Monday, March 10, 2014

Horror Film countdown 2013, part 24


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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