Mari and her friend Phyllis head into the city
to celebrate Mari’s 17th birthday. They’re kidnapped by escaped cons.
They’re beaten and raped. They’re
murdered. Then the murderers seek shelter in the least likely of places.
That’s the setup for this reinterpretation of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin
Spring.
God (that I don’t even believe in), bless DVDs. Wes Craven’s seminal 1972
debut has finally been restored to a complete version. This is probably the
first time anybody’s seen an intact cut of The Last House on the Left,
since the filmmakers finished work on it 30 years ago.
Its uncomfortable realism, heightened by the documentary-like grainy
photography, inspired individual theaters to reedit the original film to their
tastes. This butchering helped to create a legend about it. Nobody thought any
of the original footage still existed. Luckily, Roy Frumkes had archived it all.
Infamous scenes that had become folklore have been restored, including
Phyllis’ disembowelment and the carving of Mari’s chest.
Do they help the drama? Not necessarily. In fact, they’re so graphic and
brutal that they almost took me out of the moment. My response, of course, could
also be the result of not being used to those shots where they are. However, I
very much understand the point, and anyone used to watching cartoon violence in
movies should be required to watch this once.
I first saw The Last House on the Left on video when I was probably a
freshman in high school. It had an immediate impact on me; it took place in a
suburban setting that I easily identified with. I’d never seen a film portray
violence so realistic and ugly before.
The Last House on the Left was shot in 16mm for $90,000, by a bunch of
novices. Besides Wes Craven, there was Sean S. Cunningham, who went on to create
the Friday the 13th series, and Steve Miner, then a college student,
who’s since directed Soul Man and Forever Young, among others.
It was the first film in what I consider a trilogy that pitted civilization
against savagery -- all taking place in the shadow of Charles Manson and
inspired by the Vietnam conflict. The other 2 films I’m referring to are Tobe
Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Wes Craven’s The Hills
Have Eyes. All three were shot in 16mm and retained a jarring, yet
exhilarating crudeness. They perfectly captured a moment in America where
idealized safety and trust plowed head-on with social sickness and depravity.
Like the civilized characters in the films, our society was ultimately forced
into the abyss of barbarism, and has never fully recovered. We got a taste for
it.
Similarly to the laser disk and subsequent DVD of The Texas Chain Saw
Massacre, The Last House on the Left has been cleaned up and
presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The faded, grainy aesthetics I
was used to are now smooth, though not entirely. The disk features interviews
with most of the surviving participants, and it’s amusing to see what’s
become of them and how fondly they seem to recall working on the picture. David
Hess, who played Krug, the namesake of Craven’s Freddy Kruger, with wrinkled,
sagging skin, now resembles the goblins from the animated The Hobbit.
Meanwhile, Martin Kove, who graduated to more mainstream fare like The Karate
Kid, appears to have had a few nips and tucks. And Craven, in his interview,
laughingly admits to being stoned for most of the production. There’s also a
commentary track, outtakes and the original, classic trailer.
Roger Ebert’s controversial 3 1/2 stars review is prominently displayed on the
back of the box. He was the only major journalist to stand up for the film. He
was right. This is a must-own. -Jamie Stuart
-Copyright 2002 by
Jamie
Stuart