LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0068833
Seventeen year old Mari Collingwood is dying. But for her the worst is yet to come! It all started when Mari and her fast living pal Phyllis took a trip to the big city to see a Bloodlust concert, eat some ice cream, and score on some good grass. Unfortunately for the girls they fall into the clutches of a quartet of psychotics, comprised of escaped convict and murderer Krug Stillo (David Hess), the sadistic Fred “Weasel” Padowski, Krug’s dimwitted heroin addict son Junior Stillo, and the gang’s feral female fucktoy - Sadie.
The four psychos spend the night assaulting Phyllis inside their hotel room hideout and the next morning sneak the two girls into the trunk of their getaway car and head off to the country to escape the law and have some more fun. Along the way the car breaks down, and the girls are able to briefly escape. To Mari’s shock she realizes that she is literally right in front of her house! Unable to go inside where Mari’s parents are nervously waiting for her along with the dimwitted and inept local police, the girls have to run into the nearby woods. Krug and Company give chase and what follows is almost unspeakable horror.
The girls are soon captured, and Krug, Weasel, and Sadie all have a blast engaging the girls in all sorts of humiliating sexual acts. Pants are pissed, and Lesbianism is explored at knife point. Things turn violent as name carving, rape, dismemberment and disembowelment all ensue. Phyllis is gutted and Mari is shot in the head and left to bleed in a pond. After the carnage is over the killers wash the blood off their hands in the same pond and then wander off dazed. The brutality of the crimes seems to even appall the killers.
They wind up back at the Collingwood house, and incredibly enough become the Collingwood’s house guests for the evening! (a bit of a stretch to say the least!) As the thugs help themselves to heaping helpings of spaghetti and wine, the Collingwood’s discover their guest’s deadly secrets and finally decide to take the law into their own hands. The punishments fit the crimes, as castration, throat slittings, and chainsaw dismemberment are the orders of the day.
Pretty much the definitive “rape & revenge” movie. Also the most brutal. The only other flick that comes close is “I Spit On Your Grave”, but “Last House” came first and is a lot more realistic and influential in my opinion. Wes Craven has called this ultra sick retelling of Bergman’s “Virgin Spring” his “answer to stylized, Hollywood violence”. Hats off to Wes for a job well done. The violence in this film has a sickening realism that few other flicks can touch. There are times it feels like demented documentary footage. The rape scene is the most disgusting I’ve ever seen. Watching flies crawl on Sandra (Mari) Cassell’s face while David Hess is on top of her drooling as he briefly violates her and takes her virginity by force is almost unbearable. AS IT SHOULD BE! Rape isn’t pretty. Neither is this movie.
Watching the parents get their gruesome revenge on the killers is undeniably satisfying, but also forces the moral question if the ends justify the means. The victim’s family becomes as brutal and savage as the killers. It’s an interesting theme that Wes Craven also explored in his follow up film “The Hills Have Eyes”. The tone of “Last House” is very grim, although it occasionally suffers from failed attempts at wacky humor (the scenes involving the cops and their comic misadventures are real buzz-killers) Another Wes Craven trademark that is established here is his love of bizarre “booby traps”.
I consider this flick to be a fucking must see. It’s one of those crucial exploitation flicks that I think everyone should have to “endure” at least once in their lifetime. Love it or hate it, this flick is one of the most important and influential flicks in the history of the horror genre and it must be respected.
