The Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 film from the USA, directed by Wes Craven, running 84 minutes. reelscum files it under video nasty and rape-revenge.
- Year
- 1972 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 84 min
- Director
- Wes Craven
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- canon (10/100)
- Also known as
- Krug and Company · Sex Crime of the Century · Night of Vengeance · Crime of the Century
- Banned in
- UK · Norway · Australia · New Zealand
Defined in the glossary: Video nasty, Rape-revenge
A prosecuted DPP video nasty refused a BBFC certificate until 2002, not passed uncut until 2008, and banned in Norway, Australia and New Zealand.
Bergman's Virgin Spring, brutalised. Genuinely unpleasant and knows it. Tonally a mess.
Wes Craven's debut, loosely adapting Bergman's The Virgin Spring into something far uglier. Two girls are abducted, tortured and murdered by escaped convicts, who then unknowingly shelter with the parents of one victim, and the parents take a brutal revenge. It is crude, raw and upsetting.
The tonal control is a mess, goofy comic-relief cops sit beside real horror, but the assault scenes have a documentary nastiness that makes the film hard to shake. It launched Craven and became a video nasty cause célèbre.
Rough, disreputable, and more disturbing than its low budget should allow.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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Written about
- Banned, cut and confiscated
A Fulci print flown out of the country, an Australian rating that just means no, and a German court that filed The Evil Dead under criminal violence. Three states, three machines for making a film disappear.
The cycle in depth
- The Exorcist was banned on video in Britain by one censor
The Exorcist passed uncut for British cinemas in 1974, then had no legal UK video release from 1988 to 1999 because one censor would not certify the tape.
On these lists
- Notorious by reputation
Films whose legend outran them: banned, prosecuted, or argued about for forty years by people who mostly have not seen them.
Filed alongside
I Spit on Your Grave
The most argued-about film on this site. Read the glossary entry before deciding.
Irreversible
Noe runs the night backwards so the horror lands before the love does, and half the cinema left before either.
Cannibal Holocaust
A serious film about media atrocity that committed real atrocity.
The Hills Have Eyes
Craven's meanest. The suburban family turn out to be the better killers.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Almost bloodless, and still the most upsetting film here. The heat is the horror.
Zombi 2
A zombie fights a shark. Fulci's splinter shot is still the worst thing here.
The Beyond
Makes no sense whatsoever and is Fulci's best film. Dream logic, fully committed.
Possession
On the nasties list by pure bureaucratic accident. An actual masterpiece about divorce.
Tenebrae
Argento's coldest and cleverest. That crane shot earns its reputation.
The Evil Dead
Prosecuted in Britain. Actually a comedy, though it took years to admit it.
City of the Living Dead
The drill scene. Otherwise thin, but the atmosphere is thick.
Cannibal Ferox
Lenzi chasing Deodato with none of the argument. Real animal deaths, no defence.