The Last House on the Left

While a lot of people seem to praise this film as a horror gem, I myself consider it more like a drama… a mildly gruesome drama, but certainly not horror. I can enjoy horror films that don't contain some of the expected traits, like: jumps, creepy music, lots of screaming or tons of gore… but there has to be something to remind us that this is, in fact, a horror movie after all. To be honest though, there is a little bit of gore, that's true… but if the atmosphere isn't reminiscent of a horror film, the gore itself ends up being out of place. I was expecting something good, as I consider Wes Craven to be a very talented horror director, but I guess he simply wasn't in his prime back then.

On 'Last House on the Left', the story revolves around a group of criminals, three guys and a trashy girl, who have recently escaped from prison. Two girls on her way to a concert, decide to stop by a house, looking for marijuana. The girls are kidnapped by these ex convicts, who torture them, rape them and eventually murder them in a brutal way. After butchering the two friends, the gang seeks refuge with the parents of one of the victims, who are completely unaware of everything. However, when the man of the house finds out about what happened to his daughter and who were responsible for what happened to her, he teams up with his wife to execute a gruesome revenge against his four guests.

The idea of two vindictive parents trying to avenge their dead daughter sounded promising and original for a horror film. It gives hopes for something tragic, dramatic and gruesome, but in the end, "Last House on the Left" ends up being more like a drama full of missed opportunities. One would expect a movie like this to reach its high point in the scene where the parents are finally able to avenge their daughter, but to my disappointment, this confrontation takes place only during the very last minutes of the film and it is shown in a very bland way. I can understand that minimalism work...