3. The Last House On The Left (1972) - From £0.37
The Last House on the Left was a film, like Cannibal Holocaust, that I was very nervous about viewing. I had read about it and how brutal and infamous it was, and I was terrified about it warping my fragile little mind. Again, like Cannibal Holocaust, whenever I got my mitts upon it, it was in my DVD player quicker than a heartbeat. I watched the film and was utterly transfixed. David Hess commanded the screen like some vicious, sadistic Caligula reincarnated, he was so believable (just as scary as he was in House at the Edge of the Park). The horrible things: the long protracted torture, rape and murder of two teenage girls at the hands of a bunch of thugs, the thugs making one of the girls urinate in her jeans, enforced lesbian sex play, cutting words onto one of the girl's throat, disembowelling one of the girls, Krug (the chief baddie) getting his son to kill himself with a gun, Weasel (another baddie) getting his manhood bitten of by one of the girl's avenging mothers, Krug getting chainsawed at the film's climax. It is quite a horrible spectacle to entertain, but like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it does give the viewer a certain kind of adrenalin. It relentlessly batters on, taking no prisoners and doesn't let up on the suspense and action (except when those silly incompetent cops are involved). The ending is downbeat and sad. The girl's parents have exacted revenge but at what price and was it worth it? Did the saying "an eye for an eye" ring satisfactorily true in this case? Director Wes Craven doesn't seem to think so. I think he was a bit miffed with the Vietnam War.