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The Last House on the Left | 
 enlarge | Director: Wes Craven
Actors: Sandra Cassel, Lucy Grantham, Sandra Cassell, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $6.97
You Save: $8.01 (53%)
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Rating:  305 reviews
Sales Rank: 8930
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.6
MPN: D1003674D
ISBN: 0792853199
UPC: 027616878151
EAN: 9780792853190
ASIN: B000068IEU
Theatrical Release Date: August 30, 1972
Release Date: August 27, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Future Nightmare creator and Scream weaver Wes Craven's film debut is a primitive little production that rises above its cut-rate production values and hazy, grainy patina via its grimly affecting portrait of human evil infiltrating a middle-class household. The story is adapted from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, but the film has more in common with Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs as it charts the descent of a harmless married couple into methodical killers. A quartet of criminals--a distorted version of the nuclear family--kidnaps a pair of teenage girls and proceeds to ravage, rape, torture, and finally brutally murder them in the woods, unwittingly within walking distance of their rural home. The killers take refuge in the girls' own home, but when the parents discover just who they are and what they've done, they plot violent retribution. Along with George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Craven helped redefine American horror with this debut--all three movies portray modern society crumbling into madness and horror. But, unlike his fellow directors, Craven gives his film an uncomfortable verisimilitude, setting it squarely in the heartland of modern America. While at times it's awkward and inconsistent, with distracting comic interludes, his handling of the brutal horror scenes is unsettling, and the death of the daughter is an unexpectedly quiet and lyrical moment. --Sean Axmaker
Description
Bold, powerful and starkly realistic, this chilling cinematic debut of horror master Wes Craven (Scream) is a shocking journey into the heart of evil. Written and directed with almost unbearable dramatic tension (Chicago Sun-Times), The Last House on the Left will make you deadbolt your doors and frantically mutter: It's only a movie it's only a movie it's only a movie! Easy-going Mari Collingwood and her fun-loving friend Phyllis are on their way to a Bloodlust concert to celebrate Mari's 17th birthday when three escaped convicts kidnap and torture them. But Mari and Phyllis are fighters, and although they are drugged and beaten into unconsciousness, stuffed into a car trunk and driven into the woods for even more brutality, they are still alive...but for how long?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 300 more reviews...
 "Crude, Nightmarish Cult Movie on DVD" December 30, 2008
Russell A. Rohde MD (West Covina, California USA)
"The Last House on the Left", a Wes Craven DVD movie bearing the MGM DVD label as an Orion Pictures Release, a 1972 production. ISBN 0-7928-5319-9, DVD -- 1 Hour & 24 minutes in color with sound track & Special Features. Unrated.
Falling into a Cult Class of crude horror movies with retribution as a sadistic theme, "The Last House on the Left" is one such sick chiller-thriller that's a raw, gritty, primitive, nightmarish production that ranks high in the top of "snuff" cult films that would put Boris Karloff to shame, but reminiscent of the Manson carnages. Excess footage is devoted to progressive death & dying.
Premise here is one wherein Mari, a 17-year-old just coming of age, and friend Phyllis plan to attend the rock concert "Bloodlust" but are diverted. Upon an innocent and misplaced inquiry about getting weed, they are held captive by a quartet of psychopaths who get their joys out of embarrassment, intimidations, and then rape, torture and transportation of the girls to a forested area when they are again raped, tortured and brutally killed in gory and bloodily sceneries that extol bondage, limb severances and evisceration. One girl is left dead in the woods whilst the other is raped and executed by gunshots to the head while fleeing in a swampy pond. The psychos leave the area and find temporary shelter, unknowingly at first, with Mari's parent's who uncover the plot and retaliate in kind, chain saw and all.
Much time is given to futile and sickening chasings in the forest, akin to "I Spit on Your Grave" footage. The weird, discordant and out of theme background music and the comedic Keystone-like cops dooms the film from ever achieving greatness for horror filming.
All along this film was crying out for an enlightened director - and nobody came. It is so bad that it nearly comes full circle, but in an unenlightened way. I guess someone was destined to make this wacko sicko film -- Wes Craven took the carrot.
3 stars out 4 December 21, 2008
One-Line Film Reviews (Ann Arbor)
The Bottom Line:
While this early Wes Craven film is far from perfect, its interesting structure and intense horror more than overcome its defects (like the bumbling cop subplot that just plain doesn't work).
 Must watch! December 1, 2008
Sharon Jones
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I watched this movie when I was a young girl. I was the type of teenager whom would talk or ride with strangers. After watching this movie, my life changed. Years later after I became a parent, I often spoke about this movie to my own children. I wanted them to understand the importance of socializing with strangers. This movie enforced to them, the seriousness of dealing with strangers. Its scary but in a way that the point is made. Every parent should encourage their teenager, especially daughters, to watch this movie.
last house on the left October 8, 2008
Terry (mukwonago Wi)
*possible spoilers* I orginally saw this movie, when my parents took us to the drive in, back in the early 70's. I may have been 6 or 7 years old. I was able to rent the movie tonight and rewatch it for the 1st time in 30 something years. So as you can imagine it is extremly dated, and it shows it's age. It is NOT a feel good movie, so if you are expecting 90 mins of fun and excitement, forget it. There are no special effects and the budget is obviously very small. However I felt that the directing was excellent and this is a very powerful movie and not for the squemish. The bumbling cops in the movie provided some very needed comic releif to offset the extremly disturbing subject matter. Let's face it the kidnapping, rape, mutilation and murder of two young teenage girls is bad enough. It is hard to watch at times, expecially due to the fact that the murders take place in such close proximtity to the girls home, where the gang of rapists and murderes end up after they commit their horrific crimes. Again this movie is not entertaining in the least, but, I gave it four stars because it does succeed in it's intended purpose. It's shocking and horrific and a parents worst nightmare come true. You may find yourself cheering on the parents of Mary when they discover the truth and plot their revenge. Maybe that was the purpose of the film to feel that bit of satisfaction when the villians get what is comeing to them. Hmmm. something to think about if you would like to see it.
 Is this really a Craven flick?.. July 27, 2008
M. William (Brooklyn, NY United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
...Because it's hard to believe that the same man who brought us Nightmare on Elm Street would produce such absolute trash. Reminiscent in subject and feel to "I Spit On Your Grave", this movie, unfortunately, has neither the depth nor the horror of this aforementioned classic. I didn't find the violence to be all that graphic. It's not directly shown, but rather very strongly implied. The criminals are impossible to take seriously. The only thing criminal about them is their sheer stupidity. The acting is sickeningly bad. I don't know what the actresses' blank expressions are meant to convey (shock, perhaps?), but they fail miserably. What really put me off about this movie wasn't the bad acting or the lame script. It was how its overall mood jumped, in a rather bizarre and completely incomprehensible way, from twisted sadism to lighthearted humor. For example, the two cops looking for the crooks are used as comic relief throughout the entire film. My only question is, WHY? Was Wes Craven not sure whether to make a dark comedy or a horror/thriller? Moot point, I'd say, because it works as neither.
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