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Oct
10
2008

The Last House On The Left finally UNCUT in the UK, plus world exclusive new footage!

Posted by James Dennis at 2:20pm.

Posted in DVD News , Exploitation, Horror, USA & Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia & New Zealand.

***UPDATE***

I have just been informed that the release date has moved back to the 20th Oct.

Rejoice, because Monday finally sees the uncut UK DVD release of Wes Craven’s seminal The Last House On The Left. Previously available in the UK only in various edited versions, and banned outright between 1984 and 2002, the BBFC have at last seen sense and granted the film an 18 certificate with all previous cuts waived.

In addition, and rather excitingly, Metrodome have uncovered a further 5 minutes and 27 seconds of previously unseen footage. And just to clarify, this isn’t the outtakes and dailies available on previous discs across the world (though these are included too), but all new ‘recently discovered’ footage that hasn’t appeared on any other DVD release before. A world first, the scenes are silent and mostly consist of extended and more explicit footage of Mari, Phyllis and Sadie performing sexual acts on each other.

When the notoriously strict James Ferman’s reign as director of the BBFC ended in the late 90s, the majority of films that had suffered banning as a result of the ‘video nasties’ furore of the 80s and the subsequent invocation of the obscene publications act, were released uncut. Most famously The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were allowed to see the light of day after decades of banishment. Craven’s 1972 pic, however, remained the subject of persecution and in 2002 the BBFC demanded 31 seconds of cuts when the theatrical version (the R rated US release, not the fabled 91 minute cut) was submitted by Blue Underground. Their baffling decision stated:

Cuts required to humiliation of woman forced to urinate, violent stabbing assault on woman and removal of her entrails, and woman’s chest carved with a knife. Cuts required under the Video Recordings Act 1984 and BBFC Classification Guidelines.

In the same year, Blue Underground managed to screen the film uncut for the first time at UK cinemas in Leicester and Southampton. A fortuitous loophole means local councils are able to overrule the BBFC’s decision and classify a film themselves, passing it for exhibition in their locality.

In March this year, when submitted by Second Sight Films, The Last House On The Left finally received the all clear. With the additional 5 minutes Metrodome have unearthed and the outtakes and rushes from previous discs, this looks as close as we’re going to get to a complete package any time soon. I remember seeing The Exorcist re-issue at the cinema in 1998, when the ban was lifted on that, and being completely shocked - shocked at how such a superb piece of film making could have been withheld from the public for so long.  To me this is almost on a par as a victory for artistic freedom.  It is only a movie, but I love it.

The 3 Disc Metrodome DVD release goes on sale on 13th October on region 2 UK DVD and consists of:

DISC 1
- Feature Commentary by writer/director Wes Craven and Producer Sean S.
Cunningham
- 2nd Feature Commentary by stars David Hess, Marc Sheffler and Fred Lincoln
- ‘Celluloid Crime Of The Century’ making of… documentary (40 mins)
- ‘Scoring Last House…’ featurette with David Hess
- ‘Krug Conquers England’ charting the theatrical tour of the first ever UNCUT
screening of the film in the UK
- 20 mins of outtakes and dailies
- US theatrical trailer
- TV spots
- Radio spots

DISC 2
- ‘Krug & Company’: rare COMPLETE ALTERNATE CUT of the film
- EXCLUSIVE interview with Carl Daft of Exploited Films, who took the BBFC to
courts over the film’s banned status
- WORLD EXCLUSIVE never before seen footage only recently discovered.

DISC 3
- “Going To Pieces: The Rise & Fall Of The Slasher Film” feature length
documentary on the ‘slasher’ film phenomenon that followed “Last House…”.
- Filmmakers’ commentary,
- Deleted scenes
- Horror film quiz.

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Reader Comments

  1. Webster Wade 10/10/2008 @ 5:09pm

    This is the best thing to happen since.. ever.

  2. kungfueurotrash 10/10/2008 @ 8:18pm

    I thought you were going to say since… Sliced bread… NOTHING IS BETTER THAN A SLICE OF BREAD!!!!

  3. misteresh 10/11/2008 @ 3:28am

    Krug is better than sliced bread.

  4. Simon Abrams 10/11/2008 @ 7:42am

    I saw this film for the first time Monday night....and hated it. The utter pretension and just piss-poor ideas behind Craven’s “provocative” social critique just come off as irate and, more accurately, like an utterly superficial fuck-you to the bourgeois Americana he’s “skewering.” Not a fan, at all. I watched A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET last night for the first time, too and while it has its moments--the dream sequences--I have a similar problem with it. Craven just isn’t a competent storyteller, to my mind, relying on simple-minded reversals of good and evil that he’s dabbled with throughout his career--yes, even in DEADLY BLESSING--in a very unintereting way.

    ELM STREET has the same fetishized obsession with “normal” middle class folk using elaborate, HOME ALONE-style traps to get the boogeyman that he had in LAST HOUSE and THE HILLS HAVE EYES (which is my favorite Craven film, I think), convincing me think that his whole motivation in making the film was to upset the conventional view of domestic life as necessarily, uncomplicatedly good. He fails in LAST HOUSE because his caricature of authority, his pointedly nihilistic plot twists, his lame stick figure characters and over-the-top emphasis of symbols over people show him to be an amateur filmmaker not just in budget but conceptually.

    Rather than excuse this incompetence on the fact that this was Craven’s debut, I’ll just point to NIGHTMARE as another example of his incompetent storytelling. Same fixations--cops are inept, family is an illusion, boogeyman isn’t the only bad guy--but told in such an uninspired way. The dream sequences have an undeniable technical and visual strength but the overarching plot that unites them is so negligible that it could very easily be muted.

    Do people go see Wes Craven films for their intellectual value? Not necessarily but when his iconic films are weak social critiques first and horror/exploitation films second, that conceptual deficit really hits home.

  5. Simon Abrams 10/11/2008 @ 8:44pm

    Wow. I was at least hoping for a knee-jerk reaction. Something along the lines of “NO WAY, MAN! LAST HOUSE RULES!” or something. Huh. I guess I just did that for myself, huh? Good call, man, good call.

  6. Bench2020 10/13/2008 @ 8:51am

    I went to the screening in Leicester mentioned above, held at the Phoenix (except it was 2000, not 2002 I don’t think). It was shown alongside Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a feature length doc of TCSM, and Gunnar Hansen and David Hess came along to sign stuff and talk about the making of the films. Was a great experience - but I didn’t like LHOTL. Didn’t like it at all.  Shortly after I went travelling and bought an uncut copy in Amsterdam, but I’ve never watched it. Not really sure why I bought it really. So while I’m glad it has a full uncut release, and wholeheartedly agree that freedom of speech is vital - I do wish LHOTL said something worthwhile in return, rather than just being (and admittedly it’s just my opinion)exploitational shit. Maybe I missed something.

    Oh, but if you DO like it, there’s a whole book dedicated to it and the making of it. Written by David Szulkin. I suspect it covers the same stuff as the DVD extras, but you never know.

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