last house on the left.

so as i intend to begin saving money for the first time in my life it seems, i think it's going to be about time i cool it with the box set-deluxe edition madness.

doesn't REALLY change the direction of this blog i suppose, i'll just be talking more about shit i already have and that's coming out rather than shit i'm about to buy.

i know i'll fall off the wagon eventually, especially if bands like these guys do shit like this.

so just a quickie today, as doom is impending at work. and kim, i know you just did an entry about the remake but its fresh on my mind, so deal with it haha.

picked this up a few weeks ago.



the last house on the left 3-disc ultimate edition.

in brief, this is one of sean s. cunningham (friday the 13th creator)'s first produced movies, and more notably, the directorial debut of some guy named wes craven.

basic synopsis, girls go to concert, girls try to buy drugs, girls unintentionally meet escaped prisoners, prisoners rape and torture girls before eventually killing them, prisoners go to random house (on the left apparently), house is that of one of the girl's parents, parents find out about what happened, parents go ballistic on prisoners. basically your good setup for mayhem and murder.

film is a little rough and a little dark, i'd say maybe more disturbing than it is scary. plus its always great to see an all-american dad flipping his shit and going chainsaw. and no, not this chainsaw:



anyway, film was banned in the UK for like 30 years, then finally released with heavy cuts in like 2003. it didn't see fully uncut light until this release last year. so therefore the most extensive version is only available on a region 2 UK release, and the US release is shit. makes sense to me.

here we go:

uncut original release. lovely.
alternate cut. very very similar with one notable extended scene which actually adds to the plot and makes the film make a little more sense. it's a mystery why it was cut from the final release.
couple decent documentaries, some unused footage, behind the scenes footage, trailers, some weird silent movie called "tales to tear your heart out", basically your standard decent bonus stuff. with one exception:

disc 3 has a great documentary called "going to pieces: the rise and fall of the slasher film", which i had never heard of before this release, but i gotta say i was impressed. wonderful surprise.

in short, last house isn't the best, or the scariest, slasher-type film, but it is good. and not too dated either. and it began the career of two of the biggest names in horror, so we'll file this under "cool" and "historically significant".

speaking of which, i'll be re-watching "the maltese falcon" soon. absolutely great bogey flick.

side note: get yourself a multi-region dvd player. mine was $70 and it also upscales to 1080i. a lot of times instead of getting a shitty US release (as in this case, which is out of print and $20+ for a USED copy), you can get a much better version from the UK (or whatever country, i hear the re-cut 4+ hour single movie version of kill bill is an official release in japan!).

until next time..