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The Last House on the Left is a horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham. There is a remake of the film scheduled for release on March 13, 2009.
Plot
Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassel) plans to celebrate her 17th birthday by attending a concert with her friend, Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham). Her parents express concern both at the band (Bloodlust) and Mari's friendship with Phyllis, who is implied to be of a lower social class.
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The Last House on the Left is a horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham. There is a remake of the film scheduled for release on March 13, 2009.
Plot
Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassel) plans to celebrate her 17th birthday by attending a concert with her friend, Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham). Her parents express concern both at the band (Bloodlust) and Mari's friendship with Phyllis, who is implied to be of a lower social class. They let her go, however, and give her a gift before she leaves: a peace symbol necklace. Mari and Phyllis go somewhere in the woods and talk for a while.
Phyllis and Mari head into the city for the concert. On the way, they hear a report on the car radio of a recent prison break, involving violent criminals by the names of Krug Stillo (David Hess), his son Junior, Sadie (Jeramie Rain) and Fred "Weasel" Podowski (Fred J. Lincoln). After the concert which ends late at night, Mari and Phyllis stroll the streets, seeking someone who might sell marijuana. They run into Junior, who leads them back to an apartment, where they are immediately trapped by the criminals. Phyllis, who resists, is punched in the stomach and raped, as Mari watches in horror. Meanwhile, Mari's unsuspecting parents prepare a surprise party for her.
The next morning, the girls are locked in a car trunk and taken to the countryside as the gang intends to leave the state. The villains' vehicle breaks down right in front of Mari's house while the cops are in her home talking to Mari's parents about her disappearance. Removed from the trunk, Phyllis is beaten after biting Krug's hand; meanwhile, Mari, bound and gagged, realizes that they are coincidentally right near her own home. As she is helplessly dragged to the woods, her parents sit inside with two bumbling local police officers who assure them that Mari is probably fine. The officers disregard the gang's broken-down car when driving back to the police station.
In the woods, the girls are untied and subjected to torment & sadistic mistreatment by the gang of n'er-do-wells, Phyllis is told by Krug that if she doesn't do whatever they tell her to that Mari will get cut, (Krug then orders Phyllis to urinate in her own pants, which she does only after Fred actually cuts Mari with a Knife.)
Junior suggests they have the girls "make it with each other". Mari, (a virgin, heterosexual girl), realizing what she just heard, begins sobbing. As Phyllis tries to console her, the thugs tear both the girls' tops off and order Phyllis and Mari to strip. They force Mari to lie on the grass who is crying, "I can't! I can't! Please don't!" Phyllis is forced against her will at knife-point to perform oral sex on Mari. Afterwards, Mari & Phyllis are lying on the grass. While Mari is sobbing, Phyllis whispers to Mari she will make a break for it to distract the kidnappers and offer Mari an opportunity to escape. Phyllis takes off, chased by Sadie and Weasel, while Junior stays behind to guard Mari, who makes a desperate attempt to convince the troubled addict that he doesn't need to listen to his abusive father because Dr. Collingwood, her father, can help him instead. She also gives him her peace symbol necklace as a symbol of her trust. Meanwhile, Phyllis is eventually cornered at a cemetery, where Weasel stabs her in the back. The defeated Phyllis attempts to crawl away, but the gang inevitably catches up with her and repeatedly stab and disembowel her.
Mari eventually convinces Junior to let her go, though their timing is too late, as they are immediately halted by Krug. He presents Phyllis' severed hand and proceeds to carve his name into Mari's chest before sexually violating her. Following this act, Mari, sick from the shock of being raped, vomits and then walks in a daze over to the nearby lake. Krug shoots at Mari and her body floats on the top of the lake. Krug, Junior, Sadie, and Weasel wash up and change out of their bloody clothes.
In their new attire, the gang shows up at the Collingwoods' home, masquerading as traveling salesmen. Mari's parents agree to let them stay overnight. However, Junior exposes their identity, when his withdrawal symptoms cause him to end up vomiting in the bathroom, where Mari's mother, Estelle, sees Mari's peace symbol necklace dangling around his neck. Later that night she listens in on the gang while they are spending the night in Mari's bedroom and finds blood-soaked clothing in their luggage. She and Dr. Collingwood rush out into the woods, where the couple finds Mari's body by the lake, still barely breathing, and place her on their couch.
Outside, Estelle has duped Weasel into a sex game, which concludes with her biting off the criminal's genitals. Weasel collapses in agony. Inside the house, Dr. Collingwood carries his shotgun into his daughter's bedroom, where two of the criminals are sleeping. Krug escapes into the living room and overpowers the doctor, but the criminal is then confronted by his own son, who now brandishes a firearm. Junior threatens to kill his father. However, Krug psychologically manipulates the already troubled young man, and Junior commits suicide with the weapon. As soon as Krug notices that Dr. Collingwood is missing, the doctor attacks Krug with a chainsaw.
Dr. Collingwood continues approaching Krug with the chainsaw, as the sheriff arrives and pleads with the doctor not to go through with it. Dr. Collingwood kills Krug with the chainsaw anyway. Sadie runs outside, where she trips and drops her weapon. Estelle tackles Sadie, and after a struggle, Sadie punches Estelle but trips once again and falls into the family's pool. Estelle catches up with Sadie and slits her throat. The couple reunites in their living room in their blood-spattered clothes as the police look at the family and their dead guests.
Cast
History
The film started life under the working title Night Of Vengeance and the script contained much more extreme sexual violence than what actually 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 the title, Last House on the Left.
The Craven film was controversial for its graphic violence, and for the manner in which the villains imposed their psychopathic and sadistic will upon the victims. Craven was highly influenced by Vietnam War news footage and wanted to convey that sense of violence he saw in that footage.
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 Chain Saw Massacre, it is credited with bringing a new sense of realistic violence to the modern horror film genre.
Film critic Roger Ebert named the film one of his "Guilty Pleasures", and noted that the story closely follows that of Ingmar Bergman's classic film The Virgin Spring (1960), an Oscar winner for best foreign language film. Ebert called The Last House on the Left "a neglected American horror exploitation masterpiece on a par with Night of the Living Dead."
This was widely released to drive-in theatres on a double-bill with the film Don't Look in the Basement. The films shared the tagline, "To avoid fainting, keep repeating to yourself: 'It's only a movie.. it's only a movie.. it's only a movie..'"
Wes Craven has since directed many popular horror films including The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.
Editing
In the 2002 television special Masters of Horror (sometimes called Boogeymen II: Masters of Horror and not to be confused with the Showtime series Masters of Horror), Wes Craven admits that, due to the film being rejected multiple times by the ratings board, it had been extremely edited down. At a later point in time, they re-inserted much of the removed footage. Producer Sean Cunningham then borrowed a fellow filmmaker's print featuring R rating tag and spliced it in, allowing the film to be released uncut at least for a time in the United States.
The film was originally shot with Mari's parents finding her still alive, identifying her attackers before she dies. Editing and dialogue changes were made to depict Mari as 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 dubbed "She's already dead" dialogue.
Advertising campaign
One of the more memorable aspects of the film is the advertising campaign. The film underwent many name changes, including Sex Crime of the Century (from the characters' dialogue in the car ride scene), Krug and Company (a version included on the DVD release) and The Men's Room (simply because one poster showed a men's bathroom). None of these names were particularly successful. Someone then came up with the title The Last House On The Left, along with the infamous 'To avoid fainting, keep repeating-it's only a movie...' advertising campaign. [In actuality, it had been used twice before: first in gore-meister H.G. Lewis's 1964 splatter film Color Me Blood Red, and then in William Castle's Strait-Jacket the following year.] The film under the Last House... title proved to be a massive hit. Stories as to where the advertising campaign originated vary somewhat. Sean Cunningham claims that the person giving the idea for it was watching a cut of the film with his wife, who continually covered her eyes, prompting him to tell her that it was 'Only a movie...'. Other origins have been suggested, however.
The tagline was so successful that many other exploitation films later used it, sometimes with own spin. The title was sometimes imitated, as in the case of Last House On Dead End Street.
Music
The film's soundtrack was written-and partially sung-by David Hess, who also played the main antagonist Krug. It is particularly notable for being heavily contrasted with the events on screen. For example, as the gang drives the two girls out into the countryside, the upbeat, almost comical, tune Baddies Theme plays and, after the rape scene, a soothing ballad plays. This counterpointing was also used elsewhere in the film, with the slapstick antics of the two police officers occurring in between scenes of torture.
Although the soundtrack was released commercially around the same time as the film, it did not sell very well, although it has recently become available via .
Controversy
The film had problems with censorship in many countries, and was particularly controversial in the United Kingdom. The film was refused a certificate for cinema release by the BBFC in 1974 due to scenes of sadism and violence. During the early 1980s home video boom, the film was released uncut (save for an incidental, gore-free scene with the comedy cops, and the end credit roll) as a video that 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 Department of Public Prosecutions list of "video nasties".
The film remained banned throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. However it had built a cult reputation in the UK, plus critics such as Mark Kermode began to laud the film as an important piece of work. In 2000, the film was again presented to the BBFC for certification and it was again refused, though it was granted a license for a one-off showing in Leicester in June 2000, after which the BBFC again declared that the film would not receive any form of certification.
In June 2002 the BBFC won against an appeal made to the Video Appeals Committee by video distributor Blue Underground Limited. The BBFC had required 16 seconds of cuts to scenes of sexual violence before the video could be given an ‘18’ certificate. Blue Underground Limited refused to make the cuts, and the BBFC therefore rejected the video. The distributor then appealed to the VAC, who upheld the BBFC's decision. During the appeal, film critic Mark Kermode was called in as a horror expert to make a case for the film's historical importance. However, after his report, the committee not only upheld the cuts but doubled them.
The film was eventually given an 18 certificate with 31 seconds of cuts on the 17th July 2002 and was released in the UK on DVD in May 2003. The cut scenes were viewable as a slideshow extra on the disc, and there was a weblink to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed.
The BBFC classified the film uncut for video release on the 17th March 2008.
Remake
In August 2006, Rogue Pictures finalized a deal to remake The Last House on the Left with original writer and director Wes Craven as a producer. The company intended to preserve the storyline of the original film. Craven described his involvement with the remake: "I'm far enough removed from these films that the remakes are a little like having grandchildren. The story, about the painful side effects of revenge, is an evergreen. The headlines are full of people and nations taking revenge and getting caught up in endless cycles of violence." Craven formed Midnight Pictures, a shingle of Rogue Pictures, to remake The Last House on the Left as its first project. Production was slated for early 2007. Screenwriter Adam Alleca was hired to write the script for the remake. In May 2007, Rogue Pictures entered negotiations with director Dennis Iliadis to direct the film.
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