Last House on the Left, The (UK)

I should of known what to expect after reading the tagline `In order to avoid fainting repeat...it`s only a movie`. This film even today is still horrible and raw. The film is nasty and I don`t know what the BBFC were thinking, letting it out of it`s video nasty vault. To add to this the script is poor and the acting crap. A bad movie all round avoid at all costs.
The picture is terrible, it looks like no effort was made to improve it. The sound is also a let down, the DTS is wasted along with the DD 5.1
But the extras improve, with a commentary by director Wes Craven and others, are informative. The documentary `Celluloid crime of the century` is good but the rest is a bit rubbish. Anchor Bay have produced a decent package for a truly awfull film.

Last House On The Left is one of the most important and groundbreaking horror films. Along with Night Of The Living Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, these three films revitalised the horror genre. Last House was one of the first films to portray realistic violence on the screen without glamorising it in any way. The raw presentation of the film gives it an almost documentary style feel to it.

This is the first time the film has been legally available to buy.
It was briefly available in the early 1980`s when it was released by Replay video before being added to the infamous video nasties list. Even now, the BBFC has cut the film by 31 seconds. It was originally 16 seconds but Anchor Bay refused and made an appeal against them. They lost and the film has been cut even more.

The picture quality is actually fairly good considering this was made on 16mm. The film was never going to look perfect due to the source material but it`s been remastered as much as it can be.

There is a whole load of quality extras on this disc. On Disc 1 are two audio commentaries. The first features director Wes Craven and producer Sean S. Cunningham and the second features actors David Hess, Fred Lincoln and Marc Sheffler.
Both commentaries are very enjoyable and contain lots of interesting info on the film.

Next up is a 40-minute documentary, Celluloid Crime Of The Century, which looks back at the making of the film. This is an excellent documentary which is well owrth watching.

Next is a 10 minute featurette on the film`s music. David Hess, who composed the music for the film as well as playing the villian Krug, talks about his music and even plays some of the film`s songs.

Other extras on Disc 1 include Trailers, TV Spots, Radio spots, cast and crew biographies, behind the scenes gallery, stills gallery and publicity gallery.

On Disc 2 is an alternate version of the film Krug And Company. This features a few additional lines of dialogue but that`s the only main change to the film.

The cut footage from the film is presented by Anchor Bay in a very clever and sneaky way. The gallery Forbidden Footage shows each frame of cut material and can be viewed in a flipbook style. This basically shows Anchor Bay giving the BBFC the middle finger.

There is also 20 minutes of outtakes and rushes. All of which are silent.

A 25 minute documentary Krug Conquers England shows the film`s first legal screening in a cinema back in 2000. David Hess is a special guest at the screening who talks about the film and also takes part in a signing session.

Finally there is a 11 minute short film which was going to be included in an anthology film called Tales That Will Tear Your Heart Out.

Overall, this is an excellent release which is only spoilt by the BBFC.