Thursday, March 09, 2006
Last House on the Left (1972)
Stars: Sandra Cassell, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J Lincoln
Director: Wes Craven
If George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead started exploitation horror in 1968, then Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left was the template it would follow for much of the 1970s. The key difference between the two is that Night still works as a movie; Last House now looks like what it was: a cheap flick populated by porn stars and directed by a filmmaker with precisely no credits to his name.
Its story ripped with embarrassing shamelessness from The Virgin Spring (1960), Last House concerns two teenagers who visit a “bad” town to see one of those godless rock ‘n’ roll bands – apparently in the vein of Black Sabbath (ooh-ah!). Along the way they try to score some marijuana (quaintly referred to as “grass”) and make the mistake of approaching one of several escaped criminals. He lures them back to a crummy apartment where one of the girls is raped. They are then thrown in the boot of a car, driven to an out of the way place, assaulted some more, and ultimately killed.
Unbeknown to the crims, the “out of the way place” is right near one of the murdered girls’ homes – and compounding their error, they convince her parents to let them stay the night. Already freaking out because their daughter is missing, mum and dad find out they’re harbouring their daughter’s killers and inflict some DIY justice.
The Last House on the Left is most famous for its trailer, which suggests film-goers keep telling themselves “it’s only a movie” to avoid fainting. If this was the true uncut version it might be sage advice, but contrary to what it says on the box, it’s not. The full-length version is practically impossible to come by, due to the number of edited prints that were made. Without the extended rape scenes and gore, laughing at the ridiculous dialogue or falling asleep due to the sluggish narrative are both more likely outcomes than fainting. Not as graphic as I Spit On Your Grave and possessing none of the cloying atmosphere that made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre a cult favourite, Last House is not only badly dated, it has been referred to as “the worst movie ever made” – a description that is more literal than ironic.
VERDICT: 1/5 stars
ON THE DVD
DISC QUALITY Sitting through the movie is hard enough without having to squint at this dark, grainy transfer. It’s almost impossible to tell what’s happening in some scenes. Curiously, the clips used in the bonus material do not suffer from these defects, suggesting they come from a different print.
COMMENTARY 1 Writer/director Wes Craven and producer Sean S Cunningham offer a very facetious commentary – neither can seem to believe how cheap and naïve their movie was. Still, it has its funny moments and they punctuate it with some good trivia.
COMMENTARY 2 Three of the film’s “stars” spend an hour and a half either cracking jokes about the movie or bickering with one another. Certainly a unique commentary, if not likely to suit everyone’s taste.
CELLULOID CRIME OF THE CENTURY Retrospective documentary takes an in-depth look at the film’s modest production via contemporary interviews. Informative, but not the most entertaining beast of this ilk.
SCORING LAST HOUSE Interesting piece on how star David Hess also came to provide music for Last House on the Left. Giggle as he tries fruitlessly to find the right note on his guitar.
Director: Wes Craven
If George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead started exploitation horror in 1968, then Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left was the template it would follow for much of the 1970s. The key difference between the two is that Night still works as a movie; Last House now looks like what it was: a cheap flick populated by porn stars and directed by a filmmaker with precisely no credits to his name.
Its story ripped with embarrassing shamelessness from The Virgin Spring (1960), Last House concerns two teenagers who visit a “bad” town to see one of those godless rock ‘n’ roll bands – apparently in the vein of Black Sabbath (ooh-ah!). Along the way they try to score some marijuana (quaintly referred to as “grass”) and make the mistake of approaching one of several escaped criminals. He lures them back to a crummy apartment where one of the girls is raped. They are then thrown in the boot of a car, driven to an out of the way place, assaulted some more, and ultimately killed.
Unbeknown to the crims, the “out of the way place” is right near one of the murdered girls’ homes – and compounding their error, they convince her parents to let them stay the night. Already freaking out because their daughter is missing, mum and dad find out they’re harbouring their daughter’s killers and inflict some DIY justice.
The Last House on the Left is most famous for its trailer, which suggests film-goers keep telling themselves “it’s only a movie” to avoid fainting. If this was the true uncut version it might be sage advice, but contrary to what it says on the box, it’s not. The full-length version is practically impossible to come by, due to the number of edited prints that were made. Without the extended rape scenes and gore, laughing at the ridiculous dialogue or falling asleep due to the sluggish narrative are both more likely outcomes than fainting. Not as graphic as I Spit On Your Grave and possessing none of the cloying atmosphere that made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre a cult favourite, Last House is not only badly dated, it has been referred to as “the worst movie ever made” – a description that is more literal than ironic.
VERDICT: 1/5 stars
ON THE DVD
DISC QUALITY Sitting through the movie is hard enough without having to squint at this dark, grainy transfer. It’s almost impossible to tell what’s happening in some scenes. Curiously, the clips used in the bonus material do not suffer from these defects, suggesting they come from a different print.
COMMENTARY 1 Writer/director Wes Craven and producer Sean S Cunningham offer a very facetious commentary – neither can seem to believe how cheap and naïve their movie was. Still, it has its funny moments and they punctuate it with some good trivia.
COMMENTARY 2 Three of the film’s “stars” spend an hour and a half either cracking jokes about the movie or bickering with one another. Certainly a unique commentary, if not likely to suit everyone’s taste.
CELLULOID CRIME OF THE CENTURY Retrospective documentary takes an in-depth look at the film’s modest production via contemporary interviews. Informative, but not the most entertaining beast of this ilk.
SCORING LAST HOUSE Interesting piece on how star David Hess also came to provide music for Last House on the Left. Giggle as he tries fruitlessly to find the right note on his guitar.
# posted by The Fearless Writer @ 8:48 PM 
