Julian Cannon is back again for another post, this time it is a movie i checked on netflix on saturday. And it is called The last house on the left (1972 version). I have heard of this movie and my parents always told me to never look at this movie when i was 10 years old and i have just found out why
In the history of the horror genre, Wes Craven’s low-budget rape-revenge movie The Last House On The Left has long been notorious as one of the nastiest of the Video Nasties, a film so depraved and immoral that it remained at the top of the British Board of Film Classification’s banned list for 30 years.
Loosely styled on Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring – but with guns and chainsaws replacing Swedish angst – The Last House On The Left was originally conceived as an audience-grabbing mix of sex and violence entitled ‘Sex Crime Of The Century’. Somewhere along the way, though, the filmmakers set off down a different path and instead of the salacious exploitation picture that was planned, The Last House On The Left turned into a blistering indictment of American social mores, middle-class righteousness and the atrocities of the Vietnam War.
The story is deceptively simple: teenagers Mari (Cassel) and Phyllis (Grantham) are abducted by a gang of vicious criminal led by the psychopathic Krug (Hess). They are tortured, raped, mutilated and eventually killed in the pastoral woodlands near their hometown. This ordeal forms the basis of the movie’s chief horror. But then comes the twist: the killers stop off at Mari’s parents’ house after their car breaks down. Realising what’s happened, the complacent middle-class parents (St James and Carr) are transformed and take their bloody and brutal revenge.
It’s difficult to know what is more shocking: the harrowing rape scenes and mutilations, or Craven’s wild deviations in tone that frequently see the movie veer from sexploitation to social commentary, slapstick comedy, nihilistic despair and gallows humour in the space of just a few scenes. The result is a film that confronts its audience viscerally, emotionally and intellectually with a raw power rarely seen before or since.
“Can a movie go too far?” asked the original posters of this landmark horror classic in 1972. Finally re-released in 2008 in an uncut version, it’s a question which remains entirely valid in the twenty-first century.
Verdict:
This movie is twisted and demented and is one of those movies that you wonder what kind of sick mind came up with such a plot…and I LOVE horror movies but not ones like this. Being from the 70s makes it bad enough but the twisted side of it just puts it over the top for me.Also do not watch this movie with any children under ANY circumstances, For me watching this movie, if i was a parent in 1972, these would be things you will learn after watching this:
*do not let your daughter go out late at night
*do not talk to strangers
*the cops were very lazy that time
*when your kids are missing,do not wait an hour to call for help
*do not let a group of strangers into your home PERIOD!!
Above from all of that, i loved the movie but its way too much for anybody to handle. I can warn you, the movie will literally disturb you to the point that you would want to turn off the movie. But its still a classic in my eyes so i will give it a 8.5/10
