{"id":69459,"date":"2021-02-14T18:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T01:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=69459"},"modified":"2021-02-14T21:17:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T04:17:19","slug":"last-house-on-the-left-the-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=69459","title":{"rendered":"Last House on the Left, The (1972)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Are you sure we&#8217;re not going to put you folks to any trouble?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Poster-204x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-69460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Poster-204x300.png 204w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Poster-697x1024.png 697w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Poster-87x128.png 87w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Poster-184x270.png 184w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Poster.png 755w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nDuring a trip to the big city, Mari (Sandra Cassell) and her friend Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) are kidnapped and tortured by a sadistic gang of escaped convicts (Davis Hess, Fred Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, and Marc Sheffler) while Mari&#8217;s concerned parents (Richard Towers and Cynthia Carr) wait back at home ready to celebrate her 17th birthday.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fugitives<\/li>\n<li>Horror Films<\/li>\n<li>Kidnapping <\/li>\n<li>Revenge<\/li>\n<li>Serial Killers<\/li>\n<li>Wes Craven Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that this &#8220;repulsive, controversial cult film&#8221; &#8212; notorious as the breakthrough movie of writer-director Wes Craven and producer Sean S. Cunningham &#8212; &#8220;starts out humorously&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family-1024x550.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"344\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-69462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family-1024x550.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family-768x413.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family-502x270.png 502w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Family.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; but quickly devolves into a middle section that&#8217;s &#8220;an outright embarrassment&#8221; and a &#8220;final section&#8221; that&#8217;s &#8220;hogwash&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final-1024x550.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"344\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-69463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final-1024x550.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final-768x413.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final-502x270.png 502w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Final.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He accurately notes that the &#8220;humor [and] happy music are offensive&#8221;, that &#8220;you&#8217;ll feel ashamed to be watching it&#8221;, and (presuming you&#8217;re seeing it in a theater) you&#8217;ll &#8220;feel paranoid about the men around you who are grinning and taking delight in the girls&#8217; torture.&#8221; He argues that the &#8220;major problem is that the film is so convincingly made &#8212; and the sadists and their victims so authentic &#8212; that the torture scenes really seem to be happening.&#8221; Remarkably (or, sadly, not so), the film has a significant cult following and was recently released on Blu-Ray. Regardless, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s3684left.html\">DVD Savant<\/a> writes, &#8220;it&#8217;s still an indefensible carnival of cruelty and carnage, with unendurable pain and suffering meted out to two innocent girls by a quartet of pitiless human monsters.&#8221; Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1972\/12\/22\/archives\/last-house-on-left.html\">Howard Thompson&#8217;s review for <em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a> is worth copying here in its (short) entirety: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a thing (as opposed to a film) titled &#8220;Last House on the Left,&#8221; four slobbering fiends capture and torture two &#8220;groovy&#8221; young girls who airily explore the bad section of a town and more or less ask for trouble. 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 switchblade. The party who wrote this sickening tripe and also directed the inept actors is Wes Craven. It&#8217;s at the Penthouse Theater, for anyone interested in paying to see repulsive people and human agony.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Decent production values<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle-1024x550.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"344\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-69465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle-1024x550.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle-768x413.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle-502x270.png 502w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Last-House-on-the-Left-Middle.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though film fanatics may be curious to check it out given its cult status. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0068833\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1972\/12\/22\/archives\/last-house-on-left.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/review\/1000\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s3684left.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Are you sure we&#8217;re not going to put you folks to any trouble?&#8221; Synopsis: During a trip to the big city, Mari (Sandra Cassell) and her friend Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) are kidnapped and tortured by a sadistic gang of escaped convicts (Davis Hess, Fred Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, and Marc Sheffler) while Mari&#8217;s concerned parents (Richard Towers and Cynthia Carr) wait back at home ready to celebrate her 17th birthday. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Fugitives Horror Films Kidnapping Revenge Serial&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=69459\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69459"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69481,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69459\/revisions\/69481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}