The Last House on the Left (1972)
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Duration: 84 minuten / 91 minuten (original cut) / 82 minuten (R-rated)
Country:
United States
Directed by: Wes Craven
Stars: Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham and David Hess
IMDb score:
5,8 (42.620)
Releasedate: 30 August 1972
The Last House on the Left plot
"It rests on 13 acres of earth over the very center of hell...!"
Mari Collingwood and her friend Phyllis Stone go to a concert and look for weed. They come into contact with Junior Stillo, the son of the fugitive criminal Krug. He takes them to his abusive father and two other dangerous madmen; Weasel and Sadie. Rape, torture and murder follow.
Actors and actresses
Mari Collingwood
Phyllis Stone
Krug Stillo
Sadie
Junior Stillo
Dr. John Collingwood
Estelle Collingwood
Ada
Sheriff
Deputy
Reviews & comments
Shadowed
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- 11670 messages
- 6867 votes
Bad.
Now I'm not the biggest fan of the cheap 70s movies, but a movie with such a status certainly deserves to be seen. Moreover, it was made by Craven, no stranger to the horror world. However, I don't know what he had in mind with this film.
In any case, the result doesn't look like much, so I'm going to assume that his passion gave him more of a boost, because later his films became reasonable with some very positive outliers. However, this film is a very negative outlier, I couldn't do much with it. In addition, I was especially surprised by some of the choices made by the director.
A lot of points indicate that Craven had no idea what to do with his film, and especially wanted to score cheap in terms of brutality. To be fair, it works quite well, because the film feels rather mean. The images remain very raw and the mercilessness is sometimes good. Still, Craven doesn't really venture into the most explicit or shocking images, because the gore, or nudity, doesn't come into the picture very clearly.
Other than that, this is a very ugly movie. No cinematography, ugly camera work, mediocre gore and no sense of portraying nature. The most serious aspect, however, is the soundtrack itself. It shoots in all directions, except in the right direction. Dance music probably would have been even better suited to the murder scenes. These current tunes don't fit at all.
Furthermore, the revenge part is slow and boring and the acting is dramatic. Only Cassel manages to keep herself above water (pun intended). There's very little in this movie to really enjoy, it looks mostly amateurish and awkward. It's nice that Craven finally managed to find his way, because with this film he clearly couldn't find it yet. A boring classic, is way out of my alley.
Translated from Dutch · View original
jordandejong
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- 4775 messages
- 1433 votes
Well, in '72 it would have been quite a shocker, but in 2022 this is no longer good. Very dated, strangely edited and clumsy music. However, the age of such a film should not be an excuse. Tobe Hooper's Texas Chain Saw Massacre is still a masterpiece after all these years.
Wes Craven's Last House is clearly not. I wasn't expecting gore (and that turned out to be a correct assumption), but I was hoping for a dingy, gloomy, filthy atmosphere. And even that I found disappointing. I saw a dated Dutch DVD of which I doubt whether parts of 'rape' have been cut from it, because that was only a few minutes.
The idea that the boys end up taking shelter in the house of the parents of the girl they just killed is of course brilliant, but the final scene where the parents find out the truth should have been much more elaborate. Pa concludes somewhat laconically that his daughter is dead and 20 seconds later he is already warming up the chainsaw.
Lots of good will from Craven, but the execution is, especially today, just below par. It could also have been a little grittier and more realistic. That's where I was hoping.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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