Grade: D-
Synopsis: After brutally raping and murdering two girls, a group of killers unknowingly seeks refuge with the parents of one of their victims.
The Last House on the Left was very controversial upon its release in 1972 due to its graphic violence. After trying and failing to get an R-rating, producer Sean Cunningham went so far as to splice in a rating tag from another movie. That said, the movie would have no problem getting an R-rating today.
That said, without the shock and controversy, there really isn’t much to The Last House on the Left. The plot is lifted from Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960), the script is littered with poor dialog and weak characterization, and, while David Hess does come across as genuinely menacing, the cast ranges from awful to adequate.
Bottom Line: Without the shock value, The Last House on the Left is almost unwatchable. I’ll leave the irony to you.
