Review of The Last House on the Left (1972) by Kenneth B — 30 Oct 2015

I have read comments quite recently suggesting that time may have softened the impact of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left. The question that this brings to mind is whether it is our perception of horror films that has changed; or is it the films themselves that have changed.

What is the specific result of increasingly graphic nature of horror films? With the amped up splatter of modern movies comes a numbing of the message, which in the 1960s and 70s was inherent in films such as this and Night of the Living Dead.

Any social commentary intended by A Serbian Film, Human Centipede 3 or even the Last House on the Left remake is lost within the carnage, if it ever existed at all. Craven's film itself was a remake of sorts of Bergman's The Virgin Spring and it was born out of a generations collective anger at the Vietnam War.

The lines between good and evil, so clearly defined at the start of the film, could barely be more skewed by the end. It is undeniably rough around the edges but Last House on the Left is a reminder of a time when horror cinema could at once be brutal and relevant.