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Extras:
Disc 1: Two audio commentaries, 'Celluloid Crime of the Century' Making of Documentary,
'Scoring Last House...', 'Krug Conquers England', Tales That'll Tear Your Heart Out, Outtakes and Rushes,
US Theatrical Trailer, TV Spot, Radio Spots
Disc 2: Krug and Company - alternate cut of the film, World Exclusive: Never Before Seen Footage,
Interview with Carl Daft of Blue Underground
Disc 3: 'Going to Pieces: The Rise & Fall of the Slasher Film' Documentary, Filmmakers Commentary,
Extended interviews, Burgeoning Gorehound Challenge, Seasoned Gorehound Challenge, True or False Quiz,
Written Message from Adam Rockoff, Trailer
(25/8, Cursed, The Hills Have Eyes Part II, The Last House on the Left, Music of the Heart, A Nightmare on Elm Street Paris, je t'aime, The People Under the Stairs, Red Eye, Scream 1-3, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Shocker, Vampire in Brooklyn, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, TV: The Twilight Zone)
Producer:
Sean S. Cunningham
Screenplay:
Wes Craven
Music:
David Hess
Cast :
Mary Collingwood: Sandra Cassell
Phyllis Stone: Lucy Grantham
Krug Stillo: David A. Hess
Fred 'Weasel' Podowski: Fred Lincoln
Sadie: Jeramie Rain
Junior Stillo: Marc Sheffler
Dr. John Collingwood: Gaylord St. James
Estelle Collingwood: Cynthia Carr
Ada, chicken coop truck driver: Ada Washington
Sheriff: Marshall Anker
Deputy: Martin Kove
Postman: Ray Edwards
Released in the year I was born, 1972, The Last House on the Left
is a notorious Wes Craven horror movie that has never been released uncut until now.
We hear on the radio, that the two girls of the piece, Mary (Sandra Cassell) and Phyllis (Lucy Grantham),
are listening to as they drive, about a couple of escaped murderers who bumped off two prison wardens as they got out
and even stooped as low as kicking a dog to death.
The two of them beaten up and kidnapped by Krug (David A. Hess), Weasel (Fred Lincoln) and Sadie (Jeramie Rain),
when their parents thought they were going to a concert. Having not returned home, the next day they're taken out into the
wooods for some distasteful violence from their captors.
You certainly get to see why this didn't see the light of day in an uncut form for some time, although by today's standards
it wouldn't have a problem getting an 18-cert - with the appropriate advisory warning, as time has moved on, since it's
pretty gross on a frequent basis, but some films go for some of the all-out gross-factor too, only with better lighting and
filming techniques. However, as a film and watching it for the first time in 2008, there's not exactly much of narrative
and the two Keystone-like cops on the trail of the car driven by the baddies just doesn't sit right with seriousness of the
violence. They'd be more at home in a Smokey and the Bandit sequel.
And the last third of the film when it involves Mary's parents moreso is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
First question - where's the Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 soundtrack as present on the 2003 release from Anchor Bay?
The picture leaves a fair bit to be desired as well. I appreciate that some films shot in the 1970s will look a bit soft,
but isn't the point of remastering them to get a sharper image? In fact, there's nothing sharp by any stretch of the
imagination. I know that watching this on a 37" screen won't help a bad image, even if it is a plasma so will do a far
better job of standard-definition than an LCD, and that the picture I'm watching is on an Xbox 360 which is upscaling the
image. Plus, or rather minus, there are no subtitles :(
The film is presented in a 16:9 anamorphic ratio and very slightly windowboxed, although this won't be noticeable on a CRT
TV which already has some unavoidable overscan.
The extras is where this package excels and for those who do like the film - and don't mind the poor picture quality -
there's plenty to get stuck into and they're split across all three discs and begin as follows:
Disc 1:
Audio commentaries: One featuring director/writer Wes Craven and producer Sean S. Cunningham, and one featuring
stars David Hess, Marc Sheffler and Fred Lincoln
'Celluloid Crime of the Century' Making of Documentary (39:33): The director and producer talk individually about
how they came to working together. Fred Lincoln (Weasel), now a prolific adult movie director, also chips in about his
part in the film and how it could've turned out to be another porn film, and there's also similar chat from the other 'baddies'
but, surprisingly, neither of the two female leads. Plus, for such a long documentary, it's odd that this hasn't been
chaptered at all.
'Scoring Last House...' (9:43): A featurette with actor David Hess who also wrote the music for the film. By the
time you've heard the opening theme repeat itself several times over the main menu, you'll wish he'd never written it.
'Krug Conquers England' (24:14): In July 2000, we see David Hess doing a song and the rest of the lead-up to the
first ever uncut film screening in the UK. Again, this is mostly more chat for the camera.
Tales That'll Tear Your Heart Out (11:18):
Passing by without explanation, there's no sound during this piece of film that acts in similar style to a slasher movie.
Without sound or context, there's no point to this. A quick google shows this was filmed in 1977, directed by Craven and
starring Hess (the lighting's too poor to make out most of what's going on)
Outtakes and Rushes (17:06):
Does what it says on the tin but, again, no sound. Am I missing something obvious here?
US Theatrical Trailer (2:01): Presented in 4:3 with a spooky voiceover.
TV Spot (0:30):
One advert for two films - Don't Open the Window and this one.
Radio Spots (5:44): Audio advertising.
Disc 2:
Krug and Company: An alternate cut of the film running slightly less, at 81 minutes, and presented in 16:9
without the windowboxed appearance of the version on disc 1. Flicking through the chapters, the print's even worse for the
bits I saw but I wasn't about to sit through this film again.
World Exclusive: Never Before Seen Footage (5:38):
Featuring some more naked footage, rather like the rushes on disc 1 this also has no sound.
Interview with Carl Daft of Blue Underground (21:44):
This is the man who ran the distributor which appealed against the BBFC's cuts in May 2002, yet lost their case at the time.
Disc 3 has a different menu from the first two because it mainly features a full-length documentary and supplementals to go
with it:
'Going to Pieces: The Rise & Fall of the Slasher Film' Documentary:
Split into 12 chapters over 88 minutes, films such as the Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday 13th, Halloween and the Scream
series, amongst others, are discussed at length as is the genre itself. Subtitles are also included here, unlike the main
film.
Filmmakers Commentary: Featuring the producers behind this documentary.
Extended interviews (32:35): featuring John Dunning, Paul Lynch, Bob Clark, Joseph Stefano, Fred Walton and
Stan Winston. Additional content to go with the main documentary.
Burgeoning Gorehound Challenge:
20 multiple choice questions about slasher films. I got 10 right, and most of those were guesses.
Seasoned Gorehound Challenge:
30 questions this time. I scored... erm, 9.
True or False Quiz:
10 questions. I got 9 right, although I sort-of cheated as I kept assuming after a couple of 'false' presses made me realise
that, after a few more, that several questions were 'true' in a row, so I went back for another try :)
Written Message from Adam Rockoff: Four pages of text from the writer of the book behind this documentary.
Trailer (1:18): for this documentary.
The main film - in both versions - contains a mere 12 chapters, which seems to be a habit for Metrodome.
I always work on a rule of thumb of one every five minutes as a reasonable figure so this isn't good enough. Also, there
are no subtitles for the film and the opening theme features several times over on the main menus and starts to grate after
a few times.
Also, before the menu even appears, we see a trailer for Them, and this really shouldn't happen for DVDs since this is
not the age of the rental video!
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
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