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A Look Back At Wes Craven’s First Film As It Celebrates Its 44th Birthday
Today marks the US release of the late Wes Craven’s, Last House on the Left. Those of you only familiar wth Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream should certainly give this one a look. Craven’s first film is quite the departure from his more popular fare.
Last House on the Left was actually inspired by an earlier film, Ingmar Bergman’s revenge film The Virgin Spring. The Swedish film is about a woman who is raped and killed, forcing her parents to seek revenge.
Similarly, Last House on the Left tells the tale of two teenage girls who walk into the wrong apartment. Inside they meet three murderous psychopaths who subject the girls to hellish torture before killing them. Eventually, their parents learn of this and take revenge on their daughter’s killers.
Originally envisioned as a graphic hardcore film entitled Night of Vengeance, Craven was forced to “soften” the film for release. Still, this was not enough. The MPAA gave the film an X rating despite numerous attempts by Craven to edit the film for an R rating. Finally, Craven decided to put all the original footage back in, slapped an authentic Rated R logo on the box, and released it.
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Upon release, the film was immediately met with controversy. It was heavily censored in countries like the UK and during the Video Recordings Act of 1984, the film was banned from home video shelves.
To this day, there are many different cuts of the film depending which country you get it from. Copies of the film were often cut from the original film reels which were edited before screening to meet censorship rules. The rest, according to Craven, could have been lost forever. It’s said people would often buy copies of the film simply to burn them.
A remake of the film was made in 2009 starring Garret Dillahunt, Aaron Paul, and Riki Lindhome. Also, Mario Bava’s Twitch of the Death Nerve was released in other countries as Last House on the Left – Part II, an unofficial sequel to the film.
By Mike Sallustio
