La última casa a la izquierda

I first saw Last House on the Left at the age of 18 at the drive in with my best girlfriend. This movie, an early outing by horror maven Wes Craven was so disturbing to me that 26 years later I am still haunted by the images on the screen. The story, of 2 young girls, approximately the same age I was when I saw the film, of being abducted, tortured, raped and then murdered is not for the faint of heart. The brutality and violence was staggering, and the film spoke volumes of the depravity of the human soul. I remember driving home with my girlfriend after watching this, and both of us were dead silent, each contemplating what we had watched and knowing that something like that could happen to us. This movie is one I know without a doubt, that I will never again watch, and now, being the parent of a daughter myself, I could never watch it and then allow her out of the house again. This is not a monster movie, the MONSTERS are human and all too real, especially in today's society filled with Ted Bundy's and The Green River Killer, this movie hits too close to home and leaves the viewer depressed and saddened at what human beings are capable of doing to other innocent people. Watch it if you dare, but be prepared to be left with a very hollow feeling after it is over.

Every horror movie claims for themselves that they kicked off something. Be it the slasher genre, be it the "let's go all in and not censor ourselves", be it the body count, gore, nudity, organs on display or whatever else you can imagine. In this case it is more the idea - although there are some short glimpses of visual and very explicit imagery.

Wes Craven and Sean Cunnigham (who worked together on this and then went ahead to make two of the most iconic horror/movie villains of all time respectively - Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees) may feel like they wanted more or rather be more diverse. Do movies in other genres - but I do think they can be happy with their career. And it started with a very controversial and evil little movie like this one.

The villains here are as despicable as they can get and the one moment where Wes claims they have a point of no return - well let's just say they are already past that way before that moment. So this is raw, it lacks sense in many respects and you can see there was not a big budget involved. But through it all you can feel the effect until today the movie had ... because of its success and because it was rough and did not really follow any rules

"to avoid fainting"???!!! Oh puuuuurlease!!! What an aboslute let down! having been banned by the moral majority for over a decade,we have finally be deemed "adult" enough to watch LHOTL.now i love wes craven as much as the next woman but c'mon Wes..Give us a break!! Badly acted,poorly scripted and dare i say..badly directed.An absolute waste of my hard earned cash...i should've waited for it to be aired on T.V..probably one sunday night, late, when we're all in bed!! but if all else fails remember "it's only a movie"

A strong candidate for "The Worst Movie of All Time". With his first film Craven reached heights of ineptitude and tastelessness that even Craven-haters should be surprised by, and the incompetence is far-reaching; in every respect imaginable does this film not fail to fail. This piece of exploitative trash is at the very least the worst killers-on-the-lam film ever made. The acting ranges from one-dimensional to atrocious to ridiculous, and the characters behave in such an inconsistent and illogical manner that I have to suspect that this movie wasn't so much directed as that it's simply a collection of improvised scenes by a couple of bored – and talentless - students who just happened to have had a camera nearby. One of the main things that separates a film like "I Spit On Your Grave" from this junk is that Craven has neither respect nor pity for victims of brutal crimes; this he shows more than obviously by playing utterly inappropriate cheerful music while the two girls are being shoved into the trunk of a car and then driven off. At the end of the film there is yet more upbeat music. This is not some fantasy zombie film where you can expect your audience to laugh with you about the exaggerated and silly events and cartoon violence that take place in the movie. The main events in this "reality-based" horror movie haven't got an iota of a humorous side to them, and the fact that Craven doesn't realize this shows what a sad little degenerate he is. An English professor??? What a joke. In-between scenes of torture, degradation, and murder Craven manages to squeeze in scenes of goofy cops, which we are supposed to find amusing.

'The Last House On The Left' is easily Wes Craven's most important movie. It was one of the most notorious movies of the early 70s but seems to be half forgotten now, despite being a groundbreaking horror film that opened up territory that had previously not been seen on screen. Romero's 'Night Of The Living Dead' deserves some acknowledgement as being the most realistic horror movie up until that point (the late 60s), but even that had a supernatural element, something 'Last House On The Left' eschews. Craven took the contemporary setting and natural performances of NOTLD and added some graphic violence and a confrontational rape sequence, most likely inspired by Peckinpah's 'Straw Dogs' released the previous year, and made it into something quite unlike anything seen before. This made it the father of all subsequent serial killer dramas. 'Last House...' is still a very nasty and disturbing movie thirty years after it was originally released. Craven was a beginning as a film maker and the budget was minimal, so the movie is rough and crudely made at times, but the best sequences have an almost documentary feel which gives it an appearance of realism that makes it sometimes really difficult to watch. The acting in the movie is variable. Mari's parents and the comic relief cops (who include Martin Kove later to appear in 'Death Race 2000' and countless action movies!) are pretty awful, but the two girls (Sandra Cassel and Lucy Grantham) are both very natural and believable, and Craven REALLY lucked out with Krug and his gang who are all very, very good. Krug is played by David Hess, who also composed and sang the songs on the soundtrack, something which makes him pretty unique! Hess wrote Elvis' 'All Shook Up' and 'I Got Stung' and yet his performance as Krug is totally convincing. Krug is still one of the creepiest and most repellent killers ever seen on screen. Comedian Marc Sheffler gives an interesting performance as Krug's junkie son, Fred J. Lincoln (now a porno director I believe!) is excellent as the aptly named Weasel, and Jeramie Rain is surprisingly good as Sadie, who brings to mind some of Manson's girls. These four actors are outstanding and really help make the movie into an unforgettable experience. Their scenes in the woods with the girls are still as powerful and disturbing as ever. 'Last House On The Left' is hardly the kind of movie you "enjoy" but I think it's a very important movie, and still the best thing Wes Craven has been involved with. It's really quite difficult to believe that Craven made something so uncompromising and nasty as this! I highly recommend 'The Last House On The Left' to anybody interested in the development of horror, screen violence, or disturbing movies of any kind. But be warned, it is NOT easy viewing and may be difficult for many people to take. I think it is worth it as it's still an extraordinary piece of work!