10 Shocking Movie Scenes Directors Later Regretted

The Last House On The Left is still a nasty piece of work four decades on, with the unflinching violence and bleak tone making it a harsh watch. Writer/director Wes Craven shot with this in mind, wanting to make a movie where the violence was unsettling instead of fun.

The film became notorious for years after release, and the audience reactions even shocked Craven. While he always acknowledged Last House's importance to his career, he also felt it was a little sloppy and amateurish in some parts. He also felt he pushed the intensity too far, especially in the death of Phyllis.

She gets stabbed so many times she’s essentially disembowelled, which even repulses her killers. In a career retrospective, Craven talked about filming this, and how everyone was so disturbed by the scene they couldn’t eat afterwards, himself including. "It just felt chillingly real and repulsive”, which was the intention but he feels he should have held back. In fact, it originally went further, with the gang pulling on the intestines after the murder, but Craven trimmed this last section out.