Freddy's 31 Days of Horror Day 9: Wes Craven's Last House On The Left
A film which I have always stayed away from putting on the list for it's controversial content but as the maestro has passed it is time to discuss his beginning. Those who do not understand the genre will never appreciate this film and even those who do have a hard time with it for it's sheer brutality. Sean S Cunningham who gave us Friday the 13th produced Wes Craven's first film which was a modernization of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring. This comes off the heels of the Vietnam war and the destruction of the Love generation as the parallels of the atrocities in Vietnam are made within the film showing said atrocities can indeed come home and pop up in our safe back yards. 
Mari is a happy teenager in the seventies wanting nothing more than to leave the comforts of her all around American home and parents to go to the city and experience a rock concert and partake in the many psychedelic waves of intoxication presented to her. Her parents lovingly talk about how different the world is and warn her of the city and the company she keeps. On the loose in the city are four escaped convicts, Weasel, Sadie, Junior and their leader Krug. Krug is so corrupt that he keeps his son Junior addicted to heroin to keep him in line. It is this addiction that Krug manipulates to get Junior to go out and get women for him and his cohorts to torture, which is how they meet Mari. They kidnap her and her friend and their car breaks down in the forest by Mari's house. There they torture and kill them and proceed to invite themselves into Mari's parents home as guests. When the parents discover who the fugitives are and what they've done, we recieve one of the bloodiest revenge films ever.
This seems to be a simple grind house revenge film by description but the artistry behind it and the way it is told is what truly makes it unspeakable cinematic gold. There are so many harsh scenes within the film that I definitely understand some people just cannot stand to see, but nevertheless it is a reflection of society at the time and is art not commentary on society? 
The scene in particular that hurts the most is a rape scene, but there is so much more to it than that. There is a point where Krug, Weasel and Sadie cut Mari and torture her which leads to rape. It is one of the most intense scenes to watch without truly seeing too much of the act itself, but what makes it different is what follows. They get up off of Mari and let her up. There is no struggle. Mari gets up shakily puts her clothes on and begins walking to the river. The three stand there looking to one another in shock as if they had awoke from a coma of evil and realize what they've done. They are disgusted with themselves, wiping blood and grass off of themselves ashamed but knowing they have to finish what they started. This scene represents the loss of humanity and the realization of no return to it. It is tragic beyond belief.
The second scene is once the parents realize who they all are. They have taken these people into their home, fed them and given them a place to rest. Their hospitality knows no bounds even in their worry and grief of possibly losing their daughter. This is apple pie mom and pop America. The dream. The lengths they go to make these four suffer after they realize who they are is brutal, they don't care how they do it they just want to make them suffer and they do even as the police, whom are friends of theirs, the order of the world barge in pleading with them to stop to recover what's left of their decency, they don't. They finish the job and gain their revenge and with that the dream died.
This is a definite movie to sit back and reflect upon and possibly the strongest social commentary Craven has in any of his films. The music is done by Krug himself David Hess which litters the movie with both folk rock and tragic beauty combined with an aesthetic of grime vs nature. A true masterpiece of horror in the real world. As the original tag line suggests when you watch this film keep repeating;
It's only a movie.
It's only a movie.
It's only a movie.
22 Days til' Halloween Halloween!
22 Days til' Halloween! Silver Shamrock!
