Last House On The Left on DVD (1972)

Challenging Horror Cinema

McClennan from St Helens , 08/11/2005

Made two years before Texas Chainsaw Massacre Wes Craven's debut film is inventive, funny, gruesome and has real elements of horror mixed with some great b-movie acting. Two girls go the city and run into some of the sleaziest and depraved characters ever seen outside of The Sin Bin. The film switches from a funny parody to scenes of genuine terror, making you feel incredibly uncomfortable watching it at times. If you like horror and can cope with the more deliberately shocking images this is a good watch, constantly playing with what you'e thinking and asking you where you want to draw the line. Unfortunately the film loses it a bit towards the end and it's not really a film with a tight plot, however anyone who is a fan of horror films should watch this.

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Last House on the Left

SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 15/08/2005

Wes Craven's first film was victim of one of the longest bans in BBFC history, 31 years, and the uncut version remains unpassable in this country. Last House On The Left is revered and reviled in almost equal measure by genre fans, many claming it as Craven's masterwork, others denigrating it as the sickest example of the slasher genre. I didn't really see that it fit either of these descriptions. Craven has said that his main goal in making Last House was to show the true brutality, and difficulty, of murder and in this he succeeds unequivocally. The slaying of Mari and Phyllis (Cassel and Grantham respectively) is prolonged, brutal, and hard to sit through and is all the more powerful for it. The unobtrusive camerawork takes on an almost documentary realism in these scenes and this gives a deeply uncomfortable sensation of voyeurism to the whole proceedings. The gore, unlike in many films that reached the DPP list, is not excessive but what there is is very realistic and this only adds to the disturbing quality of the the film which is surely the reason it remains so notorious. The problem with the film comes when Craven tries to cut through this atmosphere. The parallel story concerning two bumbling cops (Marshall Anker and Martin Kove) not only defuses the tension but shows Craven's weakness as a writer. These sequences are woefully unfunny, a particular low point being their attempt to hitch a lift on a truck full of chickens. Craven also shows his inexperience in the dialogue between Mari and her parents 'Tits, what's this tits business?' is perhaps one of the worst lines yet committed to film. Where the film is helped to overcome these problems is in the performances Lucy Grantham and Sandra Cassel are good as Phyllis and Mari and simply taking on these roles was very brave. Cassel is the stand out, though this may be down to the fact she was often frightened for real rather than any great acting talent. The villains are also compelling; David Hess gives a menacing performance as the utterly loathsome Krug and comes across as convincingly unhinged. Fred Lincoln makes Weasel twisted and frequently funny, perhaps the scariest thing about the character is how quickly he goes from charming and funny to dangerous. Weasel's real name is Fred Pudowski. Years later Craven would revisit these two characters and combine them as Freddy Kruger. Jeramie Rain (later the wife of Richard Dreyfuss) hates the film, it's hard to see why, she is perfectly good in it and seems to have fun with the role of Sadie. Marc Sheffler has easily the most complex character but lacks the talent to pull it off, his arguments against Krug always seem half hearted and dictated by the script rather than any character trait. The ending of the film certainly has some interesting questions to ask about violence and whether it can be justified but it does descend into silliness with the booby traps (something Craven remains enamoured with) and, in particular, Weasel's death. Last House On The Left is certainly important in the history of horror and the murders in the middle of the film are almost unmatched for sheer brutal realism. I don't see why the film should not pass uncut, Last House shows murder as a horrible, messy act and far from glorifying it, wreaks revenge on the killers. For the camera work, the intent and execution of the killings and the performances the film deserves praise and a wider audience than has yet been possible in Britain but this is still a deeply flawed film. The 'comedy', the script and the horrendous caterwauling of David Hess on the soundtrack (music, rather than dialogue) don't mesh with the mood of the film and work to its disadvantage. In the end though Last House On The Left is a film any serious horror fan ought to see.

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AVOID

add from EXETER [Highly rated reviewer] , 08/03/2007

With the exception of A Nightmare on Elm Street and to a lesser extent The People under the Stairs; I consider Wes Craven to be one of the most overrated directors in cinema today, so it’s appropriate I guess that his career began with this drivel. The bad acting, script and dated score I was prepared for but I took for granted that this notorious film would also create some tension and suspense with a scare or two. This is most shocking thing about it; its devoid of all those things. Only for a few moments in the films middle section where Mari and Phyllis are in the woods with their captors does the film feel slightly unsettling, yet even these scenes are watered down and interrupted by muddled editing and the fact that most of the violence occurs off screen. The inclusion of some slapstick ‘comedy’ scenes involving the two cops don’t work on any level and just remove you even further from whats going on. By the films final third it had a chance to redeem itself. With the perpetrators in the family home with Mari s parents seeking revenge there should have been an exciting conclusion. Yet what we re given is a laughably lame and unimaginative fight scene and its sudden end (which actually came as a relief). Some like relate this film to world events at the time and how depraved acts of humanity had never been portrayed on screen like this before, yet everything is so poorly executed and in such a amateurish fashion it loses any potential to be remotely powerful. It was poorly received at the time of its release yet in the time since this crap is somehow now considered art. If a truly unsettling film is what you seek watch a Gaspar Noe film, whatever, just dont watch this!

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Believe me when I tell you this...

Sir Janus from Tyne & Wear, England , 16/02/2007

Curiosity took the better of me when I rented this former 'video nasty' which was banned for several years after release. Not particularly shocking by today's standards but also a pretty amateur affair. Acting was really cr@p, emphasised by the fact that one of the main characters was played by a porn star (say no more). Strangely enough, the other main bad guy (David Hess) was the composer of the bizarrely matched soundtrack. Anyway, I guess you have to watch these early gems if you want to understand how this genre really started, but I'm glad Wes Craven quickly moved onto bigger and better things. Keep this in your back-up list but don't be surprised if you don't like it.

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Last House on the Left

SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 15/08/2005

Wes Craven's first film was victim of one of the longest bans in BBFC history, 31 years, and the uncut version remains unpassable in this country. Last House On The Left is revered and reviled in almost equal measure by genre fans, many claming it as Craven's masterwork, others denigrating it as the sickest example of the slasher genre. I didn't really see that it fit either of these descriptions. Craven has said that his main goal in making Last House was to show the true brutality, and difficulty, of murder and in this he succeeds unequivocally. The slaying of Mari and Phyllis (Cassel and Grantham respectively) is prolonged, brutal, and hard to sit through and is all the more powerful for it. The unobtrusive camerawork takes on an almost documentary realism in these scenes and this gives a deeply uncomfortable sensation of voyeurism to the whole proceedings. The gore, unlike in many films that reached the DPP list, is not excessive but what there is is very realistic and this only adds to the disturbing quality of the the film which is surely the reason it remains so notorious. The problem with the film comes when Craven tries to cut through this atmosphere. The parallel story concerning two bumbling cops (Marshall Anker and Martin Kove) not only defuses the tension but shows Craven's weakness as a writer. These sequences are woefully unfunny, a particular low point being their attempt to hitch a lift on a truck full of chickens. Craven also shows his inexperience in the dialogue between Mari and her parents 'Tits, what's this tits business?' is perhaps one of the worst lines yet committed to film. Where the film is helped to overcome these problems is in the performances Lucy Grantham and Sandra Cassel are good as Phyllis and Mari and simply taking on these roles was very brave. Cassel is the stand out, though this may be down to the fact she was often frightened for real rather than any great acting talent. The villains are also compelling; David Hess gives a menacing performance as the utterly loathsome Krug and comes across as convincingly unhinged. Fred Lincoln makes Weasel twisted and frequently funny, perhaps the scariest thing about the character is how quickly he goes from charming and funny to dangerous. Weasel's real name is Fred Pudowski. Years later Craven would revisit these two characters and combine them as Freddy Kruger. Jeramie Rain (later the wife of Richard Dreyfuss) hates the film, it's hard to see why, she is perfectly good in it and seems to have fun with the role of Sadie. Marc Sheffler has easily the most complex character but lacks the talent to pull it off, his arguments against Krug always seem half hearted and dictated by the script rather than any character trait. The ending of the film certainly has some interesting questions to ask about violence and whether it can be justified but it does descend into silliness with the booby traps (something Craven remains enamoured with) and, in particular, Weasel's death. Last House On The Left is certainly important in the history of horror and the murders in the middle of the film are almost unmatched for sheer brutal realism. I don't see why the film should not pass uncut, Last House shows murder as a horrible, messy act and far from glorifying it, wreaks revenge on the killers. For the camera work, the intent and execution of the killings and the performances the film deserves praise and a wider audience than has yet been possible in Britain but this is still a deeply flawed film. The 'comedy', the script and the horrendous caterwauling of David Hess on the soundtrack (music, rather than dialogue) don't mesh with the mood of the film and work to its disadvantage. In the end though Last House On The Left is a film any serious horror fan ought to see.

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Not a bad horror film

leedsfan from Suffolk , 08/11/2003

In it’s time this film would have been good, but unfortunately by today’s horror standard it’s pretty weak.

To really appreciate this film you would have to watch the full uncut version as all the violence has been edited out, this film is more of a shocker than a horror film.

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