Long before A Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream, director Wes Craven was involved in a few unpleasant movies. His first ever movie as Director is by far his sickest offering, made in 1971 Last House On The Left is far more shocking and disturbing than movies like Saw and Hostel. In fact in the UK it is still considered so shocking that to this date the movie has not ever been seen in its uncut form, although that being said there is a grey area of this that says that nobody has truly seen the uncut movie, and that different countries all offer slight variations of the "Uncut" movie, but more of this later.
Its Mary Collingwood's 17th birthday and to celebrate her and her friend Phyllis Stone head into the city to see a concert much to the disapproval of Mary's mother. When Phyllis is asked by Estelle Collingwood (Mary's mother) what her parents do she states "They are in the Iron & Steel industry.... My mother iron's and my father steals!"
But like many youngsters out for a big night, for the first time in their lives Mary & Phyllis go off looking for drugs, which leads them to a squalid flat inhabited by Krug (David Hess), Weasel, Sadie, and Junior. This quartet are thugs and killers on the run from the law, who soon make Mary and Phyllis their captives. First using them as sex toys, the quartet have absolutely no plans of letting these girls leave alive.
Banned back in the early 1980's Last House On The Left was one of the original video nasties, ripped from video shop shelves and not seen again in the UK again until 2002, while in other countries the movie
has never legally been seen.
I will say that in reflection you see very little in the movie, it's all mainly down to graphic reference in dialogue and the things you believe you see that happen slightly off-screen. The reference whatever the case has so much impact to some degree it's just as bad as actually seeing what you believe you have. The whole thing captured on poor quality film stock that almost convinces you that you're watching something that might technically be legal. The grainy images and blurred soundtrack really create a dirty impact on the movies image.
The story allegedly taken from Ingmar Bergman's Jungfrukallan (AKA The Virgin Spring), is a fairly limited one, so limited in fact that you often find reviews tend to spill the whole story allowing little for the casual viewer to find that they have not already read. To be honest though the story is a secondary factor, in my opinion this movie was made with the shock factor in mind, a way of propelling Wes Craven instantly onto a higher level that a conventional horror tale would not have allowed. It's a heartless exploitation film that if it fails to offend, you might not necessarily be well enough to be walking the streets as a free person.
What the movie does have in its favour is the exacting revenge that is served on our nasty quartet; it gives you a nice feeling of justice having been served, if not of course in the most extreme manner. This for me is what makes the movie any way near enjoyable the fact that the bad guys begin to get their comeuppance, and I'm not spoiling the movie by saying that, and rationally thinking if they did not I'm not sure the movie would ever get the time of day anywhere.
There is a lot of humour in the noted revenge, a lot of A-Team/Home Alone style traps all readily prepared for our thugs. As well as some tongue in cheek, well something in cheek humour that has a biting edge. There is also some great cartoon like fighting in the dark, that actually draws some much needed humour in a mainly dark piece, whether this was intentional or not I guess we might never know.
The casting is well handled for a low budget movie, and this was an incredibly low budget affair. David Hess who made his living since Last House being the bad guy in movies like House On The Edge Of The Park, and Hitch-Hike, takes on a dual role as Krug the leader of the thugs, and the movies musical consultant (you can't see this but I'm laughing). As Krug he is a little cheesy, a little wooden, but arguably incredibly menacing. As musical consultant or should I say singer, he is a little more hit and miss, with one song being good and the next being awful, it's a varied collection of songs, that echo's TV show The Banana Splits. The parents of Mary played by Richard Towers and Cynthia Carr are so wooden to quote Paul Kayes alter ego Dennis Pennis "I thought someone had thrown a chair in!" Most of the other cast disappeared Fred J.Lincoln who played Weasel went on to make (as a director) over 200 porn movies. While the character of the police deputy played by Martin Cove had slightly better luck than the rest of the cast starring in over 70 episodes of Cagney And Lacey and as Kreese in the Karate Kid movies.
In summing up I'd not advice this movie to anyone really, if you're into your horror exploitation then from the sense of a completist its one of those things you need to see. But if you're a casual horror viewer it's a movie that you can safely avoid.
The DVD's
In the UK the DVD of Last House On The Left has no special features. Several years back a feature packed special edition was released but this has long since been deleted. The image is quite grainy on the DVD and is cut by several minutes from both the US and Dutch prints I'll cover below.
The US edition, is the same grainy print as the UK but apparently "Uncut" this has the following special features:-
• Audio commentary from writer/director Wes Craven and producer Sean S. Cunningham • Audio commentary from stars David Hess, Fred Lincoln and Marc Sheffler • 'Celluloid Crime Of The Century' (49 mins): a featurette with contributions from Wes Craven, Sean S. Cunningham, David Hess, Jeramie Rain, Fred Lincoln, Martin Kove and Marc Sheffler • 'Krug Conquers England': a documentary charting the theatrical tour of the UK which included the first ever legal screening of 'Last House On The Left' • 'Krug And Company': the extremely rare alternative cut of the film presented on DVD for the first time ever! • 'Scoring Last House': a featurette with composer/actor David Hess (12 mins) • Outtakes and dailies (20 mins) • 'Tales That Will Tear Your Heart Out': an exclusive first release of an early unfinished Wes Craven short starring David Hess • U.S. theatrical trailer • German theatrical trailer • TV spots • Radio spots
I cannot comment on the above features as I have not had the fortune of viewing them, I only saw the movie.
Now while the version by Dutch Filmworks has no special features other than a trailer, it's actually the best quality print of all the movies. The movie is clear, the sound more crisp, and the edits (I don't mean cuts) are more subtle rather than blatant like in the UK and US version. But now we get on to either the good or bad stuff dependant on your perspective. The movie contains a disembowelment scene in both the US and Dutch versions, but the Dutch version is significantly longer, leading enthusiasts to claim that the Dutch print is a true uncut version. However rumours come to light every two years or so stating that a longer version is held in Italy and on the cards for a release, although Wes Craven has never come forward to say whether a longer version is available or not.
The UK version is available from play.com priced £4.50, the US version again from play.com is priced £6.99 through their marketplace, however if you visit playusa.com you can get the DVD for £14.99. To obtain the Dutch version which features house on the cover your best bet is to try Ebay where the DVD currently sells for around the £9 mark.
Spencer Hawken 03/08
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Mar 14th, 2008
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