"The Last House On The Left (1972/Blu-ray/MGM)" Review

Synopsis: On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Mari Collingwood tells her parents that she is going to the concert of underground band Bloodlust in New York with her friend Phyllis Stone. She borrows the family's car and heads with her friend to a dangerous neighborhood in the city. Meanwhile, the sadistic and cruel escapees Krug Stillo and Fred 'Weasel' Podowski are hidden in a hideout with their partners Sadie (Jeramie Rain) and Krug's addicted son Junior Stillo (Marc Sheffler) after killing two guards and one shepherd in their runaway. The two girls seek marijuana near the theater and meet Junior that offers some Colombian grass to them. They go to his apartment and are subdued by the criminals that rape Phyllis. On the next morning, they hide the girls in the trunk of their convertible and head to Canada. However, they have a problem with the car's rod and they stop on the road close to Mari's house..

Review: Like I stated in my review of "The Hills Have Eyes" Wes Craven has always been a hit or miss director and like that film he hit the nail on the head! Last House On The Left was one of the first revenge type of films that I had really ever seen and it truly left and impact on me that has only been matched by one other film and that was I Spit On Your Grave.  The plot of this film in alot of ways is simple, but for a film like Last House On The Left it works perfectly. You basically follow these 2 girls who are killed by a psychotic family of criminals that get what they deserve by the parents of one of the murdered girls. Like I said it's a simple plot but it is quite effective and that could be from the way the film looks as well as how it is shot.

 Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre this film has a very dark and gritty look and feel that is very much in a documentary style that helps it to seem more real and terrifying. The cast really helps this film out as well especially the most notable performance from David Hess (R.I.P.) as the character Krug Stillo who is quite a ruthless killer who seems to have no sympathy. There will be alot of people who will hate this film due to violent content or even just the look of this film, Last House On The Left is definitely not for everyone.

Enough of talking about the film and lets get onto the presentation of this film. Originally this film was shot on Super 16mm which is in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio and blown up to 35mm which really makes this film look worse than it would of if they would of stuck to the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The Basket Case blu-ray release is a good example of that it's good to keep a film in it's original aspect ratio no matter how much people would bitch if they had to watch it with black pillars on the sides of their HD TV's. None the less this film looks the best it ever has on any home format. One redeeming factor is that they did keep the original mono soundtrack. Overall it's a good presentation minus the very bad cover they put on this release. You also still get the same special features as they had on the 2008 DVD release which is great if you don't own the DVD release, just wish they were in HD as well.

Picture: 3/5 Audio:4/5 Special Features: 5/5 Movie: 3.5/5

-Daniel "Damnation" Lee

Director: Wes Craven

Genre: Horror/Exploitation

Blu-Ray Release Year: 2011

Theatrical Release Year: 1972

Time Length: 84 mins.

Company: MGM

Website: www.mgm.com

Tech Aspects:
Audio: English Mono DTS-HD Master Audio
Aspect ratio: Widescreen 1.85:1 
Codec: AVC @ 40 MBPS
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French