The Last House on the Left
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| The Last House on the Left | |
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 The Last House on the Left DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Wes Craven |
| Produced by | Sean S. Cunningham |
| Written by | Wes Craven |
| Starring | Sandra Cassel, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, Marc Sheffler, Gaylord St. James, Cynthia Carr |
| Music by | David Hess, Steve Chapin |
| Distributed by | Hallmark Releasing Corp. |
| Release date(s) | August 30, 1972 |
| Running time | 91 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $87,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.
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[edit] Plot
- Tagline: To avoid fainting, keep repeating "It's only a movie...It's only a movie..."
The story begins at the Collingwood home, located on the outskirts of a quiet suburban town. Teenager Mari Collingwood's parents have allowed her to celebrate her birthday by going to New York to see a rock concert with her friend Phyllis. While attempting to purchase marijuana to properly commemorate the occasion, the girls are kidnapped by Krug (played by David Hess), a dangerous escaped felon, and his criminal associates. The gang takes the two victims into the countryside and subjects them to rape. humiliating torture and murder. After leaving the girls dead, and finding themselves stranded on a lonely country road, the villains seek shelter with a hospitable couple, who are none other than the parents of the violated Mari. The gang attempt to pass themselves off as business travelers and all is well, until the increasingly suspicious parents discover the truth about their guests and set out to exact their revenge, in one case when the mother bites off the penis of one of the villains.
[edit] History
The film started life under the working title Night Of Vengeance and the script contained much more extreme sexual violence than what reached the film. It was also known as Sex Crime Of The Century and Krug & Co. (some prints still exist with this as its title) before settling on Last House On The Left.
The story of The Last House on the Left closely follows that of Ingmar Bergman's classic film The Virgin Spring (1960), an Oscar winner for best foreign language film.
The Craven film was controversial for its graphic depiction of violence, and also for the manner in which the villains imposed their psychopathic and sadistic will upon the victims. Craven was highly influenced by news footage from the Vietnam War and wanted to convey that sense of violence he saw in that footage.
The film carried the tagline "It's only a movie" in its advertising. This was to suggest that the events of the film were so terrifying and shocking that the only way to get through was to remind oneself that "It's only a movie."
The film split opinion with critics, unsure whether the film is a bold artistic statement or exploitative trash, or some combination of the two. Audiences, however, flocked to see the film and, along with films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it is credited with bringing a new sense of realistic violence to the modern horror film.
Wes Craven has since directed many popular horror films including The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. Producer Sean S. Cunningham, meanwhile, went on to initiate one of the biggest horror film franchises in the 1980s with Friday the 13th.
In 2005, the film was remade as Chaos, though the makers deny it is connected. However, the film is virtually identical in plot and its website also suggests a connection.
[edit] UK controversy
Although the film has had problems with censorship around the world, how it was dealt with in Britain is extremely notable.
The film was refused a certificate for cinema release by the BBFC in 1974 due to its scenes of sadism and violence. However during the early 1980s home video boom it was released uncut as home video did not fall under their remit at the time. This changed when the "video nasty" scare which started in 1982 led to the Video Recordings Act 1984. This in turn banned the film as one of the infamous Department of Public Prosecutions list of "video nasties."
As such it remained banned throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. However it had built up a cult reputation in the UK, plus critics such as Mark Kermode began to highly praise the film as an important piece of work. In 2000, the film was again presented to the BBFC for certification and again it was refused, though it was granted a license for a one-off showing in Leicester in June 2000. After this showing it was again made clear by the BBFC that the film would not receive any form of certification, so the film was put up for a home video release in 2002. This release was refused as the distributors were unwilling to cut the film as the BBFC requested.
The film finally received a DVD release in the UK in May 2003 with 31 seconds of cuts. These cut scenes were available to view as a slideshow extra on the disc, there was also a weblink which would direct to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed. It has still not received a certificate for a cinema release, nor has it been released uncut on DVD in the UK.
[edit] Trivia
- The film was originally shot with Mari's parents finding her still alive, and she is able to identify her attackers before she dies. Editing and dialog changes were made to make it clear that Mari is dead when her parents find her. However, in the film when her parents find her, she can be seen moving and breathing, and her parents mouths don't match the "She's already dead" dialogue.
- The directors/producers of Saw II say in the DVD commentary that there are many references to 'The Last House on the Left' in the film, the most obvious being when 'Jigsaw' tells Detective Matthews that his son is in "the last house on the left".
- On the audio commentary track on the recent DVD release Wes Craven mentions that the film is banned in various countries such as Australia. The commentary is evidently recorded before a recent Australian DVD release where Last House on the Left was released uncut in Australia by Umbrella Entertainment in 2004 under the R rating.
- During the climax of the John Waters film Cecil B. Demented, cinema terrorist Cecil's parents try to dissuade him from making his "underground cinema" film, saying "It's only a movie...It's only a movie..."
- It is rumored that the Ramones song "Down to the Basement" is based on this film.
[edit] Remake
Rogue Pictures has signed a deal to remake the film. Craven will produce along with longtime partner Marianne Maddalena and Sean S. Cunningham. Craven and Rogue are eyeing an early 2007 start date.[1]
