LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, Wes
Craven's revenge opus
LOVE CAMP 7, early Nazi exploitationer
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LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
aka Krug & Company (US pre-r & UK), Sex Crime of the Century (original script title & US pre-r), Night of Vengeance (shooting title & US pre-r); The Night Company, USA, 91 min |
Inspired by Jungfrukallen (The Virgin Spring) (1960)
— but for heaven’s sake don’t show it to Bergman fans — the film is an
early entry in the rape revenge cycle which eventually led to shockers
like Meir Zarchi’s appaling I Spit On Your Grave
(1980) and Abel Ferrara’s flawed but interesting Ms. 45 (1981).
Famous for its oft-copied advertising slogan (“Keep repeating ‘It’s only
a movie! It’s only a movie!”), Last House, with its uncompromising
verite-style cinematography and hair-raisingly natural acting, comes almost
as close as Night of the Living Dead in capturing the look and feel
of a genuine nightmare.
A pair of attractive country girls are abducted while on a trip to the
city by a trio of escaped criminals led by the psychotic Krug (David Hess,
in one of the most terrifying depictions of a madman this side of Anthony
Hopkins). The gang are heading for the Canadian border, but stop off on
the way for a picnic during which they brutally humiliate, torture, rape
and eventually murder their captives. Upon resuming their trip their car
breaks down and they are forced to ask for help at a nearby house. The
householders are a Dr Collingwood and his wife who invite the gang in and
offer them hospitality. We recognize the Collingwoods as the parents of
one of the victims. Realising what their houseguests have done, the normally
sedate and rational couple are driven to humiliate and dispatch their daughter’s
killers with equal brutality.
Last House on the Left is also film of contrasts: the cosy respectability
of the Collingwoods’ lifestyle with the depravity of that of Krug’s gang;
the enchanting beauty of the family’s woodland home with the squalor of
the city; the cute girl-talk of the victims with the hateful and humiliating
language of their attackers. It is exactly these kinds of contrasts — coming
together ultimately in a contrast of American-As-Apple-Pie wholesome family
values of suburbia with the evil-as-sin values of the disfunctional outcast
— which continued to drive Wes Craven throughout his subsequent career.
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and its 1984 sequel are the best examples,
but the theme also finds a voice in Deadly Blessing (1981) and his
most famous film to date, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1985).
A brief note on running times is required in any discussion of Last
House. Legends abound about stronger and stronger versions and it remains
unclear what exactly constitutes the most complete print currently available.
The original (unauthorised) UK video release in 1982 (the first video release
of the movie anywhere) was a total mess (the end titles and the scene immedately
preceeding it were totally excised, to be replaced by a blank screen accompanied
by incongruously upbeat bluegrass music), but the various US prints circulating
do not seem to have fared much better. The most widely distributed print
at the time of writing is an R-rated version on video release in the USA,
with a quoted running time around 83 minutes, available on the Vestron/Live
Home Video and Hollywood Home Entertainment labels. A longer version in
available in Canada from CIC and a letterboxed version of this longer print
exists on the Dutch label Empire.
UK Vid. VPD (Replay), QRT. 77 min (unrated), Beta
& VHS
And you thought that the Italian cannibal films were in
questionable taste. In Love Camp 7 the director of Chain Gang
Women (1972), and some minor Mondo movies prefigures the thankfully
short-lived il sadiconazista cycle of the mid-seventies with this irredeemable
and utterly forgettable sado-quickie.
The sub-genre’s staple features are
all present and correct, principally a catalogue of fictional Nazi cruelties
perpetrated against a parade of nubile young women in various stages of
undress.
Fortunately the the BBFC has saved
you from this one. Bless them.
Dir. Lee Frost; Star. John Alderman, R.W. Cresse, Maria Lease
UK Vid. Abbey Video, QRT 80 min (unrated), Beta
& VHS ; Go Video, QRT 80 min (unrated), Beta & VHS
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