The Last House on the Left (1972)
This one hit some limits for me apparently. Depiction of sadistic senseless violence and rape is not new, and I rate films such as Irreversible, Elle or The Piano Teacher as high art, but here I just found it distasteful and meaningless. Whatever attempt Wes had for some meaning or purpose is at best poorly handled or simply completely absent, leaving exploitation for its own sake. The jarring contrast with upbeat music and goofy police officers, could have been an unique angle to play at. It simply doesn’t work at all as the parts don’t come together. Nothing to connect. No emotional reasoning for anyone shown here.
It is easy to compare it to The Virgin Spring and Late Night Trains as they are all the same basic narrative. The Virgin Spring had its main focus on the father and his own moral and religious calms with his actions. Late Night Trains gave a deeper depiction of the perpetrators and their internal group dynamic, giving some contextual background to the sadism. In this one, none at all is portrayed in any interesting way or with deeper introspection. The girls are just young and naive, the perpetrators are just vicious serial killers and the parents are just parents that just switch from cozy to calculated revenge killers in no time. There are a few very small attempts throughout the film that tries to hint at something for all of them, but it is extremely lacking and make the film as a whole seem just distasteful handling of its subject material.
Rating: 2