The Last House on the Left [Collector's Edition]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Wes Craven's first film was a crude but shocking horror opus that, like George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), became a grind house hit largely because it went much further than terror films before it had been willing to go. Often compared to Ingmar Bergman's stark medieval rape drama The Virgin Spring (1960) (though one wonders whether this was influence or just coincidence), Last House on the Left follows a group of teenage girls heading into the city when they hook up with a gang of drug-addled ne'er-do-wells and are brutally murdered. The killers find their way to the home of one of their victim's parents, where both father and mother exact a horrible revenge. Like Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre two years later, Last House on the Left was an unrelievedly dark vision of contemporary horror that inspired many future films which copied its effects without achieving its visceral impact. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • CC
  • Audio commentary with actors David Hess, Marc Sheffler and Fred Lincoln
  • Still Standing: The Legacy of the Last Home on the Left featurette with Wes Craven
  • Celluloid Crime of the Century documentary
  • Scoring Last House featurette
  • Tales That Will Tear Your Heart Out unifinished short film by Wes Craven
  • Deleted scene
  • Never-before-seen footage

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Marc Sheffler - Junior
       David Hess - Krug
       Sandra Cassel - Mari Collingwood
       Jeramie Rain - Sadie
       Ada Washington - Ada
       Cynthia Carr - Mrs. Collingwood
       Marshall Anker - Sheriff
       Martin Kove - Deputy
       Gaylord St. James - Dr. Collinewood
       Fred Lincoln - Weasel
       Lucy Grantham - Phyllis Stone

• Director:

  Wes Craven

• Producer:

  Sean S. Cunningham

• Screenwriter:

  Wes Craven

• Composer (Music Score):

  David Hess

• Editor:

  Wes Craven

REVIEW:

• Horror master Wes Craven's powerful debut was this controversial low-budget remake of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1959). One of the more brutal rape-revenge films, it is unflinchingly explicit in its depiction of the vicious abuse and slaughter of two teenage girls at the hands of a Mansonesque gang of criminals. The revenge segments are no less shocking, including a murder by bucksaw, a throat slashing, and an oral castration. The acting is amateurish and the cinematography is bargain-basement, but something in the almost documentary-like nature of the film makes it devastating nonetheless. Along with Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), it is one of the early classics of graphic horror. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi