Post by doomedbloodwork on Jul 7, 2004 8:32:44 GMT -5
LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT finally got a release, albeit in cut form, on DVD in the UK, last year, three decades after it's initial controversial release.
For me, anyway, it was the chance to finally see a movie that I had read about over the years. On the same night, I also saw I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and both these films gave me food for thought about the extent to which film-makers per se will always try and push back the boundaries.
Even today, in light of more recent offerings such as ICHI THE KILLER, IRREVERSIBLE and BAISE-MOI, the film packs a punch in part rather than a whole, not least for the perpetrators of the assaults and subsequent deaths of the girls they capture, but also equally the actions of the understandably grieving parents, who have prepared a nice homecoming for their daughter, who is celebrating her birthday.
The other examples I mention are indirectly related to the attitudes of current film-makers, which share an empathy with the director of LAST HOUSE. Wes Craven described it as a reaction to the Vietnam war in light of the context of families who would watch the footage coming back from 'Nam whilst eating their dinner. The recent excellent documentary THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE commented to a greater extent on this and seen in this context, the film does have a stronger meaning within than it did when people first saw it in cinemas without really associating it with the reality of South-East Asia, looking on it as one of the New Wave of 70's horror.
I have to admit though that it is a film I have mixed feelings about. Perhaps it's the playfulness of David Hess' score that dilutes the sense of desperation throughout and the ineptitude of the policemen as they try and locate the missing girls. In a way, does the film make us feel more guilty about watching violence as opposed to feeling less?
One feeling I do have is the sense of expectation being somewhat muted after seeing it. Like anything that develops into controversy (the Tinto Brass version of CALIGULA in 1979 being another case in point), the content of the film is undermined by the context it is viewed in. That's not to say that the film doesn't have it's moments, simply that the reputation of this and others that have come before or since isn't as predominant now.
So, on balance, LAST HOUSE is a movie to be seen, but perhaps placed in a historical context in light of the principal cast and crew associated with it.
For me, anyway, it was the chance to finally see a movie that I had read about over the years. On the same night, I also saw I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and both these films gave me food for thought about the extent to which film-makers per se will always try and push back the boundaries.
Even today, in light of more recent offerings such as ICHI THE KILLER, IRREVERSIBLE and BAISE-MOI, the film packs a punch in part rather than a whole, not least for the perpetrators of the assaults and subsequent deaths of the girls they capture, but also equally the actions of the understandably grieving parents, who have prepared a nice homecoming for their daughter, who is celebrating her birthday.
The other examples I mention are indirectly related to the attitudes of current film-makers, which share an empathy with the director of LAST HOUSE. Wes Craven described it as a reaction to the Vietnam war in light of the context of families who would watch the footage coming back from 'Nam whilst eating their dinner. The recent excellent documentary THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE commented to a greater extent on this and seen in this context, the film does have a stronger meaning within than it did when people first saw it in cinemas without really associating it with the reality of South-East Asia, looking on it as one of the New Wave of 70's horror.
I have to admit though that it is a film I have mixed feelings about. Perhaps it's the playfulness of David Hess' score that dilutes the sense of desperation throughout and the ineptitude of the policemen as they try and locate the missing girls. In a way, does the film make us feel more guilty about watching violence as opposed to feeling less?
One feeling I do have is the sense of expectation being somewhat muted after seeing it. Like anything that develops into controversy (the Tinto Brass version of CALIGULA in 1979 being another case in point), the content of the film is undermined by the context it is viewed in. That's not to say that the film doesn't have it's moments, simply that the reputation of this and others that have come before or since isn't as predominant now.
So, on balance, LAST HOUSE is a movie to be seen, but perhaps placed in a historical context in light of the principal cast and crew associated with it.
