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Tuesday, 26 May 2020

The Last House on the Left (1972 )


The Last House on the Left was a 1972 horror/thriller written and directed by Wes Craven, it was his first movie, what a way to start your career. It was produced by Sean S Cunningham, who would go onto write, direct and produce Friday the 13th.

The film also became a bit of a poster child for the Video Nasty debacle and ended up on the famous/infamous DPP39 list (this is the list of 39 films that were prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act by the Department of Public Prosecutions in the UK in the 80's, though there were 72 movies originally on the list), but more on that in a later blog, and I warn you that will definitely be multiple post as it's a fascinating period of British history and there's a lot to cover, not just the movies.


It's the eve of Mari's 17th birthday, she and her friend Phyllis are going to New York to see the band Bloodlust, and they think it'd be fun to score some weed before the concert, yeah, the moral of the story kiddies is don't do drugs!


They meet Junior, he says he can get them what they need and takes them back to the rooms he's sharing with some friends, these friends  are in fact his dysfunctional "family", lead by his lovely father (who got Junior hooked on heroin so he can control him) Krug (just escaped from jail), played by the wonderfully sleazy David Hess.


You also have the perverted, and aptly named, Weasel, and the psychotic Sadie.


So the nightmare for Mari and Phyllis is just beginning and turns into a gruelling experience for both us and them, it is a hard watch, probably not a date night movie, but then again if it's her idea then she's a keeper, far less disturbing than The Notebook, or any of it's bastard clones!


This is a film where no-one comes out unscathed, there's no happy ending but it's a well done movie, well acted and well directed, though you may want to shower afterwards!



There's some fantastic trivia on the movie, check it out @ IMDB


I watched both this and the remake on Friday, haven't seen either for a while, and I'd never watched them back to back before, check out my next blog for my thoughts on the remake.

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