Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left

In 1972, an up and coming director thought he would introduce himself with a film that stretched the realm of real life horror and deprivation. In 1972, Wes Craven, that up and coming director, gave us Last House on the Left, a movie that did just that.

Last House on the Left is the story of Mari and her friend Phyllis, who are on their way to a rock concert in the city for Mari's 18th birthday. They decide to score some weed but do so from the wrong person, and soon find themselves captive to a small gang of escaped convicts who delight in torture and kinky sex.

Phyllis catches the brunt of the abuse; being gang raped, beaten, and raped again by not only the men of the escaped convicts, but by the sadistic girlfriend who eggs them on. Mari watches in horror, but we are led to believe she might be spared from the physical violence.

The next day, Mari's parents are concerned when she doesn't return home and call the cops to place a missing person alert. No one seems too concerned, even though the escaped convicts litter the news with a path of destruction in their wake.

While this is happening, the gang ties and gags the girls, throws them in the trunk of their car, and drive off for the city limits. Dumb luck has it that their car breaks down, ironically right in front of Mari's house.

Now if the cops had come out and noticed the broken down car long enough to inspect it, or if they had actually looked for the people that left the car behind, then the lives of the girls might have been spared. On the flip side however, we would not have had a story line, nor would we have had one that invoked such emotion from the viewer.

Needless to say the girls were taken into the nearby woods where they were forced to do sexual acts on each other as well as their captors. They were beaten some more, tortured some more, and ultimately killed. The horror was real, in that it could really happen - and while it was portrayed in a realistic and violent manner, it was also delivered with sadness; sadness for the victims and ironically, sadness for the victimizers.

But that sadness, while painfully felt, was also short lived when in a coincidence ever prevalent in this type of movie, the convicts end up spending the night - invited to spend the night - at the very home of Mari, by none other than her parents.

Last House on the Left movie enraged me so much that I could not see straight. Of course it did not help that the cops involved were complete incompetents and I just wanted to pull out my gun and use it on them! I do realize however, that this was part of Wes Craven's goal (at which he more than succeeded) and necessary, but I have a hard time with incompetence, especially when it is so blatant. I guess I should get used to it.... either that or stop watching horror and b-movies, and I think it's safe to say that I don't see that happening!

So the mother accidentally discovers that these people in her home are actually the escaped convicts everyone is talking about, and through a little investigative snooping, learns that they have killed her daughter.  Overcome with grief, she and her husband decide to take matters into their own hands and enacts their own style of torture onto the thugs, and I have to say, that is one mother I would NOT want to piss off!

We are told at the movie's beginning that it is based on a true event. I myself am not a believer of that little tidbit, but I do believe that it could have been based on true events as the world we live in now, as well as the world we lived in then, is so twisted and full of sick individuals who have no sense of morality, that these events could actually be happening as I type. Every day I turn on the news I am painfully reminded of this and it sickens me, just as this movie did.

Wes Craven's directorial debut binds the viewer in a web of anger and horror, keeping the emotion high, even when those two dumb ass cops try to ruin the movie with their presence. I guess Wes thought including a little comedic humor (though "humor" is not what I would choose to call it) would soften the blow of the blatant violence he delivered, but it did not. Last House on the Left was raw and intense and offensive, and every bit horrific.

So would I recommend watching Last House on the Left? In a word, yes. It might entertain you, it might sicken you. If you have a heart, it will surely anger you. Just remember one thing: "it’s only a movie... it’s only a movie..."

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