10 Home Invasion Movies Where The Invader Is The Victim

In Wes Craven's first feature film, The Last House on the Left, the legendary horror director seemed intent on mixing as many setups as he could to produce something vile and new. And, do you know what, he darned well succeeded. 

While trying to buy some sticky icky on their way to a gig, 17-year-olds Mari and Phyllis (Sandra Peabody and Lucy Grantham) are waylaid by a gang (why is it always a gang?!) of four escaped convicts. Rapists, psychopaths, and paedophiles by trade, the foursome go to town on the girls in precisely the ways one would expect, before killing them and disposing of their bodies.

Part exploitation flick, part psychological thriller, part rape-revenge movie, part home invasion, Last House on the Left straddles many tropes (and establishes a few new ones) with no more complex intent than exploring all possible avenues for misery. The horror-fantasy climax the whole thing builds towards doesn't shift into gear until the third act, when the gang arrive at Mari's parents house and the family fight back, but when it does, bitten-off penises, electrocutions and chainsaw murders ensue. Whether this is just deserts or too much to stomach is a matter of personal perversions.