Last House on the Left

• Director: Wes Craven
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Horror
• Movie Type: Sadistic Horror
• Themes: Serial Killers, Out For Revenge
• Release Year: 1972
• Country: US
• Run Time: 83 minutes
• MPAA Rating: R

Plot

Wes Craven's first film was a crude but shocking horror opus that, like George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), became a grind house hit largely because it went much further than terror films before it had been willing to go. Often compared to Ingmar Bergman's stark medieval rape drama The Virgin Spring (1960) (though one wonders whether this was influence or just coincidence), Last House on the Left follows a group of teenage girls heading into the city when they hook up with a gang of drug-addled ne'er-do-wells and are brutally murdered. The killers find their way to the home of one of their victim's parents, where both father and mother exact a horrible revenge. Like Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre two years later, Last House on the Left was an unrelievedly dark vision of contemporary horror that inspired many future films which copied its effects without achieving its visceral impact. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Review

Horror master Wes Craven's powerful debut was this controversial low-budget remake of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1959). One of the more brutal rape-revenge films, it is unflinchingly explicit in its depiction of the vicious abuse and slaughter of two teenage girls at the hands of a Mansonesque gang of criminals. The revenge segments are no less shocking, including a murder by bucksaw, a throat slashing, and an oral castration. The acting is amateurish and the cinematography is bargain-basement, but something in the almost documentary-like nature of the film makes it devastating nonetheless. Along with Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), it is one of the early classics of graphic horror. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Cast

Cynthia Carr - Mrs. Collingwood; Sandra Cassel - Mari Collingwood; Lucy Grantham - Phyllis Stone; Martin Kove - Deputy; Jeramie Rain - Sadie; Marc Sheffler - Junior; Gaylord St. James - Dr. Collinewood; Ada Washington - Ada; David Hess - Krug; Fred Lincoln - Weasel; Marshall Anker - Sheriff

Credit

Wes Craven - Director, Wes Craven - Editor, David Hess - Composer (Music Score), Sean S. Cunningham - Producer, Wes Craven - Screenwriter

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