The Last House on the Left 1972
One of the most important films in the history of horror. This film started off the careers of Sean Cunningham and Wes Craven. After this film, Sean Cunningham would later go on to direct Friday the 13th, which started the Slasher craze of the 80's. Halloween may often get cited as the first one (which isn't even true, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas plus many more) but the one which opened the floodgates was Friday the 13th. That particular franchise gave birth to one of the top icons of horror: Jason Voorhees.
Meanwhile Wes Craven, who also now had a career, went on to direct other films such as The Hills Have Eyes before saving the Slasher sub genre with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger was born. He would later go on to make Scream, resulting in the birth of Ghostface and again giving the sub genre some life.
All of this stems from this film (which in turn was inspired by The Virgin Spring). Without The Last House on the Left, the genre as a whole would have looked very different. If Wes and Sean didn't get careers, which this film gave them, then we would have no Jason Voorhees, no Freddy Krueger and no Ghostface. We would also have no slasher sub genre as we know it today. Sure in that hypothetical scenario we still could have had something similar. Halloween would have still came out regardless and a successful imitator would have inevitably come along. But in 1980? Maybe a couple of years later in 1982? Would it be a one off film or a franchise? I'm going way off topic here but its fun to think about
: could we have had a slasher genre starting in the mid 80's instead of the early 80's? Different villains: presumably mask wielding maniacs like Jason or wise cracking ghouls like Freddy but who would they have been? What would they have been? Would the genre have continued well into the 90's, only to die out by the end of the decade? Perhaps instead of Scream, Adam Green could have made Hatchet or something similar as he already did and people would have made it a smash hit at the box office, giving Victor Crowley the theatrical success he deserves as a slasher villain?
This is fun to ponder but anyway, back to Last House. I think the reason a film like this works so well is due to just how realistic it is. This, in fact especially more so today, is something which could easily happen in some part of the world. Krug and the others are a bit over the top and its clear this is Wes Cravens first film but I think that helps it. Alongside Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the documentary style way in which the film is shot helps the realism.
These truly are nasty people. What they put the two girls through is true horror. They get humiliated, raped, beat up, forced to have sex with each other, cut up and finally shot. As mentioned above this is far more terrifying than a lot of the more supernatural horror films out there because this could plausibly happen.
Now it is completely ridiculous how in the
whole of the United States, the gang somehow
end up right outside one of the girls houses when their car breaks down (this is less of a thing in Night Train Murders: that gang end are on a train which is already going to where the parents of their victims are waiting) but at least it gives the parents the opportunity to dish out revenge: and it is sweet to watch. Reminds me of Home Alone actually when the dad sets up some home-made traps. In fact a lot of his films remind me of Home Alone: The Carter family snaring Papa Jupiter in Hills Have Eyes and Nancy (in less the half an hour somehow) setting up various traps to get Freddy Apparently similar stuff happens in People Under the Stairs (I haven't seen it). Wes Craven should have directed Home Alone!
There was some ongoing storyline about the Collingwood's telephone: its working again after being fixed or something, which is mentioned a lot, then somehow its not working but "still dead". So was it ever fixed in the first place?
The police officers tend to annoy people as well: they do seem very out of place in such a dark film (maybe they should have been with the dumb cops in Halloween 5?) But its never really bothered me and some of the stuff makes me laugh. For me I think its good because it takes you out of the darker stuff for a bit, same with the music. But the music works both ways here, it can get goofy but at the same time its very grim when played against the brutal scenes.
I especially love how this sequence works: Not only do you have such a great score playing in the background which works perfectly for this whole scene, but look at them. She's just been horribly raped by Krug and even he and the other two look disgusted at what he's just done. When they shoot her they don't even laugh or smile: its gone way too far by that point and they just want to get out of the area. You can see why both Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth took some parts of the score for their own individual work: Cabin Fever and The Hateful Eight (the latter of which you can also see in the same link provided)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVl5rWfSOMY&t=1s
A masterpiece of true realistic horror (though not based on a true story like the film claims at the start) and one which set up the future the genre for the 80's and beyond.
10/10. Can't wait to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre tomorrow: another early 70's controversial film.