The Last House on the Left  

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The Last House on the Left is a 1972 American exploitation horror film written, edited, and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham. The film stars Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David A. Hess, Fred Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, and Marc Sheffler. The plot revolves around two teenage girls who are taken into the woods and tortured by a gang of murderous thugs. The story is inspired by the Swedish film The Virgin Spring (1960), directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on a Swedish ballad, "Töres döttrar i Wänge".

Craven's directorial debut, the film was made on a modest budget of $87,000, and was filmed in New York City and rural Connecticut in 1971. It was released theatrically in the United States on August 30, 1972, and was a major box office success, grossing over $3 million domestically. Although its confrontational violence resulted in it being heavily censored and sometimes banned in other countries, the film was generally well received by critics. It was remade under the same title in 2009.

Plot

Mari Collingwood plans to attend a concert with her friend, Phyllis Stone, for her seventeenth birthday. Her parents, Estelle and John, express their concern about her friendship with Phyllis, but let her go and give her a peace symbol necklace. Phyllis and Mari head into the city and on the way, they hear a news report of a recent prison escape involving criminals Krug Stillo, a sadistic rapist and serial killer; his heroin-addicted son, Junior; Sadie, a promiscuous psychopath and sadist; and Fred "Weasel" Podowski, a child molester, peeping Tom, and murderer. Before the concert, Mari and Phyllis encounter Junior when trying to buy marijuana. He leads them to an apartment where they are trapped by the criminals. Phyllis tries to escape and reason with them, but she fails and is gang-raped. Meanwhile, Mari's unsuspecting parents prepare a surprise party for her.

The next morning, Mari and Phyllis are bound, gagged and put in the trunk of Krug's car and transported to the woods. Mari recognizes that the road is near her home. Mari and Phyllis are forced to perform sexual acts on each other. Phyllis distracts the kidnappers to give Mari an opportunity to escape but is chased by Sadie and Weasel, while Junior stays behind to guard Mari. Mari tries gaining Junior's trust by giving him her necklace and calling him "Willow". Phyllis stumbles across a cemetery where she is cornered and stabbed by Weasel. She crawls to a nearby tree and is stabbed multiple more times, dying in the process. Mari convinces Junior to let her go, but her escape is halted by Krug. Krug carves his name into her chest, then rapes her. Mari vomits, quietly says a prayer and walks into a nearby lake, where Krug fatally shoots her.

After they change out of their bloody clothes, the gang goes to the Collingwoods' home, masquerading as travelling salesmen. Mari's parents let them stay overnight. The gang finds photos of Mari and realize it is her home. Later, when Junior is in the midst of a heroin withdrawal, Estelle enters the bathroom to check on him and sees Mari's peace symbol necklace around his neck. She finds blood-soaked clothing in their luggage and overhears them talking about Mari's death, and of her disposal in a nearby lake.

Estelle and her husband rush into the woods, where they find Mari's body and decide to take revenge. Estelle seduces Weasel, bites off his penis, and then leaves him to bleed to death. John takes his shotgun and shoots at Krug and Sadie. Krug escapes into the living room and overpowers John, before manipulating Junior into committing suicide. John fetches a chainsaw, and Krug attempts to flee but is incapacitated by an electrocution booby-trap. Sadie rushes outside and falls into the backyard swimming pool where Estelle slits her throat. The sheriff arrives just as John kills Krug with the chainsaw.

Cast




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Last House on the Left" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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