The Last House on the Left

Sean S. Cunningham made his directorial debut with the white coater film The Art of Marriage. His film grossed $100,000 and attracted the attention of Steve Minasian's Boston-based Hallmark Releasing,[4] which had a distribution partnership with American International Pictures.[5][6] Cunningham made the film Together as a "better version" of The Art of Marriage.[4] Wes Craven, who had no money at the time, was put on the job of synchronizing dailies for Cunningham's re-shoot.[7] He soon began editing the film with Cunningham and they became good friends. Hallmark bought the film for $10,000, and it was considered a "hit"; this prompted Hallmark to persuade them to make another film with a bigger budget, and gave them $90,000 to shoot a horror film.[8]

Cunningham served as producer and Craven served as writer and director on the project.[9] Written by Craven in 1971, the original script was intended to be a graphic "hardcore" film, with all actors and crew being committed to filming it as such.[10] However, after shooting began, the decision was made to edit the script into a much softer film. This script, written under the title Night of Vengeance, has never been released; only a brief glimpse is visible in the featurette Celluloid Crime of the Century (a 2003 documentary on the making of the film).[11] The crux of the plot is based on the Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge,"[12] which itself was the basis of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1960), of which Craven was an admirer.[13] Craven envisioned a film in which the violence would be shown in detail onscreen; he felt that many popular films of the era, such as Westerns, glamorized violence and the "vigilante hero," and gave the public a misleading representation of death in the wake of Vietnam War.[14]

The majority of the cast of The Last House on the Left were inexperienced or first-time actors, with the exception of Richard Towers, Eleanor Shaw, and Sandra Peabody who were all soap opera regulars and had prior film roles.[15][3] Cunningham and Craven held casting calls for the film at Cunningham's office in Midtown Manhattan in late 1971.[16] Peabody, who was returning to New York after a cross-country road trip, signed on to the film after responding to a casting notice in the trade publication Backstage. Cunningham and Craven originally wanted her to read for the role of Phyllis, however, after meeting her they decided to cast her in the lead role of Mari.[17] Shaw was a prominent Manhattan based soap opera actress, and Towers worked as a talent agent in addition to acting.[3] Although she doesn't recall the specific circumstances of how she became involved with the project, Lucy Grantham was ultimately cast in the role of Mari's best friend Phyllis.[18][17] The role of the lead villain, Krug Stillo, was given to David Hess, also a musician and songwriter.[19] Jeramie Rain, who was twenty-one at the time, was playing Susan Atkins in an Off-Broadway production based on the Manson family murders; despite the fact that the original script called for an actress in her forties, Rain was awarded the part of Sadie.[20] Fred Lincoln, who had appeared in pornographic films, was cast as Krug's criminal partner, while Mark Sheffler was given the role of Krug's heroin-addicted son.[21] A struggling twenty-one year old actor, Sheffler was a client of Towers prior to filming and was informed of auditions by him.[3] According to Lincoln, he and Peabody were acquaintances and had the same agent at the time.[22]

John Everett Millais's painting Ophelia (top) inspired Mari's death scene in the lake (bottom)[23]

The film was shot on location for seven days in New York City, as well as Long Island, followed by shoots in rural locations outside of Westport, Connecticut.[24] While filming in Connecticut, the cast and crew spent much time at producer Cunningham's family's home.[25] According to Craven, the lake sequence was shot in the town reservoir of Weston, Connecticut.[26] Craven sought a "documentary"-style appearance for the film, marked by close-up shots and single-cut takes.[27]

Cunningham later described the film shoot as being "guerrilla-style" with the crew spontaneously filming at locations and being forced to leave due to lack of permits;[22] in retrospect, Lincoln said that "nobody knew what [they] were doing."[28] Much of the special effects in the film were achieved practically, some at Lincoln's suggestion: For example, the sequence in which Phyllis is disemboweled, Lincoln helped craft fake intestines with condoms filled with fake blood and sand.[29] For the murder sequence of Sadie in the swimming pool, Rain had a pouch full of fake blood attached underneath her shirt as well as blood capsules in her mouth, which she manually punctured.[30] Grantham recalled during the scene in which Hess's character tells her to "piss her pants," that she in fact urinated in her jeans.[22] Steve Miner, who would later become a director himself, served as a production assistant on the film.[22]

Hess recalled that much of the cast bonded heavily during the filming process being that they were mostly inexperienced actors.[31] Lincoln, Rain, and Sheffler recalled similar memories in a 2003 documentary titled Celluloid Crime of the Century, which recounted the making of the film. However, both Hess and director Craven recalled the on-set relationship between Hess and Peabody to be turbulent.[32] Peabody was often treated differently than the rest of the cast to the point that Craven recalled there "not being much acting" during the shooting of the film's more violent scenes.[33] Sheffler admitted during a one-on-one sequence with Peabody that he threatened to push her over a cliff if she failed to hit her marks.[34]

Peabody stated that she was genuinely upset during the filming of the more violent scenes as she felt unprepared: "I was upset because I'm an emotional person, and I reacted to what was going on as if it were real. I had a really hard time with some of scenes, because I had come out of American Playhouse, where it was all about preparation, and everything had to be real. I ended up doing a horrible job in the film. I was very upset, and I felt like I should have channeled that, but I couldn't... I was a young actress and I was still learning to balance any emotions I had from outside of the film into my scene work."[35] Hess revealed that he actually got very physical with her during the filming of the rape scene and that she could not do anything about it once the camera was running.[36] During this particular shot, assistant director Yvonne Hannemann described it as an upsetting shoot with her having to be consoled by Craven throughout filming it due to the abuse she was enduring.[36] Peabody recalled, "One of the characters was a method actor, so he was trying to live his part... he'd come after us with a knife at night, trying to freak us out. This was the guy with the dark curly hair [David Hess] - he tried to play his role on and off the set. It was like, 'Lock your doors and windows at night, you don't want him to come get you!' I was scared; I thought this guy had been a killer at some point in his past!"[35] Sandra states that although she was uncertain how a lot of the scenes would turn out, she trusted Craven and Cunningham and their vision for the film.[35]

The film's soundtrack was written by Stephen Chapin and David Hess (who also played the main antagonist, Krug). Chapin wrote all the incidental music for the movie; he also did all the arrangements and orchestration as well as all the contracting and producing musicians. The music is particularly notable for being heavily contrasted with the events on screen. For example, as the gang drives the two girls out into the countryside, the upbeat, almost comical tune "Baddies Theme" plays and, after the rape scene, a soothing ballad plays. This counterpointing was also used elsewhere in the film, with the slapstick antics of the two police officers occurring in between scenes of torture. In 1999 the soundtrack was released for the first time on compact disc by Hess on Rock Bottom Rules Records. In 2013 the soundtrack had a re-release on vinyl, compact disc, cassette and digital download on One Way Static Records. It was also re-issued on a limited hand numbered picture disc for Record Store Day 2014.[37][38]

Critical response to The Last House on the Left upon its original release was largely centered on its depictions of violence.[lower-alpha 2] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune derided the film, writing: "My objection to The Last House on the Left is not an objection to the graphic representations of violence per se, but to the fact that the movie celebrates violent acts, particularly adult male abuse of young women ... I felt a professional obligation to stick around to see if there was any socially redeeming value in the remainder of the movie and found none."[60] Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote that he walked out of the theater during a screening: "When I walked out, after 50 minutes (with 35 to go), one girl had just been dismembered with a machete. They had started in on the other with a slow switch blade. The party who wrote this sickening tripe and also directed the inept actors is Wes Craven. It's at the Penthouse Theater, for anyone interested in paying to see repulsive people and human agony."[61]

Edward Blank of the Pittsburgh Press called the film a "cheap-jack movie of no discernible merit" and "riddled with awkward, self-conscious performances."[59] Roger Ebert, however, gave the film three and a half stars out of four, and described it as "about four times as good as you'd expect."[62] The Christian Science Monitor News Service referred to the film as a "desperately sordid melodrama" and a "vulgarized" version of The Virgin Spring and drew comparisons to Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971).[63] Brian Nelson of The Daily Dispatch deemed it the worst film of the year, writing: "Producer Sean S. Cunningham has somehow managed to make what is possibly 1972's most worthless general release film and, with a sensational and overblown advertising campaign, parlay it into a major moneymaker. In doing so, he may be in line for the Cy Dung Award for the movie most offensive to the intelligence of an audience."[64] The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's Bill Towery suggested the film should have received an X rating, adding in his review: "Films such as these give the movie ratings system a bad name. But if your cup of tea is assault, murder, maiming, revenge, and violence, the movie is going to be perfect."[58]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Last House on the Left holds an approval rating of 63%, based on 38 reviews, and an average rating of 5.62/10. Its consensus reads, "Its visceral brutality is more repulsive than engrossing, but The Last House on the Left nevertheless introduces director Wes Craven as a distinctive voice in horror."[65] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[66]

Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film one-and-a-half out of a possible four stars. Maltin called the film "cheap", and "[a] repellent but admittedly powerful and (for better or worse) influential horror shocker."[67] The film was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.[68]

Though the film passed with an R-rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, director Craven claimed that on several occasions, horrified audience members would demand that theater projectionists destroy the footage, sometimes stealing the film themselves.[69] John Saco, a British film archivist, recalled discussing the film with American theater owners: "Projectionists were so offended, they would just cut up the film as they were watching it. I’d ask people, ‘How cut is your version?’ They’d say, ‘It’s not as cut as some of the others I’ve seen’ – that's hardly what you want to hear!"[70]

Last House on the Left was refused a certificate for cinema release by the British Board of Film Censors in 1974,[71] due to scenes of sadism and violence. During the early 1980s home video boom, the film was released uncut (save for an incidental, gore-free scene with the comic relief cops, and the end credit roll) as a video that did not fall under the BBFC's remit at the time. This changed when the "video nasty" scare which started in 1982 led to the Video Recordings Act 1984. The movie landed on the Department of Public Prosecutions list of "video nasties", and was banned.[72]

The film remained banned throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. However, it had developed an underground cult reputation in the UK, and critics such as Mark Kermode began to laud the film as an important piece of work. In 2000, the film was again presented to the BBFC for theatrical certification and it was again refused.[73] The independent film label Blue Underground toured an uncut print around Britain without a BBFC certificate; Southampton City Council granted it its own "18" certificate.[74] The film was granted a license for a one-off showing in Leicester in June 2000, after which the BBFC again declared that it would not receive any form of certification.

In June 2002 the BBFC prevailed against an appeal made to the Video Appeals Committee by video distributor Blue Underground Limited. The BBFC had required 16 seconds of cuts to scenes of sexual violence before it would grant the video an "18" certificate. Blue Underground Limited refused to make the cuts, and the BBFC therefore rejected the video. The distributor then appealed to the VAC, who upheld the BBFC's decision.[75] During the appeal, film critic Kermode was called in as a horror expert to make a case for the film's historical importance. However, after his report, the committee not only upheld the cuts, but demanded additional ones.[76] The film was eventually given an "18" certificate, on July 17, 2002, with 31 seconds of cuts, and was released in the UK on DVD in May 2003. The cut scenes were viewable as a slideshow extra on the disc, and there was a link to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed. The BBFC finally classified the uncut film for video release on March 17, 2008.[77]

Contrary to popular belief, the film was never banned in Australia on its initial release – rather, it was never picked up for distribution in the country due to the censorship issues that it would have created at the time. The film was submitted to the censorship board in 1987 for VHS release by Video Excellence under the alternative title Krug and Company, but it was rejected because of its violent and sexual content. In October 1991, The Last House on the Left was part of a package of fifteen tapes that was seized by the Australian Customs Service. The package of tapes was forwarded to the Australian Classification Board (then known as the Office of Film and Literature Classification) who declared them "prohibited pursuant to Regulation 4A(1A)(a)(iii) of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations". The film was eventually classified "R" by the OFLC for its DVD premiere on November 15, 2004. It had a theatrical screening that same month at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.[78]

Many different versions of the film exist on various DVD and VHS releases struck from different cuts of the film, many of them from different countries. To get a completely uncut version is difficult as even some cinema machinists cut footage from prints of the movie before screening it during the 1970s; many copies were cut or "hacked to pieces" and because of this some scenes have become rarities.

Some incomplete scenes are:

• "Lesbian rape scene" – One scene long thought lost, except as a photographic still, is the two female victims forced to commit sexual acts on each other in the woods. This forced lesbian rape scene was included as an outtake with no sound on the Metrodome Three-Disc DVD Ultimate Edition and on the 2011 Blu-ray release.[79][80]
• "Mari in her room" – There are photographic stills showing a nude Mari in her room reading birthday cards in the beginning of the movie; this scene no longer exists.[81]
• "Mari raped by Sadie" – Footage of Sadie committing sexual acts against Mari in the woods is often removed, even from some DVDs that have been labeled as "uncut".[80][81]

In the Krug and Company cut, Mari is still alive when her parents find her. She tells her parents what happened to her and Phyllis before dying in front of them.[79]

In the 1980s, Vestron Pictures hired Danny Steinmann to write and direct a sequel, though the film fell apart in pre-production due to rights issues.[85][86] Mario Bava's film Twitch of the Death Nerve was also released under the titles Last House on the Left – Part II, Last House – Part II and New House on the Left.[87]

In August 2006, Rogue Pictures finalized a deal to remake The Last House on the Left with original writer and director Wes Craven as a producer. The company intended to preserve the storyline of the original film. Craven described his involvement with the remake: "I'm far enough removed from these films that the remakes are a little like having grandchildren. The story, about the painful side effects of revenge, is an evergreen. The headlines are full of people and nations taking revenge and getting caught up in endless cycles of violence."[88] Craven formed Midnight Pictures, a shingle of Rogue, to remake The Last House on the Left as its first project. Production was slated for early 2007.[89] Screenwriter Adam Alleca was hired to write the script for the remake.

In May 2007, Rogue entered negotiations with director Dennis Iliadis to direct the film.[90] The film was released to theaters in the U.S. and Canada on March 13, 2009.[91]