{"id":18759,"date":"2022-08-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=18759"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:12:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:12:06","slug":"classic-corner-the-last-house-on-the-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/classic-corner-the-last-house-on-the-left\/","title":{"rendered":"Classic Corner: The Last House on the Left<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the benefit of a half-century of hindsight, it\u2019s clear that the end of the 1960s acted as a brutal and distressing coming of age for the United States. Even though the country had been involved in scandals and atrocities before, the first half of the 20th century had seen such a successful repression of many truths\u2014that justice would not always be done, that politicians did not uphold the best interests of the people, that violence lurked inside your neighbor as well as yourself\u2014that the country underwent a rude cultural awakening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One man who knew from repression was Wes Craven. Raised in a strict Baptist household, Craven hadn\u2019t seen many films (beyond a few Disney movies) by the time he was a humanities professor at a New York University in the mid-\u201960s, thanks to his upbringing. While attending a nearby arthouse theater, Craven got a crash course in international cinema that included the works of Ingmar Bergman. One Bergman film in particular, 1960\u2019s The Virgin Spring<\/em> (based on a 13th-century Swedish ballad) stuck with Craven, so much so that years later, when the one-time professor turned counter-culture leftist film editor got the opportunity from friend and producer Sean S. Cunningham to write and direct a horror feature, he took the bones of the Bergman film and made it into his own transgressive, still-disturbing debut: The Last House on the Left<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In adapting the ancient tale in a bracingly modern fashion, Craven was exorcising his own repressed thoughts as well as America\u2019s. The story concerns a young girl, Mari (Sandra Peabody) and her friend Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) who are raped and murdered by a roving gang of criminals (David A. Hess, Fred Lincoln, and Jeramie Rain). When the criminals seek shelter near the scene of their crime, they happen upon Mari\u2019s home, where her parents (Cynthia Carr and Gaylord St. James) discover their daughter\u2019s fate and decide to enact their own brand of justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally intended as a triple-X hardcore horror-porno, Craven pared back the explicit sexual content through talks with the actors (many of whom had connections to porn films, and used aliases in their on-screen credits), taking away any possible titillation but leaving all of the provocation. Each of the film\u2019s groups act as stand-ins for the social subsets of the early \u201870s: the gang led by Hess\u2019 Krug are akin to Charles Manson and his ilk, Mari and Phyllis are naive flower-children, and Mari\u2019s conservative parents consider themselves open-minded and highly civilized. All of them undergo a kind of coming of age, learning lessons about the horrors of the real world\u2014and themselves\u2014the hard way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The film is Craven\u2019s coming of age as a filmmaker, too. Undeniably amateurish in its craft, Last House<\/em> makes up for the director\u2019s untrained skill with its unflinching camera\u2014Craven wants his message to be deeply felt by the audience, and isn\u2019t interested in playing anything safe. Several of the director\u2019s future hallmarks can be seen here in nascent form: meditations on the morality of violence (especially revenge) and the humanity of those who commit evil deeds, characters improvising booby traps, family units with overbearing father figures who mirror and comment on each other, someone reciting the Lord\u2019s Prayer, and hey, there\u2019s even a nightmare sequence!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most off-putting element of the film is its broad, almost slapstick comedy. It\u2019s a jarring aspect that is usually dismissed as evidence of Craven\u2019s filmmaking immaturity, yet it deserves a closer look: after all, the majority of these bits revolve around two bumbling local cops (played by Marshall Anker and Martin Kove) who are completely moronic and useless, thus removing the semblance of safety from the other characters and the audience. There\u2019s also the matter of the film\u2019s seemingly incongruous musical score, a blend of folk-rock jams, tender ballads, and even a kazoo-led jaunt for the Krug gang\u2019s theme tune. The score seems somewhat out of place until one realizes that it\u2019s composed and performed by the man playing Krug: David A. Hess. Thus, the score is one more meta-layer of meanness, a sick joke on the audience as Hess\u2014or is it Krug?\u2014sings tenderly about being \u201call alone.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bracing truth of The Last House on the Left<\/em> is that none of us are alone in the actions, ideas and emotions depicted on screen;we\u2019re all responsible in some fashion, even if it\u2019s only that we merely possess the potential for violence, apathy, or ineptitude. While Craven may not have yet had the tools to best communicate his themes, he certainly had the raw talent and the boldness required\u2014even 50 years on, Last House<\/em> remains a difficult watch, and while the director\u2019s blending of horror and comedy would<\/a> continue<\/a> and improve (witness the Scream<\/em> franchise<\/a>), his films were arguably never as shocking as this one. Among the deluge of master horror directors that appeared during the 70s, Craven stands apart as a filmmaker who continually examined the function of horror movies, their legitimacy, and their relationship to the audience. Last House<\/em> is where his masters-level thesis on the genre begins, and, contrary to what the film\u2019s infamous ad campaign states, it\u2019s more than \u201conly a movie.\u201d\u00a0\"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Last House on the Left\u201d is streaming on<\/em> Prime Video<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Tubi<\/em><\/a>, and<\/em> Pluto TV<\/em><\/a>, is available for<\/em> digital rental or purchase<\/em><\/a>, and is also available on Blu-Ray from<\/em> Arrow Video<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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