It wouldn't work without the violence, but the violence alone doesn't make it work.

| May 13, 2025

Craven gives his film an uncomfortable verisimilitude, setting it squarely in the heartland of modern America. While it’s at times awkward and inconsistent, with distracting comic interludes, his handling of the brutal horror scenes is unsettling ...

| Oct 27, 2023

It struck a nerve at a moment when the Summer of Love already seemed ancient history, when the Manson murders, the never-ending Vietnam War and other factors had curdled idealism into escapism and reactionary paranoia.

| Sep 7, 2022

Beyond clumsy and amateurish, Craven dispenses with such niceties as plot logic and character development .

| Original Score: 5.1/10 | Aug 21, 2020

Wes Craven's grim, lo-fi thriller is a heart-racing experience the first time you see it.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 7, 2020

Both a cautionary tale for rebellious youth and a satire of wealthy pretenses, an exploitative work of obscenity and a sharp piece of social criticism.

| Jul 27, 2020

If you enjoy watching women being raped and tortured to the most inappropriate music imaginable, this is for you.

| Oct 31, 2018

The film is violent and seedy, an atmosphere made more effective by the use of unknown actors and a semi-documentary style... But Craven also introduces the kind of grace notes that he would use throughout his career.

| Aug 28, 2018

A hugely significant and relevant piece of horror history for a multitude of reasons.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 10, 2018

Indelibly scummy, Wes Craven's freshman shocker is less a rip-off of The Virgin Spring than a purposefully degraded update, with the medieval barbarism of the original cannily transplanted to Vietnam-era America.

| Oct 19, 2016

It's pretty to look at and ugly to digest.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 13, 2016

[Its] indictment of the human capacity for hatred and violence is nothing next to its status as a long lost Keystone Kops feature cut together with the world's worst folk musical.

| Original Score: 2/10 | Jul 5, 2015

A piss poor horror film with terrible production qualities.

| Jun 13, 2013

A depraved exploitation film specifically designed to shock and repulse viewers...also a cultural artifact reflective of and reactive to the time it was made... [Blu-ray]

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 27, 2011

The exceedingly low-rent production values subsequently ensure that the more overtly horrific elements within Craven's script often fall completely flat...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 13, 2009

Mean spirited to its core, this film's overriding theme seems to be that society is broken up into three categories: killers, victims, and witnesses. Wes Craven reworks Ingmar Bergman's significant "Virgin Spring" into something cruel and disgusting.

| Original Score: ZERO STARS | Dec 2, 2007

An ugly, disturbing, passionately conceived cult favorite, Last House on the Left is much more complex (albeit crudely made) than its controversial reputation would suggest.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 26, 2007

It isn't artistically adroit, but if success in this genre is counted by squirms, it's a success.

| Sep 26, 2007

Sartorially dated certainly, but still powerful, disturbing and raw.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 26, 2007

Craven and company tap into something hot, dark and deep.

| Original Score: A | Jul 23, 2007