The Last House on the Left (1972)

A teenage girl named Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassel) is celebrating her 17th Birthday with her friend Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham) by going out to a rock concert to see their favourite band called Bloodlust.
However, they walk around the city looking for marijuana. A man named Junior Stillo (Marc Sheffler) claims he has marijuana at his suite so they all go up to his suite and a killer cult is in the suite led by a man named Krug Stillo (David Hess) who is an escaped convict and he kidnaps the two girls and is also the parent of Junior as he drugs him with heroin.
They all take the two girls in the woods which is only 100 feet from the Collingwood home where they torture, rape and kill them. Then without realising it, they drop off their dead bodies near the Collingwood's house where they all take refuge not realising they are Mari's parents.
The Collingwood's find out that they murdered their daughter and friend so they seek revenge on them by turning the tables on them.

Well this film didn't seem to be a horror film at first but when you see the elements used in it you will think differently as it was kind of a psychological crime horror suspense movie.
It's very intense and disturbing indeed giving out ideas to invent a slasher flick as well as showing youths never to enter a place with someone you don't know cause this can happen to you.
However, the story sometimes weakens as it doesn't do much after the fact these girls are being tortured and killed.
We also have some stupid dark comedy in the film by having two dipstick deputy and sherrif involved and doing a lousy job by finding these two missing girls but again Wes Craven admitted he was drunk while making this flick.
This film was produced by Sean S. Cunningham and of course written and ditrected by Wes Craven who would later become icons for other cult horror films like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street. This film did have some similar Elm Street elements to this flick.
Although this film was bombed by most other critics and wasn't a mainstream film by any means it still reigned as a cult classic along with other non mainstream horror films like My Bloody Valentine, Sleepaway Camp, Silent Night Deadly Night and Demons.
There are many remakes on horror films today and this would be a great one to do as it can look creepier nowadays.

The acting seems pretty good although alot of these cast members remained virtual unknowns.
Sandra Cassel does a good job as a senstive girl on her birthday as she knew how to cry well and get scared.
Lucy Grantham does well as the courageous one with a good tough attitude to her part which makes you hope that she will survive.
Cult actor David Hess stole the film with his performance as the psychotic killer in the film proving to be truly menacing and intimidating with his part as you'd just wish he was put out of his misery for his evil doings with the innocent teenagers.
Jeramie Rain you'd want to smack the crap out of her for being so skanky and nasty too. She was terrific with her part in it.
One of the most notable performers in this film was Marc Sheffler as the dimwitted son of the head cult members and looked good by playing an addict showing alot of issues with his character as you could tell he didn't like what was going on but was too messed up to do anything about it.
We have a supporting role by Martin Kove in one of his first films as a dimwitted dipstick deputy as his part was a little comedic. It was an odd combination as this film was dark.

Lucy Grantham has her top taken off by the cult members.
Sandra Cassel and Lucy Grantham are stripped down naked in the woods.

A girl is bloodily stabbed and then briefly her guts are pulled out
There's a cut off arm.
A gruesome slit throat
A guy blowing his head off
A killed being devoured by a chainsaw but it isn't too gruesome.

Wes Craven marks his directorial debut with this film and a great job he does with his work on it. Apparently he did make a student sci-fi film before this one though.
We have a good cheeesy dialogue between Sandra Cassel along with Gaylord St. James and Cynthia Carr discussing where she's going and the town being unsafe along with their discussion on her not wearing a bra.
We have a good dialogue between Cassel and Lucy Grantham hanging out near a river in the woods with a wine bottle and laughing.
We also have good shots on them driving in their car.
There's some twisted shots on David Hess walking by and popping a child's ballooon like you'd wanna hate this bastard as well as his dialogue with the others in their cockroach hotel room.
There's a good moment with Marc Sheffler acting goofy with Jeramie Rain taking a bath and she acts sleazy towards him.
A good shot on Sheffler waiting around outside and then Cassel and Grantham coming up to him asking for weed with him acting totally out of it.
We have a good effective moment when Cassel and Grantham walk into the hotel room and then Sheffler locks them in with the two of them shocked and startled. You will really cringe imagining if this ever happened to you.
Grantham does well trying to convince them to let them go trying not to act freaked out and Hess does well approaching them telling the two they're not stupid which leaves an impression that they won't let them go.
A nice reaction on Fred J. Lincoln pulling a switchblade on Cassel when she threatens to scream.
A good shot on Rain feeling Grantham's breasts and then Hess taking off her shirt and then Grantham spitting in his face and Hess slugging her then raping her with a shot on Cassel watching which looked disturbing indeed which was a helpless moment.
Meanwhile we get corny shots on St. James and Carr decorating a cake and preparing for her daughters 17th birthday.
A good camera shot on Lincoln carrying down Grantham down a ladder to their building.
We have a good sick dialogue with Hess having sex with Rain on the backseat of their car along with Lincoln talking to them awkwardly.
A good reaction on Cassel after she spots her mailbox while being dragged out of a car trunk and then sobs when she is taken into the woods.
There's a good sick direction on Hess when he manipulates Grantham to pee her pants else her friend will be tortured.
We have a good shot on Grantham and Cassel caressing one another in the woods with Cassel crying and Grantham trying to comfort her.
There's a corny dialogue with both Marshall Anker and Martin Kove as officers talking to St. James and Carr about their daughters disappearance which doesn't really fit or any of the other scene's that involved Anker and Kove.
There's great shots on Grantham running away in the woods with Lincoln and Rain on her tail as you wonder if she will get away.
A great shot on Grantham acting menacing towards Rain by smacking a rock against her head.
We have a good dialogue between Cassel towards Sheffler to set her free and she has drugs for him by trying to act uplifting before crying again.
Perfect shots on Hess, Lincoln and Rain cornering Grantham near a graveyard as she shows great shocked expressions.
A good shot on Grantham being brutally stabbed in the back with her weakly crawling along with camera shots on Hess, Lincoln and Rain staring at her and kicking her along with great menacing shots on Lincoln brutally stabbing her.
Cassel does well freaking out along with a shot on Hess pulling out a cut off arm and dropping it.
A good camera shot on Cassel slowly walking into a lake and then a great shot on Hess aiming his gun.
We have good shots at the dinner table with Hess, Rain and Lincoln pigging out on spaghetti and swigging back wine disguised as preachers a the Collingwood house.
Sheffler does well by whining and screaming in his bed about the two girls they murdered and Hess getting aggressive with him.
There's a great shocked look on Carr after spotting some bloody clothes in a suitcase.
St. James and Carr aren't too believeable after they find their dead daughter washed up when they're sobbing.
A great scene was a dream sequence between the two actors James and Carr when they make out they are going to do a mouth surgery to seek revenge on one of the cult members with a terrific camera looking up on them.
we have yet another corny direction by Craven with Anker and Kove having a dialogue with bit part actress Ada Washington as a chicken truck driver on getting a lift but it looks slightly charming.
Carr does well making out that she has a lustful thing for Lincoln by taking him outside and tying him. Then a great shot on Lincoln screaming in pain along with a great shot on Carr getting menacing by biting off his.... well I won't get into that.
There's many good shots on Hess slugging St. James and mocking him.
The most intense work of Craven's was with Hess and Sheffler's scene when Hess' character tells him to blow his brains out with his gun. Extremely disturbing stuff and he really coached Hess terrifically with his agression and intensity.
A nice shot on St. James walking up a cellar stairs with an active chainsaw and Hess slamming the door with a good shot on the door being sawed open and then attacking Hess while he's holding a chair to him. Craven proves Tobe Hooper isn't the brilliant man behing directing a chainsaw killer. Rain also does great going ballistic towards Hess telling him to get away from her. I found this the best direction of Craven's as it excites you that these bastards are getting what's coming to them.
There's also good shots and blockings on Carr having a battle with Rain.

Of course David Hess composed the music for this film as apart from being an actor he's a musician too.
He has great low gruesome bass guitar playing for the appropriate scene's. He also has good flute playing for certain scene's of the wooded areas. There's also great hisiing sounds for the real intense and creepy moments which sounded great as well as high pitched sounds for the stabbing scene's.
He also did all the soundtrack score's for the film but will be remembered for the echoey vocalising on "The Road Leads to Nowhere" along with Steve Chaplan. It was a little too overplayed though.

Krug Stillo: You must think we're stupid right? No, we're not stupid. We might be horny old pigs, but, we ain't stupid.

Krug Stillo: We don't wanna off someone first night out. I mean, it'd be a shame to get this floor all messed up with blood.

Krug Stillo: Piss your pants!
Phyllis Stone: What?
Krug Stillo: I said "Piss your pants"!
Phyllis Stone: You sick mother!

Mari: Junior, do you have a girlfriend?
Junior Stillo: Oh yeah, I got lots of girlfriends just waiting to get me!
Mari: I don't think you do.
Junior Stillo: Well you're right.

Krug Stillo: Listen to daddy. I want you to take the gun, and I want you to put it in your mouth, and I want you to turn around and blow your brains out. Blow your brains out, BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT!