The Last House on the Left is a 1972 American rape and revenge film written and directed by Wes Craven in his directorial debut, and produced by Sean S. Cunningham. The film stars Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, and Marc Sheffler. Additionally, Martin Kove appears in a supporting role. The plot follows Mari Collingwood (Peabody), a teenager who is abducted, raped, and brutally murdered by a group of violent fugitives led by Krug Stillo (Hess). When her parents discover what happened to her, they seek vengeance against the killers, who have taken shelter at their home.
Craven based it on the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is an adaptation of the Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge". Cunningham produced the film for $90,000 and used a cast of relatively unknown actors. Distributor Hallmark Releasing, in partnership with American International Pictures, gave him and Craven funding after the box office success of Cunningham's Together (1971).
Craven cut the film numerous times for the MPAA to rate it R. Internationally, the UK refused to certify the film for release, and although it was briefly released on home video in the 1980s, the "video nasty" scare led to its ban until 2002. The Last House on the Left was released in the USA on August 30, 1972. While the film initially received polarized reviews from critics, it was highly profitable, grossing over $3,000,000 at the domestic box office.
Like the exploitation films Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), the film has received critical reevaluation years after release, with particular praise towards the narrative and performances of Peabody and Hess. It has since achieved a cult following and received a nomination for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills in 2001. The film was remade in 2009.
Plot
Mari Collingwood plans to attend a concert with her friend Phyllis Stone for her 17th birthday. Mari's parents, Estelle and John, express concern about her friendship with Phyllis, but they let her go and give her a peace symbol necklace. Phyllis and Mari head into the city, and on the way, they hear a news report of a recent prison escape involving criminals Krug Stillo, a sadistic rapist and serial killer; his heroin-addicted son, Junior; Sadie, a promiscuous psychopath and sadist; and Fred "Weasel" Podowski, a child molester, peeping Tom, and murderer. Before the concert, Mari and Phyllis encounter Junior while trying to buy marijuana. He leads them to an apartment where the criminals trap them. Phyllis tries to escape and reason with them, but she fails and is gang-raped. Meanwhile, Mari's unsuspecting parents prepare a surprise party for her.
The following day, Mari and Phyllis are bound, gagged, and put in the trunk of Krug's car and transported to the woods. Mari recognizes that the road is near her home. Phyllis is forced to urinate in her jeans, and Mari and Phyllis are forced to perform sexual acts on each other. Phyllis distracts the kidnappers to allow Mari to escape, but is chased by Sadie and Weasel, while Junior stays behind to guard Mari. Mari tries to gain Junior's trust by giving him her necklace and calling him "Willow." Phyllis stumbles across a cemetery where she is cornered and stabbed by Weasel. She crawls to a nearby tree and is stabbed to death. Mari convinces Junior to let her go, but Krug halts her escape. Krug carves his name into her chest, then rapes her. Mari vomits, quietly says a prayer, and walks into a nearby lake, where Krug fatally shoots her.
After they change out of their bloody clothes, the gang goes to the Collingwoods' home, masquerading as traveling salesmen. Mari's parents let them stay overnight. The gang finds photos of Mari and realizes it is her home. Later, when Junior is amid heroin withdrawal, Estelle enters the bathroom to check on him and sees Mari's peace symbol necklace around his neck. She finds blood-soaked clothing in their luggage and overhears them talking about Mari's death and her disposal in a nearby lake.
Estelle and her husband rush into the woods, where they find Mari's body and decide to take revenge. Estelle pretends to seduce Weasel, performs oral sex on him, bites off his penis, and leaves him to bleed to death. John takes his shotgun and shoots at Krug and Sadie. Krug escapes into the living room and overpowers John. Before Krug can kill John, Junior enters with a gun and threatens Krug, attempting to save John's life. Krug manipulates Junior, who is distraught and going through withdrawal from heroin, into killing himself with the gun instead. Using the distraction, John picks up a chainsaw from the basement and approaches Krug. Sadie enters with the switchblade and tells Krug to take the back door to escape, but Krug is hindered by an electrocution booby trap. Sadie, now terrified of both Krug and John, runs outside. After a scuffle between her and Estelle, she falls into the backyard swimming pool, where Estelle slits her throat. The sheriff arrives just as John kills Krug with the chainsaw.
Covered in blood, the cops and parents somberly overlook the chaos.
Cast Sandra Peabody as Mari Collingwood (credited as Sandra Cassel) Lucy Grantham as Phyllis Stone David A. Hess as Krug Stillo Fred Lincoln as Fred 'Weasel' Podowski Jeramie Rain as Sadie Marc Sheffler as Junior Stillo Eleanor Shaw (credited as Cynthia Carr) as Estelle Collingwood Richard Towers (credited as Gaylord St. James) as Dr. John Collingwood Marshall Anker as Sheriff Martin Kove as Deputy Harry Ada Washington as Ada Ray Edwards as Postman Jonathan Craven (uncredited) as Boy with Balloon Anthony J. Forcelli (uncredited) as Ice Cream Store Clerk Steve Miner (uncredited) as Hippie Taunting Deputy
Production Screenplay Sean S. Cunningham made his directorial debut with the 1970 white coater film The Art of Marriage, which grossed $100,000. The film attracted the attention of Steve Minasian's company Hallmark Releasing, which had a distribution partnership with American International Pictures. Cunningham made the 1971 film Together as a "better version" of The Art of Marriage. Wes Craven, who had no money at the time, was put on the job of synchronizing dailies for Together and soon began editing the film with Cunningham, with whom he became good friends. Hallmark bought the film for $10,000, and it was considered a "hit", prompting the company to persuade Cunningham and Craven to make another film with a bigger budget; the company then gave them $90,000 to shoot a horror film.
Cunningham served as producer, and Craven as writer and director, on the project. Written by Craven in 1971, the original script was intended to be a graphic "hardcore" film. Craven later said that the actors were originally committed to that, although this was contradicted by Fred Lincoln. Jeramie Rain and Sandra Peabody both objected to the original script at their auditions and were assured it would be changed.
The decision was made to edit the script to be less harsh. The next draft, titled Night of Vengeance, has never been published; only a brief glimpse is visible in the 2003 making-of featurette Celluloid Crime of the Century. Copies are available for viewing at the University of Pittsburgh's Horror Scripts and Ephemera Collection. The plot was inspired by the Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge", itself the basis of Ingmar Bergman's 1960 film The Virgin Spring, which Craven admired. Craven envisioned a film in which the violence would be shown in detail onscreen, as he felt that many popular films of the era, such as Westerns, glamorized violence and the "vigilante hero", and gave the public a misleading representation of death in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Casting The majority of the cast of The Last House on the Left were inexperienced or first-time actors, with the exception of Eleanor Shaw and Sandra Peabody, who were soap opera regulars and had prior film roles. Cunningham and Craven held casting calls for the film at Cunningham's office in Midtown Manhattan in late 1971. Peabody, who was returning to New York after a cross-country road trip, signed on to the film after responding to a casting notice in the trade publication Backstage. Cunningham and Craven originally wanted her to read for the role of Phyllis; however, after meeting her, they decided to cast her as the lead, Mari. Shaw was a prominent soap opera actress, and Towers worked as a talent agent in addition to acting. Although she did not recall the specific circumstances of how she became involved with the project, Lucy Grantham was ultimately cast in the role of Mari's best friend Phyllis. The role of the lead villain, Krug Stillo, was given to David Hess, also a musician and songwriter. Jeramie Rain, then twenty-one years old, was playing Susan Atkins in an Off-Broadway production based on the Manson family murders. Although the original script called for an actress in her 40s, Rain was cast as Sadie. Fred Lincoln, who had appeared in pornographic films, was cast as Krug's criminal partner, while Mark Sheffler was given the role of Krug's heroin-addicted son. Sheffler was a struggling 21-year-old actor and a client of Towers prior to filming, and he informed Sheffler of the auditions. According to Lincoln, he and Peabody were acquaintances and had the same agent at the time.
Filming
The film was shot on location for seven days in New York City, as well as Long Island, followed by shoots in rural locations outside of Westport, Connecticut. While filming in Connecticut, the cast and crew spent much time at producer Cunningham's family's home. According to Craven, the lake sequence was shot in the town reservoir of Weston, Connecticut. Craven sought a "documentary"-style appearance for the film, marked by close-up shots and single-cut takes.
Cunningham later described the film shoot as being "guerrilla-style", with the crew spontaneously filming at locations and being forced to leave due to lack of permits; in retrospect, Lincoln said that "nobody knew what [they] were doing". Much of the special effects in the film were achieved practically, some at Lincoln's suggestion. For example, for the sequence in which Phyllis is disemboweled, Lincoln helped craft fake intestines with condoms filled with fake blood and sand. For the murder sequence of Sadie in the swimming pool, Rain had a pouch full of fake blood attached underneath her shirt, as well as blood capsules in her mouth, which she manually punctured. Grantham recalled that during the scene in which Hess's character tells her to "piss her pants", she in fact urinated in her jeans. Steve Miner, who would later become a director himself, served as a production assistant on the film.
Hess recalled that much of the cast bonded closely during filming, since they were mostly inexperienced actors. In the 2003 documentary Celluloid Crime of the Century, Lincoln, Rain, and Sheffler recalled similar memories which recounted the making of the film. However, both Hess and director Craven recalled that the on-set relationship between Hess and Peabody was turbulent. Craven recalled that Peabody "often wasn't acting" her fear during filming. Sheffler admitted that during a one-on-one sequence with Peabody, he had threatened to push her over a cliff if she failed to hit her marks. In a 2008 Vanity Fair article, Hess also admitted threatening Peabody, telling writer Jason Zinoman: "I was very mean to the girls, so when it came to the rape scene, [Peabody] didn't have to act. I told her, 'I'm really going to fuck you if you don't behave yourself. They'll just let the camera run. I'm going to devastate you.' I don't think she was too happy about that."