The Last House On The Left/Comments

"The Last House on the Left" might just be the most influential exploitation film of all time. Spawning a ton of ripoff's from overseas and turning Wes Craven into a cult icon this movie has really created a lot of people's careers. David Hess plays Krug, one of the most menacing characters in cinema history and is really the driving force of the film. It managed to get Hess more work in several of the Last House ripoff's or movies that were trying to capitalize on it's success. Movies like "Hitch-Hike" and "House on the Edge of the Park" saw Hess playing similar characters (although with enough differences for them to feel different, but mainly he was playing the lead evil character) in each movie. Personally I feel that some of the "ripoff's" hold up better over time than the original film, but there is a lot to be said for it nonetheless. Last House was a movie that crossed a lot of boundaries and if it wasn't for that I don't think that Exploitation cinema would have set the standard that it eventually did. --Ed Demko