The Last House on the Left – 1972
Director
Wes Craven

Writer
Wes Craven

Cast
Sandra Peabody
Lucy Grantham
David Hess

Review by Wayne Malin

Sick and degrading,

A group of psychos (three men and one bisexual woman) kidnap two teenage girls. They rape and torture them to death only to be killed themselves by two parents of one of the girls.

I love horror films and graphic things don’t upset me but I find this film totally repulsive. It was shot on next to no budget and looks like a documentary which makes it seem realistic. Also the acting is good which makes it even worse. The scenes were the two teenage girls are tortured are just needlessly sick and they play cheerful music over it! When I watched this on DVD I had to keep turning it off because I was so disgusted with what I was watching. The movie makes you FEEL dirty by pushing this in your face.

Purportedly this is based on Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring” but I have my doubts. Also Wes Craven disowns this film now. He was so viciously attacked by people for the content of this that he’ll have nothing to do with it. All the cast members were interviewed for a book on this years ago–THEY hate the film too and think it’s a piece of garbage! Let me put it this way–one of the men went on from this to making porno films–he made over 100 pornos and STILL considers this the worst film ever made!

This was a huge drive-in hit during the 1970s and 1980s and had an ad line which became famous–“To avoid fainting keep repeating it’s only a movie, it’s only a movie, it’s only a movie…” It was paired with “Don’t Look in the Basement” and “The House That Vanished”–two other really bad horror films but nowhere as offensive as this one. This is sick, degrading and an utter piece of garbage. Probably the worst horror film ever made. I give it a 1.