Stars:
David Hess, Lucy Grantham, Sandra Cassel, Marc Sheffler, Ada Washington, Fred
Lincoln, Richard Towers, and Martin Kove
Writer:
Wes Craven
Director:
Wes Craven
Feature
length: 84 minutes
Extras:
Introduction By Wes Craven, Audio Commentary By The Director And Producer,
Featurette, Outtakes & Dailies, Forbidden Footage, Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 16
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1972/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Orion Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Inspired
by Bergman’s “The
Virgin Spring,” Wes Craven made his screenwriting and
feature film directing debut with the disturbing study in terror and
exploitation originally entitled “Night Of Vengeance,” but re-titled “The
Last House On The Left” upon the film’s theatrical release. With Sean S.
Cunningham producing, “The Last House On The Left” was shot in real
locations in New York City and Connecticut. The film is like “Deliverance”
meets “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” though according to Craven and
Cunningham their film predates both noteworthy features. The reaction to “The
Last House On The Left” was as extreme as the film itself with the film being
cut to shreds by upset and appalled projectionists and theater owners as well as
various private and public factions. The film was even banned in countries
abroad. As a result not even the filmmakers are aware of what exactly is the
original cut of the film, but this MGM DVD release might be as close as DVD-Video
consumers will ever get as Craven more or less states in his own words in the
feature length audio commentary that he shares with Cunningham.
The
story has two girls going to a concert one evening and while trying to score
some grass before the show they are taken hostage by four escaped criminals.
Beaten, humiliated, raped, disemboweled, and executed in the woods. The killers
leave the bodies behind them and seek temporary sanctuary at the house where the
parents of one of their victims happens to live. When the parents find out they
are giving shelter to the murderers of the daughter, they become brutal killers
themselves delivering a terrible retribution in what almost becomes a dark
parable of sorts. “The Last House On The Left” is about the brutal and
merciless malevolence and sadism that humans are capable of inflicting upon each
other and the thin line between depravity and civility. This is not a film for
kids to see not so much because of the gore, which actually is not as much as
one might expect, but rather the intensity of the torturous scenes where our
protagonists are ruthlessly hunted and treated with little to no regard.
Actually when there is a scene of gore it detracts more than adds to the horror.
Personally the scenes that stick out in my mind as the most disturbing are the
scenes of humiliation, execution, and retribution where the sound is what fuels
the terror in the visuals.
This
film is important on two levels because on one level before we judge the
filmmakers and characters in the story we have to ask ourselves one question, if
these images disturb us so much then why are we still compelled to watch them
and are the very people who might physically take the film prints and mutilate
them be crossing the very same line the parents do on a metaphoric level? We
root for the parents, but in the end is tragedy any less bleak? I think the film
has a cathartic level to it that ultimately harkens back to the folktale, which
is the root of the tale. The other level in which this is an important film is
that for film historians and students who want to see a model of how a
well-executed (no pun intended) independent horror film can be accomplished with
ingenuity and natural locations as well as the hints of the talents that would
develop in the films of both Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham. Filmmaker Steve
Miner also got his start as a part of the crew in the film and it is ironic how
the fashions the young women wear in this film like hip huggers and those short
sweater or shirt things that barely cover their belly are in fashion today
thirty years later.
MGM’s
DVD edition features an anamorphic (1.85:1) widescreen transfer on one side and
a full-framed (1.33:1) presentation on the other. Despite using what were
probably the best elements that could be found to assemble this cut of the film,
“The Last House On The Left” suffers from a consistent grainy appearance
throughout and as a result a soft look in general. I think the widescreen
version looks better because the grain somehow seems more condensed while the
full-framed version looks like bad a ten-year-old VHS recording shot on extended
play mode. Some anomalies and even a hair or two can be seen sometimes. Both
transfers feature a two-channel English Monaural Soundtrack with English
Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and French and Spanish
Language Subtitles as options. Both
transfers also feature a film length audio commentary with Wes Craven and Sean
S. Cunningham, who have not even seen this film in so long that at times they
pause because they themselves get involved in the action. The commentary is
somewhat screen specific and very retrospective with many anecdotes and whatnot.
Craven does most of the talking and reveals some of the behind-the-scenes
inspirations for the film and the characters too. Both transfers also feature an
optional videotaped introduction by Wes Craven before the feature.
The
other extra features are spread across both sides of the double-sided, single
layered DVD-10. On the widescreen side is a 29-minute documentary with
behind-the-scenes photos and new-videotaped interviews with Writer and Director
Wes Craven, Producer Sean S. Cunningham, and Actors David Hess, Marc Sheffler,
Fred Lincoln, Lucy Grantham, and Martin Cove as well as filmmaker Steve Miner.
The documentary covers how Cunningham and Craven got together, the writing of
the screenplay, the casting, and the reaction after the film was completed. The
full-framed side has the rest of the extra features, which include an 8-minute
documentary on the lost scenes and their recovery as well as some “Outtakes
& Dailies” without any audio though. The full screen theatrical trailer
wraps up the extra features included on this DVD.
The
menus on both sides are standard interactive still frames that are easy to
navigate. “The Last House On The Left” will debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday,
August 27, 2002 from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.