癲狂院 Vixen Owl Cigar..。o○

The Criminals, the Innocent, and the Revenge...


A Repugnant Craven Shocker
"LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT " is one of those movies that if you are a real horror fan, I believe you owe it to yourself to see.
The film was a collaboration of some of the names that would indeed become synonymous with the horror genre during the 1980s.
Directed by Wes Craven, the man responsible for A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, SCREAM, and multiple other horror films that have turned up over the years fashioned a downright disturbing story that took its basis from the Igmar Bergman classic THE VIRGIN SPRING.

But Craven was not the only horror maverick involved in the production of LAST HOUSE.
The film was produced by Sean S. Cunningham, who would later make a further impact in the horror genre by creating the FRIDAY THE 13th franchise, and would also produce various other horror films such as 1986's HOUSE.
Also involved with the production of LAST HOUSE was a young Steve Miner, who would direct two entries in the FRIDAY THE 13th series, volumes two and three, as well as HALLOWEEN H20 and other horror films such as LAKE PLACID and HOUSE.
As you can see, the people who created LAST HOUSE would go on to fame an infamy in the horror genre, and it is for that reason that I chose LAST HOUSE as my topic in the Friday the 13th Horror writeoff.

As I mentioned, LAST HOUSE was adapted from Bergman's VIRGIN SPRING as a comment on just how violent normal individuals could be.
The whole concept of this has been shown in films ever since, nearly becoming a tired cliche of the horror genre.
The slasher genre in particular exploited this idea in nearly every entry, with a seemingly normal woman holding her own against a sadistic killer in the films's final reels.
Craven himself would directly return to the territory explored in LAST HOUSE four years later in THE HILLS HAVE EYES, in which a group of suburbanites find themselves under attack from a group of primitive cannibals.
Thus, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT provided a basis for which horror films would draw on for the next twenty years, basically until the heyday of the slasher film had drawn to its close.

The question ultimately remains why LAST HOUSE had such an effect on the genre, and that is what I will attempt to explore here......

The violent and sleaze content of LAST HOUSE is what really makes this film so harrowing.
Prior to this film's release, films rarely, if ever, explored in gr8 detail realms of sexual perversion prevalent in Craven's film.
Krug, along with partners in crime Junior, Krug's heroin addicted son in the story played by Mark Sheffler; Weasel, played by Fred Lincoln; and Sadie, a woman played by Jeramie Rain, terrorize Mari and Phyllis in the most heinous ways imaginable.
In one scene, Krug demands that Phyllis "p!ss her pants ."
When she at first refuses, Weasel cuts Mari with his switchblade.

After this initial transgression, LAST HOUSE becomes even more depraved and sadistic, leading Krug to demand, in a very authentic feeling scene, for Mari and Phyllis to "make it with each other," and eventually leads to Krug and Weasel brutally killing each of the two girls.
This in itself would present an interesting story twist reminiscent of Hitchcock's PSYCHO in that the main characters we have identified with throughout the film are terminated halfway through.
Following the murders, Krug and his gang seek refuge in Mari's home, which incidentally is near where the car broke down in the first place.
When Mari's parents figure out the identity of their guests, you can probably imagine the outcome.

【Lucy Grantham】 Last House on the Left 【Sandra Cassel】
Gruesome Meditation on the Evil Inherent in All Men

In Last House, two teenage girls sneak out of the suburbs to attend a rock concert in the city.
They need some marihuana and wind up ripped off, kidnaped and raped by a band of low-life sadistic criminals whose ring-leader is called Krug (as in Krueger).
The girls are further humiliated, and then wind up being killed.
The perpetrators just happen to wind up asking one of the teenage girls' parents for assistance.
The parents soon figure out their houseguests are their daughter's killers and they wreak a sadistic revenge on the men who killed their daughter.

Now remember this film was made in 1972 and pre-dates 1974's Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
It was the first film to carry the soon to be over-used and quite famous tag-line that many Hallmark (AIP) films would have -- Remember: To Keep from Fainting, Keep Repeating; It's only a Movie. It's only a Movie.
Films like the gory Mark of the Devil (puke bags were given away at some theatres for this one--shades of William Castle ), and even the awful Don't Look in the Basement would carry the Remember it's only a movie warning on it's posters as well.

This mood isn't played straight throughout most of the film, as scenes are spliced in between the Krug & Co. carnage.
The parents try to find out what went wrong, the cops are unaware that the broken down car in the woods contains the missing daughter, the cops learn about the escape of the killers and get their car stolen, only to attempt to ride a truck with a coup full of chickens.
The driver is played by Ada Washington and she does a "not too shabby " job in that brief role.

These scenes tend to f*ck with the viewer's mind, as we watch the girls exposed to seriously disturbing torture and then get breathing room in scenes that aren't that interesting or involving.. It's like a really bad cable production, and the badly done editing doesn't help either.....

Overall, "Last House On The Left " remains one of the true staples of classic horror cinema.
The style and formula has been duplicated several times over, most notable in Meir Zarchi's 1978 nasty I Spit On Your Grave.
Wes Craven has gone on to become one of the most revered directors working in the horror scene today.
Considering I probably spent more on my Geo Metro than Wes Craven did on this film I think he did an excellent job.
The subject matter is profound and his use of different scenes shows the tendency towards the creative and truly horrifying he would later develop further.
This movie is definitely not for the weak stomach individual or someone who can't handle vivid violence.
If it's as serious and unrelenting, yet as justified and striking as Last House on the Left was, it should prove another gr8 movie.
I recommend this movie for the fact it truly is a perplexing and stunning piece of cinema.