10 Times They Were Worried What Movies Would Do To You

6. The Last House On The Left Was Worried You'd Pass Out

Batman Returns Penguin
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Wes Craven used the hype and hysteria surrounding The Last House on the Left to create the film's marketing campaign.

Having struggled to get past various censorship boards in numerous markets due to the acts seen in the picture, Last House's promotional posters and trailers informed its audience, "To avoid fainting, keep repeating 'It's only a movie'".

For die-hard horror hounds, such a tagline only served as further encouragement to see what depravity Wes was serving up in his directorial debut. For others, this PR line was seen as a genuine slice of advice should the action of Last House become too unbearable.

In actuality, there were reports of people fainting at screenings of this 1972 effort, and likewise there are reports of projectionists cutting up the movie while it was still playing - due to being repulsed by what they were seeing, and being alarmed by the audience reaction to said happenings.

If someone did happen to get a bit wobbly or a smidge queasy during The Last House on the Left, they can't say that West Craven didn't give them ample warning ahead of time.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.