Posted by Vincent at bg-tc-ppp909.monmouth.com on November 16, 2002 at 16:01:33:
In Reply to: Re: Scariest movie ever? posted by NickfromBuffalo on November 16, 2002 at 14:43:44:
"Disturbing" is a more accurate term. It's actually not an entirely successful movie- there are a lot of slapsticky scenes that are an apparent attempt at providing "comic relief" that are really, REALLY awful- but there are several genuinely upsetting scenes in the movie, and historically, it *IS* an important film in the genre.
It's not as perfect (or scary) as THE TEXAS CHAIN-SAW MASSACRE (to name another film made at around the same time as LAST HOUSE under similar conditions- i.e., 16mm down-and-dirty independent filmmaking), though, but it's worth seeing. There's even an early "nightmare" sequence from young director Craven, pointing even at that early date towards his later success with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (Craven's 1980 film DEADLY BLESSING- starring a very young Sharon Stone- is also loaded with nightmare imagery, and one scene involving a snake in a bath-tub was basically lifted verbatim by Craven for the bath-tub scene in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET four years later).
Incidentally, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is actually a remake of Ingmar Bergman's 1959 classic THE VIRGIN SPRING, one of my favorite films of all time.
Vincent
: My high school history teacher used to always say Last House on the Left, I've never seen it but I did notice that a special edition dvd was just released. Now I might actually see it. VUlgar is pretty scary. The Ring is Scary too, but I thought both Blair Witch films were just as scary. I still haven't gone into the woods.