The Last House of the
Left (1972), dir. Wes Craven, Sean S. Cunningham Films
Easily on the nastiest films in this countdown, and one of
the most infamous, Wes Craven’s debut began as a genuine roughie before being
reworked into a rougher (yet still softer than the first draft) version of
Ingmar Bergman’s the Virgin Spring.
Mari Collinwood (Sandra Cassell) is celebrating her 17th
birthday. She and her best friend Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham) are off to the
big city to see a rock concert. Mari’s parents John (Gaylord St. James) and
Estelle (Cynthia Carr) are concerned, especially about Phyllis, but in the end
they relent.
Once they enter the city proper, both girls decide to buy
some weed from the sleaziest fellow they can find, a smack addled no goodnik
named Junior (Marc Sheffler). Junior lures them back to the rattrap hotel he’s
crashing at with his dad, Krug Stillo (David Hess), Krug’s best buddy “the
Weasel” Fred Podowski (Fred J. Lincoln),
and Krug’s best gal pal Sadie (Jeramie Rain). Krug and Weasel have just broken
out of prison, and it seems they are up for anything.
Some time later, both Mari and Phyllis are roughly pulled
from the trunk of Krug’s car. From there the girls are humiliated, raped,
tortured, and finally killed. Car trouble forces Krug and company to seek
shelter during a thunderstorm at the only house for miles, a quaint cottage
with the name ‘Collinwood’ over the front door…
While the film’s reputation for utterly depravity is well
earned, there are several missteps. After nearly every horrible thing Krug does
the film then cuts to the wacky antics of the sheriff (Marshall Ankers) and his
deputy (Martin Cove) as they bumble and scamper around. It kind of defeats the
horror of it all when we go from a brutal rape to the sheriff yelling at
chickens.
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