Cast:
Sandra Peabody (Mari Collingwood), Lucy Grantham (Phyllis Stone), David A. Hess (Krug Stillo), Fred Lincoln (Fred 'Weasel' Podowski), Jeramie Rain (Sadie), Marc Sheffler (Junior Stillo), Eleanor Shaw (Estelle Collingwood), Richard Towers (Dr. John Collingwood), Marshall Anker (Sheriff), and Martin Kove (Deputy Harry) Written and Directed by Wes Craven (#474 - A Nightmare on Elm Street, #558 - Scream, #633 - Red Eye, #939 - Swamp Thing, #1156 - Wes Craven's New Nightmare)
Review:
"We were seeing Buñuel and Fellini and Truffaut and all of these guys who were making these imaginative, wonderful films, and that’s where I fell in love with it. And it was just a matter of a certain point, my department chairman saying “Stop goofing around with cameras in student-film class. I want you to either get your Ph.D. or you’re fired.” And I quit on the spot. Finished out my term, but that’s when I started going to New York to get into films. And I was kind of clueless about that kind of horror film. I just fell in love with film itself. I think all that shows in the original Last House." - Wes Craven
Sometimes I think people are just a bit ridiculous when it comes to reacting to violence shown on screen. But hey, what do I know, I've never been influenced by a film when it comes to committing violence, so here we are. It's weird to consider this film as a starting point for two horror film people. Sean S. Cunningham had been born in New York City but raised in Connecticut before working in theater and documentary companies before being a director. He had actually started his directorial career with The Art of Marriage (1970), an "educational" type of nudie film. The money he made from that led to the sex mockumentary with Marilyn Chambers as star in Together (1971), which attracted the interest of Wes Craven. Born in Cleveland to a strict Baptist family, he had made his first short films after studying in college for philosophy and psychology (he even was a professor for a brief time). Apparently, he was involved in the X-rated world of filmmaking. At any rate, he was hired by Cunningham to serve as assistant editor while helping with the dailies from the reshoots on this film. The resulting success led to an offer to do another film to the company if they wrote them a check, which led to this. Craven would serve as writer, editor, and director while Cunningham would produce (his wife did the costume design). Craven based his film (made for roughly $90,000) on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1960) while expecting it to only have appeal for the group of theater owners in Boston that the film was sold for, which apparently went from ideas of being a "hardcore" film to something more in horror. A mix of "guerrilla-style" shots came with stuff shot in New York City, Long Island, and Westport, Connecticut alongside effects that had to be done with condoms and sand. There were a handful of titles thought of before the one they went with: "Sex Crime of the Century", "Night of Vengeance", "Grim Company", and "Krug and Company". Somehow, the one they used seems better. There was never a sequel made despite ideas to, but a handful of castmates such as Peabody and Lincoln returned with Cunningham for the sexploitation comedy Case of the Full Moon Murders (1973). In 2009, Craven and Cunnigham served as producers on a remake of The Last House on the Left.
There were various edits made to the point that a separate editing room had to be set up by Craven and company to repair prints that were cut out by people. Craven had to wait five years to direct his next feature with The Hills Have Eyes (1977) while stating that there was a feeling over the years of "a definite progression or arc from feeling guilty about what I had done" with this one. Peabody dominates our focus for a time as the lead in a way not generally seen when you consider her last scene. She did not have a positive time making the film, probably because in addition to a lack of confidence, one of the killer characters was being played a method actor, and at one point to help with getting the right sort of "level of desperation", an actor put her right by a cliff and suggested to her face to throw her off if she messed up the take. Needless to say, her fear is one shared by the person watching it, because I can picture that fear of being in the wrong place for the worst time all over her face. Hess plays the lead killer role along with contributing to the music (with some singing also done by Steve Chapin) that is a mix of folk rock and bluegrass. I actually think the music works to the film's advantage in terms of strange unsettlement, since we are talking about a movie that doesn't go the usual way in spooky scares. He also proves a good reason for why he would be present in a handful adversarial roles over the years as a chilling threat. The semi-attempt at documentary feel can only go so far, because the attempts at playing with us by having scenes shot with comic relief (such as say, two cops that try to make their way at one point by getting on a van with an overload of chickens) only work to the cheapest of imitations. Maybe that's the point, only the violent scenes carry some sort of attention to us, particularly when the climax operates on the idea that even the most normal standing of folks will go to extremes when pushed. I especially find the sequence of the killer group finding their way to the parents' place while presenting as salesman and lounging around the bed of the woman they just killed as particularly unsettling. Lincoln and his writhing display gets the best result possible: being told to follow orders even when it means death. Shaw and Towers make a suitbalr parential duo going from staid to horrific in a flash (if someone tells you to tie them up and unzip, well, it doesn't leave much to the imagination of how this might have started as a skin flick first). Of course, the scene where a victim is told to pee themselves is also infused in terror, but again, your milage will vary on how effective the film is regardless of its crude filming and execution for 84 minutes. As a whole, this is the kind of film that will prove one's mettle in viewing horror films for what they are when it comes to violence because, well, some people respond to this film for what it is better than others. I'm inclined to call it horrifically good.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
Halloween The Week After, Year Five continues with The Blob 1988 remake.
No comments:
Post a Comment