My first ever review was of an exploitation, rape-and-revenge flick, that feels so so long ago now, even though it’s not. Anyway, this is Wes Craven’s directorial debut, and having seen
A Nightmare on Elm Street and
Scream I thought “ooh, this should be good, I’ve heard about this film loads before” yes, the naive, 14 year old me genuinely thought this was going to be a slasher flick. God, I was so far off.
The Last House on the Left follows a gang of escaped convicts, Krug (David Hess), his on-off lover, Sadie (Jeramie Rain), his son, Junior (Marc Sheffler) and their accomplice, ‘Weasel’ (the later turned porn director, Fred J. Lincoln). When Sadie becomes sick of being the boys play thing, she forbids sex until more women join them, and when two seventeen year old women named Mari (Sandra Peabody) and Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) come along looking for weed, the gang capture and then commit a series of brutal acts on them. However, when the rapists stumble upon the home of Mari’s parents and they eventually discover who they are, the parents take justice into their own hands.
Positives This is shocking, it is terrifying and sickening, and it achieves this effect due to a range of contributing factors. Firstly, the writing. Films like this one usually jump right into the rape a la
I Spit on Your Grave, however, the victims here are forced to participate in humiliating and demeaning tasks such as wetting themselves and hitting each other. This, for me, was more difficult to watch than the full on sexual violence displayed later on, for every shred of their humanity was stripped away from them and it was blatantly clear that they were viewed as nothing more than mere instruments of desire, a pair of legs, something inferior in every way that wasn’t capable of processing emotion. This effectively causes us to despise and detest the villains to such a great degree that you’re hopeful for any opportunity for them to get what they deserve, and as bad as it may seem, you want these people to suffer for what they did, and no film has made me hate characters as much as this one did.
Therefore, when the tables are turned by Mari’s parents in the conclusion of the film, a great amount of satisfaction is felt. All in all, the writing is massively successful in making the audience share the levels of hate and utter disgust that Mari’s parents do, and when the police are totally useless, you find it extremely difficult to condemn what they did. As a little side note, I did enjoy the pun of Sadie’s name relating to Sadism and the Marquis De Sade, although I’m not sure if it was even intentional.
The direction also deserves praise. Craven is able to create interestingly heartbreaking moments throughout. For example, we see Mari’s parents prepare a surprise party to celebrate their only daughter’s 17th birthday, we see numerous banners, cards, cakes etc. all on display which ultimately emphasises Mari and Phyllis’ youth and naivety, so when the film then abruptly switches to the women getting beat and violated by these sadistic psychopaths, we can’t help but be reminded how young they are, which makes the whole experience all the more depressing and bleak, but emotionally impacting as well. Additionally, the ending was directed effectively too, we don’t see certain acts being done, but we are always made very well aware of what is occurring off screen, and the fight scenes at the end were realistic as well, these killers possess more “skill” in combat, so inevitably they maintain the upper hand when dealing with ordinary parents, who are significantly older than them also, yet the more mature combatants intelligence is what allows them to secure their victory.
Negatives So I’m meant to be the same age as the two girls who were brutalised throughout the film and even I could tell that some of the decisions they were making were huge mistakes, such as wandering into a drug dealer’s apartment. Also, I felt like the women didn’t show that much resistance, especially Mari. If it was real life, I think anyone would be fighting and resisting every single second, and considering there was two of them, they had a good chance of disarming Weasel’s knife and turning the tables, considering Junior almost certainly would not have intervened and Sadie was extremely petite.
The sub-plot involving the police officers wasn’t necessary really, it tried to include some comic relief into the film, but it was just a bit silly, and it was one of the many many examples of humour simply not working within a horror film.
I wasn’t a fan of the soundtrack either, it felt quite campy and it was quite bizarre and off-putting and it certainly didn’t enhance anything that was already happening on screen, perhaps they should have avoided using on all together like Meir Zarchi did in ISOYG.
As for the acting. It wasn’t too bad to be honest, it wasn’t outstanding or great, but some of the performances delivered were better than several actors who repeatedly find work in Hollywood today. Sandra Peabody and Lucy Grantham though, who played the female victims, were certainly the weakest actors, but they weren’t excruciatingly bad by any means.
Conclusion It’s an effective horror, that’s certainly put me off going on nights out. It’s contribution to modern pop-culture is undeniable as well (ultimately leading to many beloved franchises such as the Friday the 13th franchise, A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise as well the Scream franchise). The writing is astounding, but contains a few flaws. The directing was pretty good, and for once, an old horror film featured real looking blood. I highly doubt anyone would want to watch it more than once either, so it is difficult to rate, because this certainly isn’t a film that you enjoy, so I’ll give it:
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