.

In an era of lame The Last House On The Left copycats such as Eden Lake and Mum & Dad, this is the real deal.