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The Last House on the Left

The Last House on the Left

1972
Suspense/Thriller, Crime
1h 24m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 38.48% from 1078 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(1078)
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Rated 18 Dec 2017
55
29th
The rape end of this rape/revenge movie takes over fifty minutes and is juxtaposed with a Dukes of Hazard type humorous twang soundtrack that makes the tone of this thing really weird. The traps setting revenge isn't all that satisfying either, except for the guy that gets an unnecessary blowie before getting his comeuppance (noted risky word choice). I will admit it was neat to find out that Wes Craven laid the groundwork for the Home Alone series.
Rated 30 Jan 2018
44
13th
Quite a nasty, sleazy, gritty little exploitation number, with not much in the way of redeeming features. There are some rather unpleasant scenes of grim violence on young females, interspersed with scenes of standard domesticity and, for some reason, almost slapstick scenes involving the local police. The weird, sung (by Hess) soundtrack sits quite at odds with the proceedings as well. There's no denying it's effective on a base level, but really lacks enough quality to be counted as a classic.
Rated 19 Jul 2008
85
52nd
This was actually very creepy, un-nerving and disturbing. I think that the film succeeds where as I Spit On Your Grave failed because it takes the material fairly seriously, and is also represents a good deal of craft on Craven's part. I think that the revenge element is just as strong, powerful and freaky as the actual crimes committed, with the vengeance coming at a fairly high price. I now want to see The Virgin Spring, which "Left" is a remake of, if only to compare the two.
Rated 25 May 2011
39
35th
Lacking somewhat in entertainment value and without any cinematic value whatsoever, except for being the grandaddy of home invasion exploitation (Hey, that rhymes!), sort of like a Straw Dogs for the even less classy. I will give Craven kudos for looking at The Virgin Spring and thinking "Daaa-yuhm, that would make a sweet fucking horror film!". Too bad he didn't watch Smiles of a Summer Night as well.
Rated 25 May 2007
35
12th
Pretty repellent filmmaking. Even though it does do what it sets out to do, disturb the hell out of the viewer, it does so at the cost of lingering scenes of disembowelment, rape, etc. This is exploitation filmmaking at its worst with little setup or payoff, just constant violent acts.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
10
1st
Why is this considered a cult classic? It's ridiculously awful.
Rated 01 May 2008
10
7th
Ipecac cinema. Really, the only reason to see this is to earn some sort of merit badge for the Weird At My School club. If you actually like this movie, congrats, you have a high crap tolerance and you are a fucking weirdo.
Rated 10 Nov 2008
80
78th
Craven's debut is still as shocking as ever. Split into two acts, this Bergman-inspired splatter depicts ultimate violence and its consequences in a truly realistic and naturalistic manner. The jolly country tunes and the adventures of the two silly willy cops provide a disturbingly working contrast. Of course it's amateurish, cheap and utterly absurd. But hey, there's nothing to cheer up my day like a good old disembowelment between rapes!
Rated 11 Oct 2010
58
15th
For all of the talk of it's innovation and in spite of it's director's(deserved) reputation, this just isn't a good movie. The violence is pointless, the writing is embarrassing, and it seems to have no real purpose other than to shock the audience, And it's not even good at that.In the end it all adds up to a film that does nothing but leave me baffled at the fact that it was written and directed by the man who would give us Freddy Krueger. Do yourself a favor and walk past this house.
Rated 29 Nov 2010
0
0th
Scene one reminded me of Tales from the Dark Side episodes only the acting was much more painful to watch, the writing plain mortifying, and I have no idea what was happening with the sound. Then of course there's the music, which had obviously no relation whatsoever to what was happening in the film. After this point every scene just keeps sliding further and further into a dubious sinkhole with no hope for retaliation after the bitter and alas so long awaited for wretched ending.
Rated 16 Apr 2012
31
16th
Made with the production values of a porno of the same era, and featuring cops and villains as incompetent as the ones in Home Alone, this movie is fairly unremarkable and inept compared to how controversial and famous it is. It's hard to say that it's boring, but it's also hard to say that it provides anything of real value except to audiences with a weird taste for poorly made movies and exploitative gore.
Rated 31 May 2019
54
30th
There are glimpses both of the source material and of the film maker Craven would become. The post-Manson yawning void of amorality, the disturbingly matter-of-fact violence, the often brilliant soundtrack... but the bizarre editing, wildly misplaced humour and hoky acting does it no favours.
Rated 21 Oct 2019
51
19th
That sure was a collection of scenes of people running through the woods and cops having wacky adventures, with the occasional murder thrown in there. Seriously though, the pacing is incredibly tedious and makes this feel twice as long. And even at its most sadistic it's too tonally disparate to horrify. Only occasional glimpses at a nice visual aesthetic.
Rated 24 Oct 2020
75
69th
Very good movie for it's time I loved the vigilante revenge angle
Rated 08 Mar 2021
80
77th
This movie was so shocked by its cruelty it had to break out in a zany theme song several times and cut to two bumbling cops just to lighten up a bit. “Oh my god, our daughter was brutally raped and murdered ... finally, an excuse to set up booby traps”
Rated 02 Mar 2007
70
75th
From acting to soundtrack, everything about this is completely tasteless and inept (one of the more thuggish actors wrote the soundtrack actually), the story is basically lifted from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, and yet, bizarrely, it's a great, thoroughly disturbing horror movie. Craven made just two great movies before he went into uninspired trash, and this is the first of them.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
75
74th
A truly sleazy exploitation classic, but the idiot cops who pad the running time with their brand of "comic relief" drag the score down some. I think this flick was the first time a chainsaw was used as a murder weapon in American cinema.
Rated 24 Sep 2007
2
33rd
Dreadful and nihilistic. There is no reason to watch this. I have no problem with violence in movies, but only in the service of some kind of message, and I don't see the Vietnam connection some critics have mentioned.
Rated 14 Mar 2008
24
2nd
It hasn't aged well, and that's while it wasn't good to begin with.
Rated 30 Jun 2008
65
68th
good movie
Rated 03 Feb 2009
70
63rd
The ending could have been so much better. If the ending was like that one dude's dream it would have been badass ending.
Rated 21 Feb 2009
50
47th
BORING.
Rated 11 Mar 2009
70
43rd
Rape Scene Rating: 8
Rated 19 Mar 2009
25
37th
"...a supremely schizophrenic movie, alternating awkward scenes of bad comedy with gruesome and unsettling moments of violence that reach a nasty level of documentary realism, all of which is covered by a folksy, guitar-heavy musical score that is so utterly out of place that it constantly threatens to turn the whole movie into a joke."
Rated 24 Feb 2010
2
15th
I don't know what's worse, this trashy movie or the kind of people who think this is quality filmmaking. It's not even the least bit disturbing because it's so unintentionally hilarious. I get that the part with the cops is comic relief, but everything else, including the music, is just so goofy. I think my favorite line was "i'm gonna call you willow because you're beautiful and you shake when the wind blows." Terrible movie. Watch The Virgin Spring instead. Fuck, watch the remake instead.
Rated 05 Mar 2010
38
35th
for a rape revenge movie this sure doesn't spend much time on revenge.
Rated 16 Jun 2012
15
7th
Unpleasant
Rated 01 Nov 2012
1
4th
For whatever reason it appears Wes Craven was at the right place at the right time and this movie took off, made millions, and provided him with the foundation to start a successful directorial career. None of this should have happened. After The Last House on the Left, Wes Craven should have crawled back into the hole he came from and never have directed a movie again. It's amateurish in all the worst ways, like the mind of a degenerate from Alabama. The association with Bergman hurts my heart.
Rated 14 Nov 2012
5
2nd
I hated this movie with a passion. It was the worst piece of crap I've ever seen. The fact that they tried to make murdering rapist into likable, even endearing, characters is sickening. I'm no prude, and I don't shy away from gore, but this was not scary and only made me sick to my stomach. Let's also not forget the part where the mother (badly dubbed) says over her supposedly dead daughter "oh, she's dead" as the daughter lies there blinking and moving her head. Don't waste your time.
Rated 30 Jul 2013
30
33rd
Nasty no-budget exploitation film. Not often I say this, but the remake is an improvement. Zero production values, non-existent acting and a truly bizarre soundtrack make this pretty lousy. I've no idea why this has gained such esteemed cult status.
Rated 07 Sep 2014
45
24th
Unmoving. The hair? Terrifying.
Rated 03 Oct 2015
70
51st
I found this really unsettling in a "gets under your skin for a long time afterwards" sort of a way. The production values are obviously terrible, and the comedy scenes with the cops are...bizarre, to say the least. Still, I think this one gets overlooked and underrated. What it is is *effective*, and I can't undervalue that.
Rated 06 Nov 2015
81
86th
I thought this would be more of a home invasion film, but it's almost the opposite. It is extremely uncomfortable to watch and grimy, lo-fi as fuck. There was absolutely no stylistic flourishes until the finale. This film feels like you're watching fucked up shit happen in real life, and you really want bad shit to happen to the antagonists, but after it does, I was just left feeling as grossed out and nihilistic as the ones who make it to the end.
Rated 18 Nov 2015
1
7th
Rape-revenge movies suck.
Rated 09 Oct 2017
2
14th
Wes Craven went on to direct some bomb-ass horror flicks (especially Scream, my second favorite film of 1996), but this ain't one of them. The bargain basement production values, bland dead-eyed acting from most of the cast, comedic bumbling cops and bizarre romcom music make for something that's interesting as a historical artifact of what used to be shocking and controversial cinema but has aged over almost fifty years like milk left under heat lamps for the same length of time.
Rated 20 Jan 2018
75
80th
They messed with the wrong parents. The ability to combine the most atrocious thing ever -- a gang that gets off humiliating, raping and killing young women -- with a true cartoonish, yet raw vibe -- cops are Simpsons' like (can't even fuel a car), gore is sharp as a knife, always so vile -- really makes this really impressive as Craven's first feature. What else could you find mom and dad avenging their kid by chewing a criminal's dick and slaughtering the other with a chainsaw?
Rated 20 Feb 2007
15
2nd
The crazy old black lady on the truck near the end cracked me up, but the rest of the film is pretty much worthless. Overrated tripe.
Rated 24 Feb 2007
5
0th
Very very poor.
Rated 15 Apr 2007
60
65th
More appaling to me than the later Craven. It's not structured, mostly ameteurish, but at least it doesn't stop at any kind of political/ethical correctness. That makes it absurd enough to give a shot.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
83
75th
It has the grittiness the story needs and the imagery the story needs to be remembered. Wes Craven proved extremely early on in his career that he could fashion a great piece of cinema from screenplay to post-production.
Rated 17 Sep 2007
50
22nd
ugly movie
Rated 17 Dec 2007
75
34th
Gritty, brutal.
Rated 22 Jun 2008
70
60th
Feels like a really vulgar, gory after-school movie. If they had gotten the tone down, this would've been a better movie.
Rated 21 Jul 2008
68
49th
Gritty and brutal. Very disturbing, but doesn't really make sense.
Rated 15 Aug 2008
69
58th
Craven's debut is a little mouldy, with the 'after school special' aesthetics, awkward sitcom style dialogue and corny folk music, still LHOTL is an exploitation classic that documents the decay of the 'free love' 60s generation and the rise of 70s pessimism and ultraviolence.
Rated 03 Dec 2008
75
28th
Good if you need to vomit something up.
Rated 09 Jan 2009
1
0th
Rated 08 Mar 2009
3
0th
"It isn't artistically adroit, but if success in this genre is counted by squirms, it's a success."
Rated 12 Mar 2009
10
19th
God, fuck the 70's. Down there with Rob Zombie's Halloween as one of the most pointlessly vulgar things created by mankind. Plus it's directed, edited, acted, scored and written like total crap, that doesn't help either. Also, fuck the 70's.
Rated 18 Mar 2009
42
33rd
This movie is very aged and I have to say I suppoused to see it long, long time ago. Now it's just bad acted and poorly written, and it's gore has been topped in numerous films afterwards. There is no nostalgia value either since I haven't seen it before.
Rated 08 Apr 2009
70
71st
Good old fashioned Wes Craven never dissapoints. Nice gritty style, plenty of fucked up scenes ("piss yourself!"), and a few laughs, as well. Very interesting to see how rapists do what they do to young hippie girls.
Rated 29 Apr 2009
86
73rd
Disturbing and tense.
Rated 03 May 2009
20
10th
Utterly pointless, demented, and just...bad. Grade: D-
Rated 12 Jun 2009
50
21st
Another of those early banned slashers.
Rated 16 Jun 2009
75
33rd
There are some really unsettling moments in this film...so much so that you just cringe when you watch them.
Rated 23 Jun 2009
79
44th
The Last House on the Left is a slice of life film. Its just not the slice of life that you really want to see. Following this archetype allows the exploitation to be jarring aswell as disturbing.
Rated 28 Jul 2009
68
47th
Still disturbing as hell. Doesn't stand up next to The Virgin Spring, though.
Rated 22 Aug 2009
85
87th
This is one of the most ridiculous movies I have ever seen. Even if you expect grindhouse pulp, you probably aren't prepared for what this movie will deliver. A hilariously inappropriate soundtrack accompanies this mixture of A Clockwok Orange, Home Alone, and the Andy Griffith show with a little Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a whole lot of nudity. Mix exaggerated slapstick with graphic rape and torture and you get this bizarre little gem of grindhouse. It disturbs and confuses.
Rated 26 Aug 2009
68
22nd
even though this film was filmed on a low budget i still enjoyed the film. there is a deeper meaning to this film than rape, murder, and mayhem. the underlining meaning, to this film, is not placed in well but it shows that craven had more in mind than just trying to gross people out.
Rated 05 Oct 2009
65
31st
Last House on the Left has earned an infamous reputation over the years for its supposed controversial content and brutal violence. I found it to be overhyped and more of an exploitive low budget B-film than shocking coming across as dated. Furthermore, the movie contained a lot of cheesy dialogue and awful acting. Not that it is a masterpiece by any means but I prefer the remake over the original. A few of the scenes in the movie do work and are startling and dismaying to some extent. The
Rated 12 Oct 2009
45
24th
There is something strangely endearing about the behind the scenes story of how Craven made this, but I would advice you to watch the Ingmar Bergman directed The Virgin Spring, on which this is based.
Rated 26 Nov 2009
97
94th
A truly realistic portrayal of sadistic violence.
Rated 19 Oct 2010
30
78th
"Back in 1972, Wes Craven's feature-film debut The Last House on the Left pushed more than a few puritanical buttons." - Ed Gonzalez
Rated 25 Dec 2010
61
30th
61.000
Rated 26 Jun 2011
70
69th
It feels too humorous to be actually scary or disturbing, but it's still fun and I love how Craven uses music and odd electronic sounds. In some places the film is even poetic, somehow.
Rated 30 Jun 2011
40
34th
I liked it despite permanently forgetting how many villains there should be in it.
Rated 05 Oct 2011
65
23rd
The destruction of a family. "The Last House on the Left" is a visceral horror movie by Wes Craven in his directorial debut. The low budget camera work makes it almost look like it is shot on a video camera, which makes us, the audience, feel as if we are part of this terrible group of people, watching with perverted interest.
Rated 28 Feb 2012
74
67th
I was expecting mindless over-the-top violence, but there's a lot more to it than that. It's really easy to see this movie as a commentary on the death penalty, or even on revenge in general. You should feel uncomfortable when these teenagers get horribly murdered, and you should feel uncomfortable when the parents fight back in an equally brutal way. It's more thought-provoking than your average slasher movie, or many horror movies in general.
Rated 10 Jun 2012
68
29th
Ol' fashioned violence, at a time after the Manson murders a film like this and many more is only to be expected; a classic grind house film with sentiments of A Clockwork Orange and other films about sadistic mini-cults. Arbitrary gruesome realism fuses it into a introspection of the era; the paradigm shift of unsuspecting trust leading to the loss of common innocence and nonjudgmental distribution of human compassion; the the folksy and rural soundtrack gives it a greater twist of madness.
Rated 29 Aug 2012
3
31st
Points for historical importance and some unsettling moments, but damn this is trashy filmmaking. I still hope one day we can get a full cut of this - more lesbian rape is needed.
Rated 25 Oct 2012
34
8th
A little bit B Movie and a little bit gore. It tastes like a student movie. Remake is much better than this. The Good: Innovative, beautiful presentation of the film (Real Story, Banners, Posters, etc.) The Bad: Music, Editing, Acting * Casting, Acting : 4 * Script : 3 * Directing, Aura : 2 * Ease of Viewing : 4 * Naked Eye : 4
Rated 28 Nov 2012
30
25th
Goodness gracious. I liked the soundtrack, though! It made me smile.
Rated 07 Mar 2013
65
24th
hapishane kaçaklari, üc erkek bir kadin, kayip kiz, kaçirilmak, iskence (sahneler uzun degil), tecavüz (Mari Collingwood arkadasiyla beraber sehrin varosunda bir konsere gider. Yolda gördükleri bir gence uyusturucu sorarlar. Genc bunlari evine götürür. Hapisane kacagi olan kisiler kizlari alikoyar. Ertesi gün arabanin bagajina atip yola cikaralar. fakat araba bozulur. Kizlari ormanin içine götürürler ve iskence yaparlar. Kizlari öldürdükten sonra bir eve giderler.) DUYGUSU ZAYIF. REMAKE Daha 
Rated 01 Oct 2013
60
22nd
60.000
Rated 10 Oct 2013
60
10th
Has some of the most dark, depressing, harrowing stuff you'll see in any movie, but that doesn't change the fact that most of it is rather lame.
Rated 24 Oct 2014
38
18th
Schizophrenic tone and abnormal character reactions.
Rated 01 Nov 2014
77
55th
Plagued with problems, like scenes of the horrifying abuse are edited with comical scenes of the buffoon cops, too many wild coincidences, and some of the music is cheesy. Yet I still like it, it's a well done rape revenge thriller that thankfully I didn't find tasteless, glorifying, or sensationalist. I even found it had more depth and cultural relevance than the Bergman film it's based on.
Rated 06 Dec 2014
64
31st
Sleazy & nasty & contains some truly attrocious tonal disorder. It mostly works in context of the time it was made in as a some kind of comment on the commodification of violence. According to Craven it was a reaction to news footage from the Vietnam War. Honestly its immature & amateurish execution make it very hard to appreciate any of that although it does stand out from its peers for its sheer nerve. A crude & horrible classic that I would only recommend for genre fans or film historians.
Rated 29 Jun 2015
65
65th
Ugly, cheap and disturbing. Some would say the effect is easy to obtain (giving the subject matter) but you can't deny a certain set of skills from Wes Craven. But the finale is way too silly.
Rated 12 Aug 2015
52
32nd
Horror, thriller, comedy and torture porn, all in one heck of a controversial movie.
Rated 14 Aug 2015
70
26th
Not as shocking or gross as I feared, but also not a particularly good movie either. The build up, despite the mediocre acting, is reasonably effective but the ending is just absurd, and not in a good way.
Rated 17 Jul 2016
40
10th
The most disturbing thing about The Last House on the Left is the atrocious, amateurish acting. It's like a comedy horror, with unfunny jokes, which leaves you feeling sorry for the cast. The most shocking thing about this is that Wes Craven wrote and directed it. Wow. Yep, I am shocked. Best to avoid this and watch the remake instead.
Rated 15 Aug 2016
72
36th
It kinds of does the whole "it's only a movie, it's only a movie" thing for you.
Rated 22 Oct 2016
40
12th
i like the plot per se, but this has the production values of an educational movie, not to mention the weirdly jovial choices in score, bad attempts at slapstick and it seems craven popped a fair amount of LSD prior to editing. good for you, wes. bad for everyone else. in the right hands this could be turned into something, which i somehow doubt happened in 2009.
Rated 05 Oct 2017
50
26th
(Viewed on 24/09/12): Craven's controversial debut was a tasteless update of The Virgin Spring that must have been shocking in its time. What makes it stand out more than your typical exploitative rape-revenge film is the critical eye Craven casts on the revenge seekers who pursue their victims with a bloody thirsty rage that's understandable but rather unnerving. Its wobbly tone swings wildly from horror to farce, which is disorienting, but the shifts are crudely handled. Overrated.
Rated 23 Oct 2017
50
9th
The tonal shifts of this movie did not work for me. There is gentle folk music playing during serious and dark moments. Weird digital staccato noise is played like a sound effect as someone is being stabbed. One of the most gruesome scenes is cross cut with two over the top cops and goofy music. Most of the characters acted cartoonish. Even the still shot that ended the film caused me to laugh. There are redeeming qualities to this film, but overall, I am not sure why it is considered a classic.
Rated 17 Nov 2017
2
4th
The last few minutes were alright but nothing leading up to it was really working for me.
Rated 13 Jan 2018
50
14th
Wes Craven's introduction is probably the most commercial and infamous exploitation film out there. Reevaluation of the film doesn't really bring out as much admiration as I would have expected. The film succeeds in being hateful and making the audience feel unsafe more than most anything else I've seen. However, the score is bizarre, the acting is rough, and narrative is inane. Last House does feel important, even if it isn't enjoyable.
Rated 22 May 2018
50
25th
I'm surprised that Craven went on to make such commercial horror films. It's definitely heavy on the exploitation, but has a strange dark sense of humour to it, also. The tone is truly all over the place. It's not particularly graphic, but much like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), the raw, gritty way in which it's presented makes it feel very real and disturbing. I thought the climax was pretty cool. I don't know if I really liked it, but it was certainly an experience.
Rated 11 Oct 2018
75
44th
The borderline retarded cops drag the whole thing down, but it's still pretty great.
Rated 31 Oct 2018
57
37th
I appreciate the grittiness of the visuals but the plot is a bit ridiculous, the sound design is bad, and the tone is wildly inconsistent. Two bonus points for the moment when they pick the blades of grass off their bloody hands, that has really stuck in my mind.
Rated 02 Oct 2019
31
22nd
It's not great, but there is an element of creepiness that puts it above similar fare such as I Spit on Your Grave.
Rated 14 Nov 2020
60
29th
60.3.
Rated 21 Apr 2023
9
8th
Basically gore porn
Rated 26 Jun 2023
35
0th
Acting & Casting - 4/15 Presentation and Development of Characters - 5/15 Story and Story Presentation - 5/15 Visual Quality - 3/10 Creativity - 3/5 Execution - 7/10 Pacing and Lenght - 3/5 Music and Theme - 1/5 Sound and Visual Quality, Cinematography - 2/10 Directing - 2/10
Rated 22 Aug 2023
10
0th
Ridiculously bad. Bad writing, bad acting, awful camera work and editing (including lots of hairs in front of the lens/film), bad jokes and the worst sound design/score I've ever heard. Quoting another user here: "And even at its most sadistic it's too tonally disparate to horrify." Makes me truly impressed by what they managed to make of it in the 2009 remake.

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