John's Horror Banana-nanza Episode Ten :Last House on the Left

So quick. Name the two most popular horror villains from the 1980's. If you said Jason and Freddy, you're right. The Friday the 13th franchise was born in 1980, created by Victor Miller and Sean Cunningham. The Nightmare on Elm Street series was created in 1984, by Wes Craven. And together, in the early 70's,they released something absolutely dreadful, yet incredibly powerful, on an unsuspecting world. That something was "The Last House on the Left."

Now, there are slasher movies, and then there's this. The story is about two teenagers who are headed to a concert. The girls are picked up by a gang of thugs, raped, and thrown into a trunk. The next day they're raped again, and then brutally, and I do mean brutally, murdered. In one of the most graphic scenes ever put to video, one girl is gutted as she slowly fades to death. The murders proceed to twist the organs around in their hands.

Later on, the gang decides they need to try and wash the blood off. It becomes obvious this wasn't their intention, or at the very least, this was their first murder. The ordeal has the biggest effect on Junior, who later on, can't seem to cope.

The gang walks to a nearby house, which happens to be the house of one of the girls that was just murdered. The parents allow them to stay, but eventually piece it all together and begin their revenge. There's severed penis, unnecessary suicide by Junior, and eventually, chainsaws.

This might seem tame by today's movie standards, but take my word for it. The remake couldn't recapture the claustrophobic, sickening atmosphere set forth by the likes of Krug and his gang. My only complaint is, for whatever reason, there are intentionally humorous scenes involving, you guessed it, a couple inept cops. I don't know what horror movies have against the police, but apparently, all the cops in Hollywood are boneheads.