'Last House...' is a notorious film, because of its theme of rape, murder & vengeance and the often disturbing graphic violence and I admit I was interested in this film, not only because it was made by the man who gave us genre classics like 'Nightmare on Elm St', 'Serpent and the Rainbow', and 'Scream' but also because of its dubious reputation, especially in countries like the UK where this film was, or still is, banned (it will be released on DVD in the UK soon ,with about 31 seconds cut).
There are many similarities with 'I spit on your Grave' another 'video nasty' (which was even more heavily cut in the UK in order to make a release on video possible), but there is also an important difference: 'Last House' was created by a skillful director, someone who had it in him to make a truly good horror film, whereas 'I Spit' is far more of an exploitation film (and therefore in many ways even more disturbing).
However, 'Last House' is by no means flawless, and the excuse of the shoestring budget does not hold up totally. So many things have been said and written about this film and I know it has many fans who will defend till the end, but the acting is plain BAD. Krug is such a bad guy, it's almost laughable (I love the scene with the wee boy and the balloon!) and (I know it has been mentioned in earlier reviews...) what about these stupid cops!
I've heard the new DVD edition comes with a commentary by Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham and I would love to hear them responding to some bizarre scenes. For example, The daughter is moving when her parents find her, and I was surprised to see that she was still alive (she is moving her head and her eyes). However, one second later her father says something like "she's dead, there's nothing more we can do". And I tell you the girl was moving, not like an extremely bad actress would move who cannot 'play dead' but really moving!
There are many similarities with 'I spit on your Grave' another 'video nasty' (which was even more heavily cut in the UK in order to make a release on video possible), but there is also an important difference: 'Last House' was created by a skillful director, someone who had it in him to make a truly good horror film, whereas 'I Spit' is far more of an exploitation film (and therefore in many ways even more disturbing).
However, 'Last House' is by no means flawless, and the excuse of the shoestring budget does not hold up totally. So many things have been said and written about this film and I know it has many fans who will defend till the end, but the acting is plain BAD. Krug is such a bad guy, it's almost laughable (I love the scene with the wee boy and the balloon!) and (I know it has been mentioned in earlier reviews...) what about these stupid cops!
I've heard the new DVD edition comes with a commentary by Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham and I would love to hear them responding to some bizarre scenes. For example, The daughter is moving when her parents find her, and I was surprised to see that she was still alive (she is moving her head and her eyes). However, one second later her father says something like "she's dead, there's nothing more we can do". And I tell you the girl was moving, not like an extremely bad actress would move who cannot 'play dead' but really moving!